Tag: phonology

Review: 100+ Professional Development Tips for Post-CELTA Teachers

When I was writing my post on the shortcomings of CELTA, I was delighted to receive a notification about a new ebook dedicated to professional development of newly-certified teachers. The book was written by Pete Clements, the author of the excellent blog ELT Planning. He has posted many reviews of books, apps, and other resources on his website, so I was curious to see what his own product looks like.

100+ professional development tips for post-CELTA teachers

100+ Professional Development Tips for Post-CELTA Teachers can be bought for 4 US dollars on Amazon or Smashwords (UPDATE: The book is now available for free!). I chose to get it from the latter because I have already purchased several books through the website. In his ebook, Clements recommends other self-published titles such as Sandy Millin’s ELT Playbook 1 and Phil Wade and Anthony Gaughan’s Teach Reflect Develop: A Month of Reflective Teaching Activities (this one is for free as well). I find the idea of publishing an ebook really intriguing because I guess it feels a little more serious compared to blogging. At the moment I don’t feel ready for that, but maybe I’ll explore this option at some point in the future.

It seems that the book is available only in the EPUB format at the moment. I’d prefer to have the option to download it as a PDF file because that would make it a little more convenient to read on a PC. You can use one of many free online converters to help you change the file type, so it’s not a big deal. When it comes to the book itself, there are no unnecessary gimmicks and it’s all about the content, so let’s take a look at what you can find there.

At first, Clements suggests checking out some useful resources. It’s nice to see Scott Thornbury’s book About Language among the recommended titles because there isn’t enough time to study grammar on the CELTA course, and that book will help you gain more knowledge in the area. There are also plenty of links to helpful blogs, Facebook groups, podcasts, etc. In addition, the author provides a few tips for developing on the job.

Most of the ebook comprises practical tips for your teaching practice. For example, there are useful sub-skills and strategies that you can teach in a conversation class (e.g. backchannelling, hedging, and vague language). The author also mentions helpful techniques for building speaking confidence with teenage students, which is sometimes challenging even for experienced teachers. Other sections extend the knowledge gained on the CELTA course in relation to classroom organisation and whiteboard work.

There is also a chapter dedicated to writing formal lesson plans. While that ability is undoubtedly important when taking a course with assessed teaching practice, I wonder how often teachers in entry-level positions actually have to do that. When I landed my first proper job, I was relieved to find out that I didn’t need to produce detailed CELTA-style lesson plans in my day-to-day practice! Yes, it’s important to consider many aspects of the lesson you are about to teach, but I think this topic could have been made a little less daunting by emphasising that you don’t need to write everything down when you plan your lessons. When it comes to being observed, I’d recommend sticking to the lesson plan template provided by the employer or course provider in order to avoid getting bogged down with trying to include as much information as possible.

My favourite part of the ebook deals with teaching pronunciation. Novice teachers often struggle with this area due to not receiving sufficient training. Understanding phonology requires a lot of studying from the teacher’s side, and gaining confidence to use that knowledge in the classroom takes some time. Clements provides some pretty cool ideas and pronunciation activities. Of course, it’s important to go beyond individual phonemes and focus on features such as connected speech or sentences stress since they play a crucial role in terms of intelligibility.

If you are familiar with the ELT Planning blog, you’ll know what to expect from the ebook. The author’s writing style makes everything clear and easy to follow. When you read the book, you feel like you are receiving useful advice from a supportive experienced colleague, which is exactly what newly-certified teachers need. I highly recommend this title to those who have recently started teaching. I wish I had read something like this immediately after finishing my CELTA because I spent the following 18 months learning to teach through trial and error, and it took me a long time to discover resources that pointed me in the right direction.

As the author himself points out, 100+ Professional Development Tips for Post-CELTA Teachers isn’t a comprehensive guide. For example, I think that newly-qualified teachers would also benefit from learning more about teaching listening skills or working with children. The ebook doesn’t explicitly deal with online teaching either even though being able to do that is now part of our professional lives. Clements suggests that this could be the beginning of a series, and I hope that he publishes more titles on professional development. New teachers don’t always receive enough support from their employer, so looking for advice elsewhere is a very good idea. I believe that reading this kind of publications can help them a lot in the first few years of their career.

The importance of going beyond CELTA

It has been four years since I passed my CELTA course, which proved to be a life-changing experience because it allowed me to start working in a new field and move to another continent. It also gave me an opportunity to be trained by knowledgeable tutors who provided me with useful advice. I highly recommend this course to aspiring teachers.

That said, it’s important to note that CELTA is a foundation-level qualification with very low minimum entry requirements. I often compare it to a four-week boot camp that provides you with basic survival techniques. This blog posts focuses on the course’s shortcomings in order to demonstrate why it’s necessary to keep improving as a teacher after obtaining the certificate.

Tips for getting a CELTA Pass A

It doesn’t address the use of L1 in the classroom
My teaching practice group on the CELTA course comprised students from four different countries, so there was no other choice but to use only English in the classroom. Even if your group is monolingual and you speak the students’ language, CELTA promotes the idea of teaching English through English. Of course, this is something practical because your lessons are observed and you can’t require tutors and assessors to be able to speak all kinds of languages. Being able to teach English without referring to L1 is undoubtedly a very useful skill to have, but if you land a job in a country like Colombia, using the learners’ mother tongue in the classroom can be really helpful.

It doesn’t prepare you for teaching young learners
The A in CELTA used to stand for adults. The certificate’s official name now refers to speakers of other languages instead, but it still didn’t provide me with any kind of training for teaching young students. When I was assigned my first course with ten-year-olds, I was completely out of my depth because you simply can’t treat children as adults. You can eventually figure out how to deal with teenagers, but teaching children while equipped with just a CELTA can be a very challenging experience.

It doesn’t pay much attention to phonology
To be fair, we did have two input sessions on teaching pronunciation. The problem is that this area is so complex that you need to spend much more time on it. The sessions were mainly about having fun with the phonemic chart, which was quite confusing and I had no idea how to use it in the classroom. The observed CELTA lessons didn’t need to include any in-depth pronunciation teaching; simple drilling activities were considered to be sufficient. If you wish to help your learners improve their pronunciation, you need to understand how individual phonemes are produced and why being aware of features connected speech is crucial for understanding spoken English. It all started to make more sense to me a year and a half after my CELTA when I read Adrian Underhill’s book Sound Foundations.

It promotes a flawed approach to teaching skills
If you decide to take a Delta Module Two course, you will most likely be told by your tutors that you need to move on from what you were taught during your CELTA when it comes it teaching skills. This is particularly emphasised when it comes to receptive work because the comprehension approach with the usual pre-, while-, and post- stages is based on testing what the students already know, and that’s not good enough. You can actually do much for your learners by teaching relevant sub-skills and processes that can help them understand texts. I found John Field’s book Listening in the Language Classroom extremely helpful in this regard.

It doesn’t deal with SLA
CELTA is a very practical qualification, which is great because you learn a lot of useful techniques. However, it is quite prescriptive and you are just supposed to do what your tutors tell you. There is no time for reflection on why you are teaching in that particular way. If you are a curious person, you’ll probably want to know how people learn foreign languages. Being aware of the main SLA theories can influence your decisions in the classroom. Again, reading about this area takes a lot of time, so this is not something that can happen overnight.

It can lead to complacency
Obtaining a CELTA is very helpful in terms of career prospects. Even if you have an unrelated degree, you can take this short course and you will find it relatively easy to land an entry-level TEFL position in quite a lot of countries. Losing your job isn’t the end of the world because you are likely to find a new one somewhere else with this certificate. This safety net can have some negative effects, though. The last thing you should do after getting your CELTA is become overconfident, think you’ve made it as a teacher, and rest on your laurels for the rest of your career.

The point of this post is to emphasise that CELTA will show you only the tip of the iceberg, and there is much more to learn about ELT. Taking this course is definitely a good decision, but I think that it should be seen as a starting point in one’s professional development rather than something that will transform you into an amazing teacher. I believe that it’s important to build on the knowledge gained during the CELTA course and be open to learning new ideas about teaching English.

I understand that the idea of professional development may seem overwhelming to newly-certified teachers. There are so many books, articles, blogs, and other resources, and you may not know where to start. In that case I recommend reading the recently published ebook 100+ Professional Development Tips for Post-CELTA Teachers written by Pete Clements, which is a very useful resource for those who have just gotten their CELTA or CertTESOL. You can read my review of the book here.