Category Archives: CELTA

The disadvantages of teaching in Japan

Posted on 18/05/2008 by alexcase

“My first two years in Japan were spent teaching English… The students… studied English- or should I say, English was taught in their presence. Nothing ever seemed to sink in. Years of classes and endless tests and still they couldn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in becoming a teacher trainer, British Council, Business English and ESP, Cambridge Delta, CELTA, Cultural differences/ cultural training, Dave Sperling's ESL Cafe, Eikaiwa, English Teachers in Japan, Functional language, JALT, Materials, Mixed ability classes, Pairwork and groupwork, Problem students, Teacher forums, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching low levels, TEFL, TEFL career planning, TEFL working conditions, TOEIC | 22 Comments

TEFLing quote of the day

Posted on 06/04/2008 by alexcase

“Harder than grad school, more nerve wracking than exam time, more warping than a CIA-experiment-gone-wrong.”

Posted in Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, TEFL, TEFL certificate, TEFL qualifications | 1 Comment

Why don’t my students listen to me? (TEFL Why oh why Part Three)

Posted on 06/04/2008 by alexcase

…Why does no one ever listen to me?? Rather than a complaint about how your friends back home ask about your experiences abroad for 10 seconds and then get back to gossiping about Britney, I’m talking here about students who meet … Continue reading →

Posted in CELTA, Classroom dynamics, Classroom management, Grammar, Problem students, TEFL | Tagged | Leave a comment

Becoming a TEFL course provider

Posted on 11/03/2008 by alexcase

You really do learn new stuff in TEFL all the time. Only a week ago I wrote an article on The Advantages and Disadvantages of Setting Up a TEFL Course  (something I did twice back when I was ambitious), and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, ELT management, links, Teaching English Abroad, TEFL, TEFL career planning, TEFL certificate, TEFL in the UK, TEFL qualifications, Trinity, Usingenglish, Via Lingua | 1 Comment

Teaching quote of the day 17 December 2007

Posted on 16/12/2007 by alexcase

‘There several pieces of research showing the negative effect of teaching several unknown words at the same time that are members of a lexical set. Learning several unknown words in such sets made learning 50–100 per cent more difficult.’

Posted in EL Gazette, interview fee/ application fee, lexical sets, links, TESOL, Vocabulary | 6 Comments

Do you need teacher training and qualifications before your first TEFL job?

Posted on 06/11/2007 by alexcase

I was a trainer on 4 week certificate in teaching English to adults courses (similar to the Cambridge CELTA) where some of the trainees already had teaching experience before they came on the course, mostly because they had decided it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, MA TESOL, Teacher training, Teaching English Abroad, Teaching English in Turkey, TEFL, TEFL certificate, TEFL qualifications | 2 Comments

CELTA Interview Fees

Posted on 12/10/2007 by alexcase

Despite a few encouraging remarks on the Rave’s Cafe Teacher Training forum and from Sandy below, I am still quite suprised that no one else is as outraged as me about Cambridge allowing non-refundable “application fees” etc to be taken … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, Teacher training, TEFL certificate, TEFL scams, TESOL | Leave a comment

TEFL Insider Part Six- Nova and the CELTA

Posted on 07/10/2007 by alexcase

To prove that I am capable of not only the idle speculation of the average post on this blog (but then, isn’t that what a blog is for?) but also of getting down and dirty in the trenches of TEFL, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, links, Nova, Teacher forums, Teacher training, Teaching English in Japan, TEFL, TEFL certificate, TEFL scams, TESOL | 1 Comment

MA= My A*se! Super CELTA is it, man!

Posted on 27/08/2007 by alexcase

Hope that headline got your attention, but actually I have nothing to say about the MA today at all… Right, now to talk about the CELTA. I have decided to trust a whole lot of people I have never met … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge Delta, Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, Dave Sperling's ESL Cafe, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, MA TESOL, PGCE in TEFL, Teacher forums, Teacher training, TEFL, TEFL qualifications | Leave a comment

Online TEFL certificates

Posted on 24/08/2007 by alexcase

Just could not think of an interesting title to this post, and as the limitations of this method of teacher training is obvious to most people not financially tied up in the teacher training busines, neither do I think I have … Continue reading →

Posted in CELTA, Online TEFL certificate, Teacher training, Teaching English Abroad, TEFL, TEFL certificate, TEFL qualifications | 1 Comment