Non native speaker celta training
First things first: expect a lot of work! Why do I say that? Because the CELTA course is one of the most intensive and demanding courses you will probably ever do. On the flip side, it is only for a relatively short, but intense, period.
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CELTA Teacher Training
There have been plenty of other weighty contributions to this debate over recent years, not least the great work done by Marek Kiczkowiak, via his TEFL Equity Advocates project, which has the simple aim of agitating for equal employment opportunities for both native and non-native teachers.
On Twitter last week, I slightly flippantly suggested that a major step towards greater equality would be for BELL to simply refuse to deliver such courses anymore and instead push for a better model of initial qualification. Nevertheless, the fact remains — and it needs saying more often and by more of us within the profession — that CELTA courses offer an inadequate entry to the profession, perpetuate the devalued status of EFL teachers around the world.
I suspect this is down to the fact that they arrived on the courses having already learned English to an excellent standard, thus having both considerable experience of being in language classes that have engendered success and also having already acquired a considerable amount of knowledge of how languages work. On top of this, many non-natives who turn to CELTA courses as a way to travel and work abroad outside their own L1-speaking contexts will already have done a three- or four-year pedagogical degree and perhaps also have several years of direct teaching experience in often quite challenging classrooms.
For these teachers, of course the practical, methodological orientation of most CELTA courses may well help refresh practice and offer the odd extra trick to add to an already impressive repertoire. For natives such as myself, however, who arrive on courses often having spectacularly failed to learn a foreign language at school, with little or no ability to articulate and explain how language works and with no teaching experience whatsoever, a CELTA offers a crash course in how to fake it.
A while back, there was a popular reality TV show on Channel 4 entitled Faking It which tried to teach unlikely candidates how to pass themselves off as a genuine example of someone alien. And the time frame within which this coaching occurred? You guessed it: one month! Many on Twitter have pointed out that Cambridge themselves have been surveying current trainers and are keen to revamp the syllabus. We could look at this as a positive sign, of course; we could remind ourselves that many in the profession start from an even lower base and blag their way into work on the back of a week-long course or even a weekend-long one or, in extreme but nevertheless still depressingly common instances, simply on the back of having been born in the UK or US!
We could point out the ridiculous advantages their continued status confers upon natives and just down tools, walk away and instead imagine a better, brighter future where ELT starts seeing itself more as a serious profession, and not one you can claim membership of simply by having done six assessed hours of teaching and twenty mornings of input.
Would you like to prevent people from doing that — kind of pulling up the ladder behind you? As far as non-natives on CELTA, they very often do well and get above standard because of all that linguistic and pedagogical experience behind them. And they almost always tell me they benefited very much from the training too. The fact remains, though, that this still privileges natives as we are then more employable. Not in any way saying I want to see anyone lose their trade or their income, obviously, Just suggesting maybe all those skills could — and should — start to be put to better and be employed to come up with ways of improving on what we currently have OUTSIDE of simply revamping the four-week model.
I teach and train in Poland and increasingly candidates on our courses are MA qualified, experienced Polish teachers. Are you proposing a longer qualification? How would people finance themselves? Giving up a month of potential earnings is hard enough — a longer course would make becoming a teacher unattainable for many. CELTA gets people out, earning, learning and finding out for themselves what language and teaching is about.
I hear you Aeddan. What other field of teaching operates like this? And why are we so determined to ignore that fact and insist on the correctness of such a low entry bar? The reality, though, is that schools assume you ARE the finished article and most teachers — myself included — suddenly find themselves teaching 30 hours a week.
The fact that local Polish, Turkish, whatever qualifications are NOT widely known and recognised is down to the native-speaker privilege the course still proffers. What else? Yes, I very much am definitely suggesting a longer course — or suite of courses.
People would finance it the way they finance anything: by weighing up the future benefit they feel it would confer upon them against the investment and — hopefully — recognise that the investment of time and cash now would lead to far better future results in the future.
And the only thing available to him was the 4-week course. The problem is that in a lot of countries Bachelor and Masters degree programmes include teaching the language, but not teaching how to teach speaking about Russia, France and Germany now from first-hand experience. Celta fits into this gap very nicely, complementing the training in language the future or practicing teachers have already received.
That would be madness. People do obviously get things from the course. Well, there are disciplines that are supposed to deal with methodology but sadly what future teachers end up learning is the benefits of drilling and how good the grammar-translation approach is. And when it comes to teaching, they quite often fail and, what is more, quite often stop teaching. The question is, I think, whether this is enough to be regarded as qualified teachers.
And I totally agree with those who mentioned that CELTA turns out to be an eye-opener for qualified and experienced teachers in countries like Russia.
Thanks for your measured, thoughtful comment Viacheslav. Always good to read something considered like this. The bottom lime is that it is not a regulated industry and schools will employ who they want anyway. I suspect setting a longer qualification as the standard entry point would be unrealistic, even if you honestly do think it would be a good thing to put up these kind of barriers to the next generation of young aspirants.
Excellent point. It is not only morally unacceptable but also ignorant, prejudiced, racist and discriminatory. Glad it struck a chord with you. A good read for you. Thanks for posting! Most of my trainees are NNSs, incidentally. Hi Hugh, it is a wonderfully interesting point of view and thanks for sharing. Economics is the key driver especially in acquiring and teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.
In my opinion this is wishful thinking if Native English speakers deemed competent due to their right of birth, in this context of discussion the drivers and controllers, to give up their reigns just because it is the right thing to do. Nevertheless, it is good to know that some Native speakers, like yourself, are willing to take a jab at their conscience. Time for a change. Well, as you have already quite accurately noted, double-standards continue to exist. So I do stand by my argument that people are generally looking at things from a single point of view, however, in reality there is a lot not open to the naked eye.
Anyway, thanks for the reply and I do agree the Time for change begins with the way each of us think about racist policies that plant the seed for such divides. Agree with you Lakshmi. There have been at least 15 opportunities posted in other recruitment groups in the past two days and believe me.. I hope you find the right employer who recognises your skills! Thanks for the reply Supreet. This is an ongoing disparity, which appears to raise its ugly head for change periodically, and then once again gets swept under the rug.
Yet, we have to hang in there and strive for change in our own determined ways. In a riposte to this blog post, Anthony Gaugham raised the following spectre:. It just does what it does — and well enough to let teachers go on and learn more about their craft, and about language, as they practise. In fact, many that I talk to seem to feel the restrictions and limitations quite keenly. Try sitting in a very form-led classroom less motivating than your Malaysian classes.
I think that the fact that other training courses around the world could well do with a more practical, methodological focus is not in itself an argument in defence of a CELTA, personally. In fact, the above potentially also comes close to suggesting that the main role of a CELTA for non-natives is to stick a methodological Band-Aid over their previous training! For this small investment, CELTA is a magical thing that opens up the possibility of world travel as well as entry into the profession we love.
As you yourself say, trainers with some expertise are pouring heart and soul into instilling some basics of Communicative Language Teaching — not a Band-Aid — which benefits natives and non-natives alike.
You demean all of those people by calling it a Band-Aid. Everyone is a beginner at some point in their careers. Some of them — both NS and NNS — have not completed their degrees, or are making the transition from another career. Why would you remove this? It does not invalidate or discredit the fuller qualifications. It is what it is — a licence to teach. If a bachelors degree done in English is good enough for natives then it must be good enough for non-natives. Surely an interview and demo would tell you enough.
Have traineeships in the school for newbies. Therein lies the problem to my mind Alina. And they have plenty to say about its benefits.
I hope more non-natives in this position will post here to convince you on this one point, Hugh. Their home qualifications are worth less internationally than a one-month course designed originally for natives.
I see there is a problem with discrimination. The Cambridge Teaching Framework is being brought in to help remedy this. His response was that removing the CELTA would majorly limit access to recognised qualifications for many in developing countries. He effectively needed to provide some kind of quality control in the shortest possible time within the private sector which was, I gather, largely employing young Brits on gap years. It is also arguable, I would say, that this model no longer necessarily meets the needs of many ELT teachers around the world….
Just look at the CELTA certificate and the CertTESOL …the back of certificates state how successful the candidate performed in relation to the amount of ongoing professional support they will need in their next teaching role.
I think the argument about non-natives is disingenuous myself. Which bring us back to the native-speaker bias. Perhaps one practical solution would be to shift the passing criteria on the course…. But by bringing in a change to improve the professional standards of the industry, we may also put internationally recognised qualifications out of reach of some people for reasons we initially never meant to.
Will we then end up with two-tiered class of qualifications based on affluence? Non-native here. Great to hear this, Judit! Absolutely — empowering is the word Neil.
CELTA Course Tips & Advice for Non-Native Speakers
The short answer is no. However, candidates will be assessed throughout the application process and should be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English during the process. Therefore, when completing your application, you should take extra care with your writing and avoid any grammar and spelling mistakes. Tutors will take this into consideration when making a decision about your application.
Is CELTA for 'non-native' English speakers?
There have been plenty of other weighty contributions to this debate over recent years, not least the great work done by Marek Kiczkowiak, via his TEFL Equity Advocates project, which has the simple aim of agitating for equal employment opportunities for both native and non-native teachers. On Twitter last week, I slightly flippantly suggested that a major step towards greater equality would be for BELL to simply refuse to deliver such courses anymore and instead push for a better model of initial qualification. Nevertheless, the fact remains — and it needs saying more often and by more of us within the profession — that CELTA courses offer an inadequate entry to the profession, perpetuate the devalued status of EFL teachers around the world. I suspect this is down to the fact that they arrived on the courses having already learned English to an excellent standard, thus having both considerable experience of being in language classes that have engendered success and also having already acquired a considerable amount of knowledge of how languages work. On top of this, many non-natives who turn to CELTA courses as a way to travel and work abroad outside their own L1-speaking contexts will already have done a three- or four-year pedagogical degree and perhaps also have several years of direct teaching experience in often quite challenging classrooms. For these teachers, of course the practical, methodological orientation of most CELTA courses may well help refresh practice and offer the odd extra trick to add to an already impressive repertoire. For natives such as myself, however, who arrive on courses often having spectacularly failed to learn a foreign language at school, with little or no ability to articulate and explain how language works and with no teaching experience whatsoever, a CELTA offers a crash course in how to fake it. A while back, there was a popular reality TV show on Channel 4 entitled Faking It which tried to teach unlikely candidates how to pass themselves off as a genuine example of someone alien. And the time frame within which this coaching occurred?
How suitable are CELTA courses for non-native speaker teachers?
Figure 1 below, from the article, is one of many showing such significant differences; the vast majority of non-native speaker participants have extensive prior teaching experience, unlike native speakers. To read the full article, click here. Of course, the article raises as many questions as it answers, and I hope to conduct further research in this area to understand exactly how such courses, which are becoming increasingly popular with non-native speaker teachers, fit into the career paths of different participants. What factors are involved?
Certificate in English Language Teaching (CELTA)
After publishing the first edition of The Ultimate Guide to CELTA and getting some feedback from readers it became clear that we had forgotten one major character and that was a non-native speaker of English. All of our CELTA courses in Munich have been attended by non-native English speakers and sometimes native speakers have been in the minority. We interviewed a few of our previous trainees to find out their experiences and whether they encountered any problems. Victoria, Ilaria and Henning completed the part-time course and Antonio completed our full-time course. They were all kind enough to answer a few questions:. As a non-native speaker, did you have any reservations about applying to do the.
Teaching with CELTA as a Non-Native Speaker
Applicants will be selected for the course only if they meet the following entry requirements. Minimum requirements for non-native speakers is higher C1 on the Common European Framework e. Candidates should normally have, as a minimum entry requirement, a standard of education equivalent to. Due to the integration of theory and practice throughout the course, no exemptions or recognition of prior learning can be accepted. Candidates should be aware that completion of a course does not guarantee that they will be. European Language Examination Centre is an equal opportunities employer and course provider which can accommodate candidates with special requirements, but MUST be informed before the start of the course during the application stage so that we can inform Cambridge and make the necessary arrangements. If you have any questions or would like more information please contact us directly. We will accept late applications if there are still places available on the course.
Can I teach English abroad? Do these questions bother you? If yes, then stop bothering.
It is considered the optimal initial qualification of teachers of English as a foreign language. The CELTA qualification is commonly required by employers and, in fact, three out of four English language teaching jobs consider it mandatory. CELTA training is destined for different types of individuals: from new teachers at the beginning of their career to experienced teachers who need to further develop their skills and know-how, from native English speakers to non-first language speakers to general teachers who want to travel and teach English. The main goal of CELTA training is to develop practical skills through face-to-face practice, but also to enhance confidence and develop the necessary theoretical competence needed to teach English.
Here at Cactus I have always been surrounded by many qualified English teachers who had lived in many different places teaching English before they joined Cactus. As a keen language learner and traveller myself, I had always envied them for the freedom to live and work abroad. So I decided to take the Celta equivalent course for teaching German as a foreign language instead. Unfortunately this course was no longer offered in the UK due to insufficient demand. Our Academic Director encouraged me to jump in at the deep end and do a Celta course instead. So I downloaded the application form for the Celta course and signed myself up for the Cactus English Language Awareness Course to brush up my grammar knowledge and prepare myself for the Celta course. We were a group of 18 students on the course, of which 4 of us were non-native speakers.
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