Since its establishment, the British Council has been the centre of high-quality English language teaching and learning courses. As the world’s leading English experts, the British Council offers a wide range of flexible courses for interested teachers and learners of English. The Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults teaching award, otherwise known as CELTA, is one of them. This year, over June and July, the British Council Teaching Centre has successfully conducted another session of CELTA with many competent teachers.
What is CELTA?
CELTA is an internationally recognised teaching qualification which follows a four-week rigorous curriculum designed by the University of Cambridge. This course is an international benchmark English language teaching certification and the only qualification accepted by many language schools around the world. The course is a doorway for International English Teaching job market. It is appropriate for practising teachers who wish to extend their teaching knowledge and skills and create their future career opportunities. Admission into the CELTA program is a highly competitive one. CELTA candidates had to have a first degree or equivalent degree certificate in any discipline. Initially, candidates completed the application form along with language awareness tasks which form the part of the assessment exercise. The candidates must have an awareness of language and high level of competence in English which enables them to display an accurate use of the language in spoken and written form.
How is CELTA a unique English language teaching course?
CELTA is a practical, work-related professional qualification aimed at suitably qualified applicants who have little or no previous teaching experience. CELTA is a highly practical course which helped candidates to grow in confidence in the classroom. Participants became aware in spoken and written skills and the latest communicative teaching methodologies and had the opportunity to put those into practice in the class with real students. Students get hands-on teaching practice and observation of experienced teachers in real life, applying their learning in the classroom with English language learners. At the end of the Cambridge CELTA course, students gained essential knowledge of the principles of effective English teaching, and they have developed a range of practical skills for teaching English to adults and young learners. Students have demonstrated their ability to apply their learning in a real teaching context such as in the classroom; and most importantly, they become ready to begin working in a variety of ESL teaching contexts around the world.
Who can benefit from CELTA?
CELTA is excellent for recent graduates, people who are changing careers, or teachers who want to gain a formal qualification and may wish to progress to qualifications such as DELTA. Employers around the world ask for CELTA. It is the practical English language teaching qualification that gives the essential knowledge, practical teaching experience and classroom confidence to qualify as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL).
Mohammad Maruf Firoz, CELTA Student of June-July 2018 class, says, “It was an experience of a lifetime for me. I sincerely thank my great tutors. CELTA has opened up a new horizon, a new way of looking into teaching.”