Check details with the centre and the current Cambridge (CELTA) or Trinity (CertTESOL) syllabus; formats change.
CELTA at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Awarding body | Cambridge English (Cambridge University Press & Assessment) |
| Length | At least 120 contact hours: 4-5 weeks full time or part time over months; face to face, online or blended |
| Teaching practice (TP) | 6 assessed hours with real adult learners at two levels, plus observation of experienced teachers |
| Written assignments | Four, commonly: focus on the learner, language-related task, language skills task, lessons from the classroom |
| Grades | Pass A, Pass B, Pass, Fail; based on continuous assessment of teaching and assignments |
| Syllabus topics | (1) Learners, teachers and the teaching context; (2) Language analysis and awareness; (3) Language skills; (4) Planning and resources; (5) Developing teaching skills and professionalism |
| Entry | Usually 18+, language level about C1-C2, an interview and a pre-interview task |
Trinity CertTESOL (comparison)
Similar level and recognition. Typical components: assessed teaching practice, a learner profile, a materials assignment, an unknown-language journal (learning a new language as a beginner), phonology assessment, and written/language awareness work.
What trainers assess in TP
| Area | They look for |
|---|---|
| Planning | Clear learner-centred aims, logical staging, appropriate timing, anticipated problems with solutions, language analysis |
| Language analysis | Accurate meaning, form and pronunciation; good CCQs; correct terminology |
| Classroom management | Clear instructions with ICQs, grouping, materials handed out after instructions, monitoring |
| Learner focus | Learners talk more than the teacher; eliciting; pair checks; responding to learners |
| Error correction | Appropriate on-the-spot and delayed correction |
| Skills lessons | Lead-in, purpose for reading/listening, task before text, gist before detail |
| Reflection | Honest self-evaluation and acting on feedback in the next TP |
Before the course
- Grammar: tenses and aspect, modals, conditionals, passive, reported speech, articles, countable/uncountable, phrasal verbs, gerunds/infinitives. Use a teacher's grammar (for example, Parrott's Grammar for English Language Teachers, Swan's Practical English Usage).
- Phonology: the phonemic chart, word stress, sentence stress, weak forms, connected speech.
- Terminology: see terminology.md.
- Methodology: PPP, TTT, TBL, guided discovery, receptive and productive skills lessons (e.g. Scrivener's Learning Teaching, Harmer's The Practice of English Language Teaching).
- Complete the pre-course task carefully: trainers use it.
- Plan practical life: the full-time course leaves little time for anything else.
During the course
- Plan early; ask your tutor for help with language analysis before TP.
- Script your instructions and ICQs; demonstrate tasks.
- Time each stage and keep a flexi stage.
- Watch peers teach and take notes; you will learn as much from observation as from input.
- Reflect specifically: "my instructions for the matching task were long, so pairs started late".
- Assignments: answer every part of the brief, word count respected, references where required; resubmissions are normal and allowed once per assignment.
Practice plan (four weeks before)
| Week | Focus | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grammar terminology, tenses | quiz.py --domain Language; analyse 5 sentences a day for meaning, form, pronunciation |
| 2 | Phonology | quiz.py --domain Phonology; transcribe 10 words a day phonemically |
| 3 | Methodology and planning | Write one PPP and one reading lesson plan; check with the plan checklist |
| 4 | Classroom management and skills | Script instructions and ICQs for five activities; full mixed quizzes |
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Turn authentic material (news articles, podcasts, videos, songs, menus, timetables, adverts, social media posts, forms, infographics) into language lessons by grading the task rather than the text. Selects texts for interest, relevance, exploitability, coverage, cultural load and rights; finds the 4-6 words to pre-teach, words to gloss on the page and words learners can ignore, plus names and cultural references to explain, with reading time by level; and builds a lesson shape (lead-in, pre-teach, gist or scanning, graded detail task, language focus on chunks and register, response) with task ideas per material type and level from A1 to C1. Covers copyright, fair dealing and fair use, Creative Commons and attribution.
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Write and review can-do statements for language courses, units, lessons and learner self-assessment, CEFR or NCSSFL-ACTFL style: action (observable verb) + text or situation + level-specific conditions, learner ('I can') and descriptor ('Can') versions, progressions of one activity from A1 to C1, and coverage of reception, production, interaction and mediation. Includes a verb bank by mode and level and condition and text-type banks. Lints statements for teacher-centred phrasing, knowledge instead of use (learn, know, understand the passive), missing context, two skills in one statement, vague quality words, grammar items as outcomes, overlong statements and missing modes in a set.
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