TESOL, TEFL and CELTA forum
14 February 2011
I can only respond to a couple of your enquiries based on completing CELTA several years ago. If the centre is anything like the university foreign languages department in the UK where I did my course, they will spend some time on lesson planning and designing a teaching schedule. It is not what we would call "a scheme of work." Secondly, the centre should, towards the end of the intensive course, provide you with employment options and local contacts. Potential employment options is a question you should be asking the course-providers now! It's not clear what your preferences are for teaching - which is common at this stage. Teaching reading for example is a different area for preparation than oral English ut I'm sure you know this already. My advice would be to read the course set books well in advance, especially Harmer and Swan although the latter is a book about practical English usage rather than pedagogy. Also the CELTA trainees handbook AND the trainers handbook.
As for a syllabus, yes they do exist in some places like university schools of foreign language, or international schools teaching to a British syllabus or the International Baccalaureate. But if you are qualified and competent you will most likely be asked to do your own.
I'm not working in a big city in China, so one thing I found it hard to buy was Blu-Tack!! So if you want to create a colourful classroom and display students' work, you could bring some with you. I would expect Madrid to be a lot more civilised!
Best of luck, and I'm not surprised you want to leave UK teaching for "greener pastures." From what I have been reading on the TES forums, there will be a lot of redundancies in the profession as the cuts start to bite.
Messages In This Thread
- CELTA prep and post course Qs! -- Mel 13 February 2011
- Re CELTA prep and post course Qs! -- cunning linguist 14 February 2011