CELTA

The CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is a structured and practical introduction to teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). It aims to provide you with the knowledge, practical experience and confidence to begin working as a TEFL teacher upon successfully completing the course.

Why the Cambridge CELTA?

• Every CELTA trainer is an experienced teacher, fully qualified and accredited with Cambridge Assessment English
• Every course is externally assessed by a University of Cambridge Assessment English moderator.
• Highly practical to equip you with the skills required to teach English in a variety of contexts.
• International House schools are renowned in the TEFL world for the quality of their teacher training.
• International House is the first founder in the field of teacher training, developing the original CELTA and the Delta TEFL courses.

CELTA Course Content

The 4-week course includes the observation of experienced teachers, actual teaching practice, participation in the trainer input sessions and the completion of a range of practically focused written assignments. There is no end-of-course exam but you are expected to have successfully:

• Attended and participated in the course.
• Completed 6 hours of teaching practice.
• Observed 6 hours of lessons taught by experienced teachers.
• Submitted 4 written assignments.
• Maintained and submitted a portfolio of coursework, including lesson plans and self-evaluations.

The course covers the following syllabus:

• Language Analysis and Awareness.
• The Learner, the Teacher and the Learning/Teaching Context.
• Planning for Effective Teaching.
• Classroom Management Skills.
• Teaching Procedures and Techniques.
• Resources and Materials.
• Professional Development.
• Classroom Observation.
• Teaching Practice.

Teaching Practice (TP)

An integral part of the course, TP is undertaken in small groups of 5-6 trainees with volunteer students at two different levels (usually Elementary and Intermediate). There will normally be from 6 — 15 students in a TP class. A total of 6 hours’ assessed teaching practice is the requirement over the course which may be divided into a number of lessons lasting 40, 45 or 60 minutes. Feedback sessions, led by the course trainer who has been observing you, follow each TP session and are also a key component of the course. Reflection on your teaching is part of the learning process on the course and you will be expected to contribute to the feedback on yourself and others.

Written assignments

These are the ‘Focus on the learner’ (which encourages you to find out about your learners’ backgrounds, needs and purposes in learning), the ‘Language related task’ (a review of your growing language awareness), the ‘Language skills related task’ (in which you consider how you could use an authentic text in the classroom) and the ‘Lessons from the classroom’ (in which you reflect on your strengths and weaknesses over the course). Each assignment has a word limit of 750 — 1,000 words and you will have 7 days in which to complete it. It is one of the requirements for a pass grade that you pass 3 out of the 4 assignments, but you are allowed to re-submit any or all of them if you don’t get it quite right first time.

Observation of experienced teachers

4 hours of this will be observation of your trainers teaching your TP students. The remaining 2 hours are made up of video observations of particular lesson types, which are timetabled into the input sessions.

Maintaining your portfolio

Your “portfolio” will start as a large file/binder provided by the centre with your name on it. Here you need to keep the lesson plan of every lesson you teach in TP together with your self-evaluation of it and the trainer’s written evaluation, your completed written assignments and finally, your CELTA 5, a record-keeping booklet in which you record, amongst other things, the times of your teaching practice and observations of experienced teachers and a summary of your progress as discussed with your trainer in your mid-course tutorial.

The Official Cambridge CELTA Entry Requirements

• You must be at least 18 years old, although it is generally recommended that candidates should be 20 or over.
• You must have finished high school/secondary education and be able to start a degree level course. Most participants also have a degree but this is not a requirement (although it may be a requirement for many teaching jobs).
• You must have an awareness of language and a competence in English, both written and spoken, that enables the course to be undertaken successfully. If you are non-native speaker of English, you must have an advanced level of English, equivalent to C1 or IELTS Band 7. Although no official test result such as the CAE or IELTS is required, your level of English will be determined during the application and interview stage.
• You must have the potential and desire to develop the necessary skills to become an effective teacher and to successfully complete the written assignments and teaching practice.

Accommodation

For your convenience and to save you planning we are proud to offer a course and accommodation package which makes life easy for our CELTA trainees, letting them focus on the course. 

Your first option is the super conveniently-located Rong Cheng Hotel. This hotel boasts spacious studio rooms that have a large bed, a TV, a small kitchenette, a private bathroom and views over the city. From the hotel to the Global Centre it is a mere 10 minutes’ walk.  Next to the hotel, you have the convenience of a well-stocked supermarket where you can get fresh fruit and veg, drinks, sundries and nibbles. For those that like a good caffeine shot you have Starbucks around the corner, plus a plethora of tasty Chinese restaurants. 

Alternatively, with the second choice you can stay a little further away in an extremely welcoming and ultra-friendly hotel close to some of the main tourist attractions in Chengdu. Here you can book trips, make use of the roof garden and study areas as well as their bar and restaurant, offering both Chinese and Western food. Here is a great way to de-stress after a full day of training.   

Applying for the CELTA

Before applying, please ensure that you have read the official Entry Requirements and that you fully understand the selection procedure set out below. On reading the latter, you may be surprised at the need for the rather lengthy selection process, especially given the relatively few official entry requirements.

One aim of the process is to assess each candidate’s ‘language awareness’ and ‘potential’; we wish to point out that although neither teaching experience nor previous advanced study of the English language is required, we will attempt to assess your ability to consult a grammar book / teaching resource in order to analyse a piece of language.

A second reason is that the process should afford you enough time to really consider whether the Cambridge CELTA is the course for you, and to allow time for you to ask questions of us.

To apply for CELTA, please email: elaine.ding@i2edu.cn