Category Archives: TEFL qualifications

Cambridge DELTA questions- answers please!

“Dear Alex, I recently read your reflection on the Delta course on Tefl.net and as a prospective Delta trainee I was quite inspired by what you’d written. I have some doubts about the course so I’d like to ask your … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge Delta, Cambridge ESOL, TEFL | 8 Comments

Even celebrities hate TEFLers

“The year before was a bloody disaster – I was rambling around the streets of Los Angeles, drinking way too many frappucinos and wondering what the hell I was doing here. I had no work and my mother was threatening … Continue reading

Posted in Teaching English in Spain, TEFL certificate | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Beyond standardisation

Putting more thought into the last post, I think we can be fairly confident that people who take different versions of the CELTA and get, for example, a B will have produced the same standard of lessons and essays during … Continue reading

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

Online CELTA on the way

Official Cambridge PR announcement Hattip to TEFLista for pointing out this out to me, via a thread on Evil Dave’s. Seems the teaching practice will still happen face to face as now, and it could be a good thing if … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, Online CELTA | Tagged | 3 Comments

The CELTA Ten Commandments

Say what you like about the Ten Commandments (unrealistic, need a scary fake God to make people pay attention, etc), I think we all must admit that we’d improve our lives and the world by keeping it in mind not to lust … Continue reading

Posted in CELTA, Eliciting, Pairwork and groupwork, TEFL, TEFL certificate, Using a whiteboard | Tagged | 16 Comments

CELTA graduates to go through 24 teaching hour ordeal

Taking inspiration from the Mars500 simulated Mars mission, Cambridge ESOL has finally found a solution to the disconnect between the 6 hours of teaching in 4 weeks of the CELTA and real working life. All CELTA graduates will be locked … Continue reading

Posted in CELTA | Tagged | 9 Comments

Experimental lessons

Was hoping some of you could help me brainstorm things that could be done for the Cambridge DELTA experimental practice lesson, as well as any other advice on being experimental that they may have. The main difficulty in the DELTA is that you need … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge Delta, CLIL, Community language learning, Dogme, Humanistic language teaching, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), Suggestopedia, TEFL, The Callam Method, The Silent Way, Using L1 in class | 16 Comments

(Proper) writing and blogging

I’ve finally finished the long ago promised Theory and Practice in the Cambridge DELTA Module 2. I did a lot of reading (a lot by my standards, anyway) and a fair bit of pondering, but all the best words on … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge Delta, TEFL | 8 Comments

Another TEFL conspiracy theory proved

When people claim that there is a direct link between advertising and censorship on Rave Spelling’s ESL Au Lait, I’d always assumed that they were exaggerating and things were at least a little more subtle than that. Apparently not: “I … Continue reading

Posted in Teacher forums, TEFL certificate | 6 Comments

Rod Ellis on theory and practice

“SLA research is not capable of providing teachers with recipes for successful practice. It should be treated as providing teachers with ‘insights’ which they can use to build their own explicit theory. It is on the basis of this theory- … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge Delta, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, MA Applied Linguistics, MA TESOL, Rod Ellis | 7 Comments