celta assignment focus on the learner interview questions

• ELT Concourse home
• A-Z site index
• CELTA index
• Teacher training index
• Teacher development
• For teachers
• For trainers
• For managers
• For learners
• Language questions
• Other areas
• Academic English
• Business English
• Entering ELT
• Courses index
• Basic ELT course
• Language analysis
• Training to train
• Transcription
• About language

CELTA written assignment: focus on the learner(s)

The purpose of the assignment

The CELTA handbook (5th edition) explains that this assignment allows you to demonstrate that you can:

• show awareness of how a learner’s/learners’ background(s), previous learning experience and learning preferences affect learning
• identify the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills needs
• correctly use terminology relating to the description of language systems and/or language skills
• select appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills development
• provide a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners
• find, select and reference information from one or more sources
• use written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

That's a lot to cover in 1000 words so you need to be concise and stay focused.  This is not the place to discuss general approaches to teaching.

Most centres choose one of two ways to set this assignment:

• You may be asked to focus on a specific learner from one of the teaching practice classes or
• You may be asked to focus on the whole of a teaching practice class.

You may even be given a choice.

Whichever assignment you are set, the considerations are the same but, obviously, more depth will be required in 1. than in 2.

This is in the genre of an Information Report and it has three parts:

• A brief introduction stating the basic information about the learner or the class.  Say what you are doing and who the subject of the investigation is.
• An area-by-area report giving the data you have gathered, noting strengths, weaknesses and needs as you go along.
• sources for language and/or skills development and, if it's needed, personal support
• ideas for language and/or skill focused activities Link this section carefully to the data you have gathered, explaining why you think the ideas will help.

You can combine the second and third areas if that makes sense to you so two structures are possible:

Choose one structure or the other.  Do not mix them up or you'll be incoherent.

• An example of the learner's writing.  The neatest way to get this is to write a short note to the learner saying who you are, giving a bit of background (age, background, personal details etc.) and asking the learner to respond in like manner.  That way, you get the personal stuff you need and an example of how well they can handle the simple language needed to give some personal data (name, age, occupation etc.).
• reasons for learning English
• language learning background
• student’s opinion of their strengths and weaknesses in English
• preferred class and activity types
• You can, of course, gather some of this data by designing a questionnaire.  See the guide to needs analysis to get some ideas.  There is an example of a basic needs analysis form here.
• Record the interview and listen to it again, making notes of consistent errors and the learner's communicative effectiveness.  You can provide a tapescript of some important parts of the interview to exemplify the areas you think need work in the assignment.  You will need the person's permission to do this, of course.
• If recording is not an option, make as many notes as you can on the learner's use of English as you go along.
• Learning style.  The new edition of the handbook (the 5th) has removed any explicit reference to learning styles because the theories that underlie such things have been comprehensibly debunked.  The syllabus now contains reference to learning preferences.  However, for reasons which are slightly obscure, some CELTA centres and tutors are wedded to the idea of learning styles.  Many will let you have a copy of something called a VARK questionnaire to give to the subject.  There is, of course, a guide to learning styles on this site but you should treat the area with great scepticism.  See also the article attempting to debunk the whole concept .

• You need to set out some information about the people in the class: ages, occupations, reasons for learning etc.  See the table above.  The only sensible way to do this with a group of people is via a questionnaire needs analysis.  See the guide to needs analysis to get some ideas.  There is an example of a basic needs analysis form here.
• You can investigate learning preferences but will have to identify from the data any commonalities in the class rather than details of each learner.  See point f., above.
• For the final section of the assignment where you make suggestions, you'll need to be a bit more generalised and identify common aims and needs rather than individual ones. One approach is to identify the two weakest and the two strongest students and identify appropriate activities, resources and aims for them.  That should also cover everyone in between.

• The student is studying English for no apparent  purpose at the moment.  He or she may need the language in the future for some purpose but at the moment that is not clear.  The student may also need the language as part of a general education, for access to English-language websites and for travel and tourism. This student needs General English (a GE learner).
• This student need English to settle and integrate in an English-speaking culture for an indefinite time. This student needs English as a Second or Other Language (an ESOL learner)
• This student needs English for business and commercial purposes either because his/her professional setting demands it or because she/he is intending to study Business and/or Management. This student needs Business English (a BE learner).
• This student intends to study in an English-medium institution such as a university or college. This student needs English for Academic Purposes (an EAP learner).
• This student needs English for a narrow area of concern such as access to written scientific texts, to work in a particular occupation such as the hospitality industry, air traffic control, the merchant marine, the transport industry etc. This student needs English for a Specific Purpose (an ESP learner).
• All of the above can be subdivided into a bewildering range of acronyms including, e.g., EGOP (English for General Occupational Purposes), EGPP (English for General Professional Purposes), ELF (English as a Lingua-Franca, for communication between non-native speakers of English worldwide), English in the Workplace (EiW), English for Professional Purposes (EPP) and so on.

• "I want to learn English to fit into an English-speaking culture and work and socialise." This student has Integrative Motivation (to integrate into a cultural milieu).
• "I want to learn English to use the language in business meetings / to study a subject at university." This student has Instrumental Motivation (using the language as a tool to do other things).
• "I love the language and enjoy learning it and speaking it." This student has Intrinsic Motivation (the pressure to learn comes from within).
• "I have been told to learn English by my employer / parents / sponsor." This student has Extrinsic Motivation (the pressure to learn comes from outside).

Be careful not to be too dogmatic here.  People are complicated and their motivations are often obscure, even to themselves, so try to avoid statements such as

This learner is extrinsically motivated.

Prefer, instead, something a bit more careful such as:

From the data supplied in the short questionnaire, it seems that this learners is aware of the need to learn enough English to be able to function in the workplace but is also keen to access English-speaking websites and understand something of the cultures of English-speaking societies.  She has, therefore, a mix of instrumental and integrative motivation and needs English as a tool as well as for cultural access.

There is a guide to motivation on this site but you do not need all the detail now.  If you would like a simpler guide to motivation which still gives more data than here, there is one in the TKT course materials (new tabs).

Obviously, the suggestions you make will be determined by what you have discovered about the learner(s).

• Why do you suggest it?
• What's its target?
• How will it help?
• Include both ideas for activities and ideas for materials to use and topics to focus on.
• Identify both language structure and skills needs. For example, From the data summarised in point xxx above, I would argue that a priority for this learner / these learners is to enhance his / her / their reading skills because they / he / she identify it as a weakness and this is supported by my observations.  Good reading skills are needed for study in the UK and the majority of these EAP students / this EAP student will be going on to university in the next few months.  Therefore, I suggest using xxxx in class and starting a reading club using xxxx books and resources.  The student(s) will also benefit from a specific focus on both reading for gist and reading intensively so I suggest the following activities will be helpful... or Another area of weakness I have identified in point yyyy above is the student(s)' lack of vocabulary . Therefore, I suggest a specific focus on general academic vocabulary including using yyyy as a resource and spending at least one lesson per day focusing on common academic collocations (such as reasonable to argue, arising from the data, developing the point further etc.).  This will improve the learner(s)' ability to be precise in terms of meaning and use conventional language in academic essays. The class / student will also benefit from work on cohesive devices such as therefore, firstly, finally, because, furthermore etc. as his / her / their writing shows that they avoid or misuse these structures in general (see appendix 2, and the comments in point z).  This will make the learner(s)' writing in particular more accessible, better organised and fluent.

Do not repeat yourself here.  It's not necessary and you don't have enough words to play with. What you do need to do here is identify the main facts and the most important suggestions.  In other words, prioritise .

Before you submit your assignment, here's a quick checklist.  You can have this as a PDF file by clicking here or you can mentally tick things off on the screen.

• learning preferences
• the questionnaire and a summary of the results
• samples of work
• I have identified at least 5 language problems the learner(s) have / has
• I have given examples
• general future work
• specific ideas to deal with the problems I identified

Now assess yourself against the criteria for the assignment.  Here they are again.  Have you been able to:

Your tutors will maintain a record of the work you have done on the written assignments and will grade each of the criteria as follows: NS (Not to Standard), S (at Standard) or S+ (above Standard). You need to aim consistently for S or S+ grades, naturally.

If you have managed to tick all the items, well done.  Submit the assignment and move on.

Contact | FAQs | Copyright notice | ELT Concourse charter | Disclaimer and Privacy statement | Search ELT Concourse

CELTA Focus on the Learner Assignment

Published by awalls86 on february 13, 2021 february 13, 2021.

For more tips and advice about CELTA, click here .

Join my telegram channel for teachers.

Of the four assignments that you need to write for CELTA, the focus on the learner assignment tends to require the most planning. Typically, this assignment consists of finding out about the background and needs of one or more students, identifying problems they have and suggesting relevant activities to help these students. As with other CELTA assignments, the exact details of the assignment will depend on the course provider.

What do you have to do?

• focusing on one particular learner;
• focusing on a pair of learners;
• focusing on a group of students.

Focus on one learner

If you have to focus on one learner (as I had to), you will be expected to meet up with the student and collect data about their background and needs. However, before you do that, you may have the option to choose your victim… sorry, I mean learner.

Assuming you have the choice, you want to pick wisely. I would advise picking a student who:

• speaks a major international language (e.g. Arabic, Spanish, Korean, etc.), and
• you have already noted has specific problems.

The reason for picking a student who speaks a major international language is that the problems these speakers have in English are well-documented. I am however assuming that your students are not a monolingual group. It is not necessary you know their first language, and actually if it is obvious you have picked a learner because you know their language, the CELTA tutors may take a dim view of this.

Once you have chosen your learner, don’t delay to set up an interview with them. You will then want to plan out what you will ask them about (look at the background and needs sections for ideas). Make sure you record the interview so you can listen back to it later. Most mobile phones can deal with this, but you should make sure that it is recording. It is better to have two minutes on the recording of you saying “is it working?” than finding out afterwards it didn’t record.

You should also aim to get a writing sample from the student at the interview. You could ask them to do it ahead of the interview by asking them to write a letter telling you about their experience of learning English and what they would like to do with English in the future.

As the practice students attend CELTA lessons for free, they are usually very amenable to being interviewed. However, if they are not so thrilled at this prospect, you can generally sway them by telling them they will get feedback. If you promise this, do make sure you give it though. These students often come back again and again and so another CELTA trainee will probably use them in their assignment in the future. Don’t make their life more difficult because you promised the student feedback but didn’t give any.

As well as interviewing the learner, you can also make notes when you are observing the group and when you are teaching. Note anything you hear them say wrongly (you can always analyse what the mistake is later) and difficulties they have with skills.

Focus on a pair of learners

As with focusing on one learner, if you have a choice, try to choose students with major international first languages. You still want to set up your interview as soon as possible and prepare your list of questions.

Having a pair of learners gives you an opportunity that you don’t get with just one and it is a rookie error if you don’t take it. Since you have two learners, give them a task to complete together in the interview. This gives you a much more accurate picture of what they struggle with.

In lessons, you still need to note the errors you hear them make and issues that they have with skills. Remember, you are also comparing the students, so you should consider whether these issues are common to both.

Focus on a group

If you are told to focus on a group, you probably won’t get to interview the whole group. Certainly, if you do get any time when you can do this it won’t be long. Instead you might be told to conduct a survey on the group to get this information. This is something that your teaching practice group will need to do together. 

Background and Needs

The first section of your assignment deals with the learners’ background and needs. This can include (this is not an exhaustive list by any means):

• country of origin,
• occupation,
• first language,
• other languages and level,
• how long they have been learning English and how,
• level of education,
• experience of education,
• why they are learning English,
• what they use English for,
• what they would like to use English for,
• what they find easy,
• what they find difficult,
• what activities they like,
• what activities they don’t like,
• their attitude to correction.

It is fairly easy to phrase questions to get answers to these questions in an interview or on a survey. However, remember that if the student is low level you may need to word questions in a way that they can respond easily. With higher level students, you may want to ask these questions in a more open ended way to get them to talk more. You may want to script your questions to save time rephrasing them in an interview.

Once you have this information, you can begin writing it up.

The book Learner English (Smith & Swan) is invaluable here. This book looks at the problems that speakers of certain languages have when learning English. Reading the section that relates to your student(s) therefore will give you plenty of issues to write about.

Your centre will tell you how many issues you need to write about. It may specify that you need to write about issues related to each of the three knowledge areas (grammar, lexis and pronunciation) and the four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Alternatively, it might tell you to pick two key problems that the student should work on. Obviously, the more areas you are required to provide problems for, the less you are required to write for each problem.

If you are only required to choose a couple of problems you will need to:

• pick problems from different knowledge areas or skills (i.e. don’t have two grammar problems);
• explain why you believe this problem is particularly important. This is easy if you can link it to something in their needs – for example, you could justify working on spelling if they have stated that professional writing is high on their priorities.

This can be the trickiest part of the assignment. You know a couple of problems that they have and now you must suggest solutions that will help them to overcome these.

To pass this part, you should ensure your solutions are sufficiently clear, relate to the problem and state why they will help. For example:

Problem: Student confuses /p/ and /b/ phonemes in speech and writing e.g. I bark my car. This is a common problem for Arabic speakers, as the two sounds are allophonic in Arabic.

Solution: A list of minimum pairs containing /b/ and /p/ is included in the appendix, e.g. beach and peach. I would use these to test if the student can actually hear the difference between these sounds. Through regular testing, the student should get better at hearing the difference. When the student can do this, I would use these words to drill the student in producing these sounds.

Assessment Criteria

To pass this assignment, you need to do the following:

• show you are aware how a student’s background, learning experience and preferences affect learning.
• identify the student’s needs.
• correctly use terminology.
• select appropriate material and resources.
• provide a rationale for using these activities.
• find, select and reference information.

If you want to pass this first time around, follow these tips:

• As soon as you meet the students, note all the errors they make or problems they have that you can.
• Share your notes with your teaching practice group and they will likely do the same.
• Choose a student quickly if you need to.
• As soon as you can set up an interview with the student.
• Record the interview (make sure your device is recording).
• Write up the background as soon as possible after your interview.
• Use Learner English to identify problems. If you’re really struggling, you may well get away with saying that your student has a problem that is common to speakers of that language. This should be a last resort however.
• Make sure you have sufficiently different problems i.e. not two grammar problems, or two pronunciation problems.
• Talk to your colleagues when devising solutions. They may be able to suggest some good resources.
• Include the activities in an appendix with a clear note of where you got them.
• You aren’t supposed to explain how the activity is performed, but you can include the teachers’ instructions from the book in the appendix.
• Keep a close eye on the word count.
• If you can, have a relative or friend read your final submission through.

If you follow the advice above, you should be able to complete this assignment without too much fuss.

Don’t Miss A Thing!

Related posts, celta: ordering activities.

For more tips and advice about CELTA, click here. Ordering Activities Join my telegram channel for teachers. Click here A lesson should not just be a collection of activities that are thrown together somehow. Your Read more…

CELTA: Lesson Aims

For more tips and advice about CELTA, click here. Lesson Aims Join my telegram channel for teachers. Click here One of the most important aspects of lesson planning is defining clear aims. A good lesson Read more…

CELTA: Assisted Lesson Planning

For more tips and advice about CELTA, click here. Assisted Lesson Planning Join my telegram channel for teachers. Click here Prior to many of your teaching practice sessions on the CELTA course, you will be Read more…

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

CELTA Assignment 1 'Focus on the Learner'

RELATED PAPERS

Wiek Van Gilst

Susanne Muth

Sarmad Al-Edresi

Jael George Mathew

Aismyfirstname Wuffle

Jurnal Asiimetrik: Jurnal Ilmiah Rekayasa & Inovasi

ARIEF MUKHLISIN

Indian Journal of Arbitration Law Volume II, Issue I

Pranshu Paul

Schizophrenia research

Julie Evensen

Gonzalo León Serrano

XXIV Congreso Argentino de la Ciencia del Suelo. II Reunión Nacional “Materia Orgánica y Sustancias Húmicas”. AACS. Bahía Blanca, 5 al 9 de mayo de 2014. 6 p.

Fortunato Martinez

The Analyst

Mercedes Vazquez

romane de tauzia

The FASEB Journal

RODOLFO IPPOLITI

Jussana Daguerre Lopes

Sergio Felissia

Journal of Oral Implantology

roberto crespi

World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

elisabetta guerzoni

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Hanan Suleiman

Chemischer Informationsdienst

David Genders

Nucleic Acids Research

William Spooner

Iet Computer Vision

Renato Salinas

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry

Stuart Askew

Benrick Ogutu

Elsevier Ltd

Dr. Himendra Balalle

See More Documents Like This

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

The Ultimate Guide to CELTA

CELTA Written Assignments – Focus on the Learner (FL)

Written assignments form a major part of the CELTA assessment process and are a compulsory part of the course.  There are 4 written assignments in total but some centres conflate two of them to make one larger assignment.  In this series we will look at each individual assignment and provide you with some advice and guidance as well as highlight some of the common pitfalls.

Disclaimer: All centres create their own written assignment rubrics, make sure you check with your centre exactly what is required.  We can only provide general information here, rather than specific.  With this in mind, do you think it would be wise to pay for other peoples’ assignments to help you write your own?

Although every centre creates their own written assignments, the CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines states that for the FL assignment:

The design of the assignment to include: 

• investigation of the learning context and assessment of learner needs with reference to a specific learner or group of learners
• identification of sources for language and/or skills development and, where appropriate, personal support
• suggestions for specific language and/or skill focused activities and an explanation/rationale for the use of these activities with the specific learners identified

Candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

• showing awareness of how a learner’s/learners’  background(s), previous learning experience and learning  preferences affect learning
• identifying the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills needs
• correctly using terminology relating to the description of language systems and/or language skills
• selecting appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills development
• providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners
• finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

All written assignments should be 750 – 1000 words

Source: CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines

Some useful books to help you get started:

Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)

This book looks at errors that speakers of different language make and why they make them. An example taken from the book is that in Spanish there are few consonant clusters. This means when Spanish speakers are speaking English they have difficulty in producing English clusters. As a result express might be produced as espres or breakfast as brefas. Another example, still thinking about Spanish speakers, is that in Spanish to form a negative there are no auxilliairies, so lower level speakers might say I no understand rather than I don’t understand .

Ideas for pronunciation activities:

• Ship or Sheep by Ann Baker
• Pronunciation Games by Mark Hancock
• Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill

Ideas for grammar activities:

• English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy
• Teaching English Grammar by Jim Scrivener
• Teaching Tenses by Rosemary Aitken

Ideas for vocabulary activities:

• English Vocabulary in Use by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell
• English Collocations in Use by Felicity O’Dell

Common Pitfalls

In our centre, trainees often fall foul of the following:

• identifying errors that are pre-systematic (language that has not yet been taught) and therefore require a full lesson before it can be remedied rather than a remedial activity
• provide activities that don’t remedy the error in question
• provide activities that are too high/low for the level of the learner
• forgetting to include a bibliography
• forgetting to provide a rationale for the choice of activity
• label errors incorrectly

In our centre, we encourage trainees to make a short recording of their student (with their permission of course) while having a short chat with them in the break or after class. This gives them plenty of material to analyse when tackling this assignment.

Have you already written your Focus on the Learner assignment? What tips would you add?

Teilen mit:

Author: Emma Jones

A CELTA Tutor based in Munich and co-author of The Ultimate Guide to CELTA View all posts by Emma Jones

One thought on “CELTA Written Assignments – Focus on the Learner (FL)”

• Pingback: In it for the learners! – The Ultimate Guide to CELTA

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• No category

CELTA Assignment 1 Focus on the Learner (1)

Related documents

Add this document to collection(s)

You can add this document to your study collection(s)

Add this document to saved

You can add this document to your saved list

Suggest us how to improve StudyLib

(For complaints, use another form )

Input it if you want to receive answer

Main navigation

Preparing for your celta.

How can I prepare for my interview?

You’ve found a centre, applied and have been invited for interview – congratulations!

There’s no need to worry – your CELTA interview is about getting to know you, finding out about your skills and motivations, and making sure the course is right for you.

To help you feel more confident and prepared for your interview, we’ve put together our top tips.

Eight tips to help you prepare for your CELTA interview

1. try to relax.

The CELTA interview isn’t a test. Instead, it’s designed to get to know you. During the interview, you’ll talk about your experience, goals and the course content, so you and your interviewer can be sure it’s the right qualification for you.

2. Review your written application

Your application form will give you a good idea of the kind of areas you’ll be asked about during the interview. Take time to review it ahead of your interview to be fully prepared.

3. Do your research

Do you know what to expect on a CELTA course ? There’s lots to consider when taking a course, which is why it’s important to do your research. Here are some questions you could research ahead of your CELTA interview:

• What is an ‘intensive’ course?
• What will you be doing on the course?
• What topics does the course cover?

It’s also a good idea to prepare some good, relevant questions to ask the interviewer. This shows you’re interested and can give you a greater insight into the course.

4. Think about why you want to take CELTA

What do you expect to get out of taking CELTA? Be prepared for your interviewer to ask this question and answer honestly – they just want to understand your real motivation behind taking the course.

5. Consider your reaction to feedback

Receiving feedback can help you develop your skills, identify your strengths, and the areas that you need to practise more. An important part of CELTA is getting feedback from your trainer and fellow trainees, so it’s important to think about how you feel and react to receiving feedback.

6. Reflect on your previous experience of studying

Looking back on your previous experience of studying, what worked well for you and what didn’t? Reflecting on your past school, university or training experiences can help you understand how you learn best. Your interviewer may explore why you’ve chosen a particular type of CELTA course to make sure it’s the most suitable for you.

7. Explore your beliefs about teaching and learning

Our previous experiences play a huge role in our beliefs and views of the world. Whether you’re new to teaching or already have experience, it’s important to think about your beliefs about teaching and learning. 

If teaching is a new career path for you, you could think about your experience of being taught by a particular teacher – what worked well and why? Or, if you are already a teacher, what activities and lessons have worked well with your students? Consider what made them successful and how this informs your teaching practice.

8. Get set up online

Many CELTA interviews will be done online. Make sure you are calm and prepared for your interview by checking your speaker and microphone are working, and set yourself up in a place that is quiet and connected to the internet.

How can I prepare for the course?

Are you ready to start your CELTA journey? Set yourself up for CELTA success and prepare for the start of your course with our CELTA checklist.

Your CELTA checklist

1. course materials.

Some centres may recommend that you purchase a textbook to use on the course. If you get one, look through it before the course starts to help you feel more prepared for what’s to come.

The CELTA Course Second Edition is an accessible CELTA preparation course book which provides full coverage of the latest syllabus and includes a range of supplementary materials to help you get the most from the course. It is the only CELTA preparation course endorsed by Cambridge ESOL.

A Trainer’s Manual is also available .

2. Talk to previous course participants

Talking to people who have already taken CELTA can be a great way to get a real-life insight into the course. If you don’t know anyone who has a CELTA qualification, watch our YouTube playlist to find out more about what to expect.

3. Clear your schedule

If you’re taking CELTA full time, you will be studying intensively to complete at least 120 hours of course time and over 80 hours of preparation and self-study time. While taking your CELTA, it’s a good idea to postpone social commitments and keep your diary free so you can focus fully on achieving your qualification.

4. Stay positive

Getting feedback can be hard, but it’s an essential part of your learning and development. Be prepared to accept feedback from your trainers and course peers without getting defensive. Instead, see it as an opportunity for growth. You’ll also be expected to give feedback to other trainees, too. Try to be honest and offer constructive advice when asked.

5. Practise your English

How is your knowledge of English systems? If you’re not confident, it can be useful to refresh your knowledge of English language terminology – the tense system, parts of speech etc. before starting CELTA, so you feel confident talking about them during the course.

6. Make friends

Whether you’re learning online or face-to-face, getting to know other course participants can make your experience of CELTA even more rewarding. You’ll learn a lot from other people on the course and will also be able to work together and support each other.

7. Remember: you can do it!

CELTA can be demanding, but it will be worth it! During the course, it’s normal to feel happy and excited as well as tired or disappointed at times. Just remember why you started your CELTA and how far you’ve already progressed. 

Remember to speak to your fellow trainees and talk to your trainer when you need extra support.

Before you go...

Find out how to save time on your CELTA assignments!

CELTA Course Preparation: 11 Tips to Get You Ready

Okay, it’s certainly a common feeling not knowing where to start with CELTA course preparation because it can feel like there’s so much to do.

So here are the 11 tips for your CELTA course preparation:

Watch CELTA Lessons on YouTube

Read up on the celta course syllabus, practise writing a celta lesson plan, find a glossary of celta terms, read up on the assignments, brush up on academic referencing, learn how to reference in the style for your centre, get the right stationery, ask to borrow relevant books.

Buy other books that you need

Practise Teaching Anywhere You Can

Ask to observe language teachers.

However, the fact that you are reading about preparing is already a great sign because some people don’t do a lot of preparation for the CELTA course, yet there are many quick wins that you can do to give yourself a better chance of thriving on your CELTA course.

From a personal point of view, I think if I’d done more preparation, I could have got a pass A instead of a pass B! Of course, any kind of pass on a CELTA is an achievement, but going the extra mile with your preparation could help you to avoid any regrets later on and also maximise your potential grade.

So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the preparation tips mentioned above in more detail!

What to do next for your CELTA Course Preparation?

Firstly, do background reading only around the parts of the course that you are concerned about and other things that worry you.

For example, if the thought of explaining grammar to a group of students scares the living daylights out of you, focus on reading how to explain grammar and also the rules of grammar, particularly the verb tenses and other parts like that.

Whatever it is, if something gives you that fear, then that’s definitely something that you should focus on because the preparation can help calm those nerves and give you that extra confidence when delivering the lessons on it.

Now if something like just standing up and talking to a class in general doesn’t worry you, then you don’t need to worry too much about that.

Personally, the things that worried me were not knowing the answer. So I didn’t really know how to prepare for that. If they asked me a difficult question, I wasn’t sure what to say.

But I did get the answer to that on my CELTA course and I think I’ve mentioned that in another answer on this blog. Otherwise, I would mainly suggest reading about the practical or logistical aspects of the course, specifically the assignments, and you can see my article on the  CELTA course assignments  here with a link and also focus on lesson planning.

There are also some lesson plans you can download as templates to have a look at and, as I’ve mentioned before, definitely have a go at trying to write a full lesson plan before you start the course.

If you’re focusing on the assignments…, therefore, you can find out lots of things like what is expected of each one, how you can do it, how they’re graded, and things you can do to prepare for them and you can do some  reading  for [the assignments].

There’s so much you can do to prepare for the assignments and I’ll go into more detail in other posts, but just do that.

Writing a CELTA lesson plan in advance will give you a clear idea of how long it will take you to complete one while doing your CELTA and how much detail they require. In turn, this can help you identify more areas that you might need to work on.

For instance, if you find yourself wondering what concept checking questions (CCQs) are and how to use them, then you already know in advance that this is an area for you to read up on! And be sure to check out my in-depth and detailed guide designed to help beginners get to grips with CCQs .

Completing a CELTA lesson plan in advance will also give you an insight into one of the most challenging areas of the CELTA course.

Although many of the terms will be explained in more detail on the course, I’d suggest trying to complete a lesson plan so that you know roughly how long it will take you to complete it and your knowledge in the various areas.

It will also be a lesson in getting to grips with the practical points of writing a CELTA lesson plan as many are written in Microsoft Word with large parts in tables and lots of columns and boxes to fill.

This is practice extremely valuable, therefore, if you feel less confident with technology.

Although a glossary might not be that helpful in itself, just having one as a point of reference will help your confidence in the first few days and weeks of the CELTA course.

You could use a flashcard website like Quizlet to help you memorise these if you wish, along with games and other activities (which you could also use with your students on the CELTA course!)

I would also recommend reading some of the key articles below on the CELTA course assignments:

• An overview of all 4 of the CELTA course assignments to give you a good introduction to each .
• Here’s my dedicated guide to the CELTA Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner , which will help you to identify key aspects as well as tips for preparing for it specifically.
• You can also see lots of useful advice and insights on this handy post about the Language Related Tasks CELTA Assignment .
• Finally, see here for how I suggest you prepare for the Lessons from the Classroom assignment, which is perhaps

Focused CELTA Course Preparation

Focus on the things that worry you and focus on the things that are logistical and practical and have clear limits and boundaries (i.e. assignments and lesson plans) so you know exactly what you’re doing with them.

As for the teaching, I wouldn’t worry too much about the teaching side as, in my opinion, that is best learnt while you were on the course because your tutors give you feedback and it’s all about developing as a teacher.

So, if you’re teaching and they give you their honest and genuine feedback on the lesson because they will give a lot of detail in this, then you have to reflect and apply that. But really, for me, teaching is not something you can read much about because it’s all about doing and it’s about experience and learning as you go.

So that’s how I would do it if I were to do it again and I hope that was clear and useful.

Useful Links for CELTA Course Preparation

7 Essential Questions to Ask Before You Start Your CELTA Course : Excerpt – Before starting, we all have a lot of CELTA course questions we want answered. The problem is, however, that asking someone all of them might take a very long time! Added to this is the fact that each CELTA centre has slightly different timetables and course structures. For this reason, I have made …

More Helpful Content For You:

Stephen Beale

After taking the CELTA back in 2007, I have since gained over 11 years' experience of teaching English in various countries. I have also worked in EAP for several years and like sharing what I've learnt along the way here.

Recent Posts

What to Expect at a CELTA Interview?

One of the most common questions and concerns we hear is about the CELTA interview. You’ve finally made the decision to embark on a CELTA, you’ve decided where you might teach, and now they tell...

Can You Do a CELTA Course without a Degree?

Some people receive their teacher calling later in life while for others, responsibilities get in the way of completing their tertiary education. If that’s relatable, you may now find yourself...