Cambridge ESOL CELTA

The Course

Chester offers the Cambridge English CELTA courses as both a four-week intensive course and a fifteen week part-time blended course – the Online CELTA.

The aims of the CELTA course are to help trainees learn the principles of effective teaching, gain a range of practical skills for teaching English to adult learners & get valuable hands-on teaching experience.

Topic areas include:

Topic 1 – Learners and teachers, and the teaching and learning context.
Topic 2 – Language analysis and awareness.
Topic 3 – Language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing.
Topic 4 – Planning and resources for different teaching contexts.
Topic 5 – Developing teaching skills and professionalism.

Assessment

Trainees are assessed throughout the course, with no final examination. An external assessor, appointed by Cambridge ESOL, moderates each course.

There are two areas of assessment:

Teaching practice

There are a total of six hours teaching, working with classes at two levels of ability. Assessment is based on overall performance at the end of the six hours.

Written assignments

There are four written assignments: one focusing on adult learning; one on the language system of English; one on language skills; and one on classroom teaching.

To be awarded the certificate both components must be passed. There are three grades – Pass, Pass ‘B’ and Pass ‘A’.

Application Procedure

All applicants to the CELTA course must:

• Be at least 18 years of age (20 is recommended).
• Have a standard of education equivalent of that required for entry into higher education.
• Have an awareness of language and a competence in both written and spoken English that will enable them to undertake the course and prepare for teaching a range of levels.
• Have the potential to develop the necessary skills to become effective teachers and to complete the written assignments and practice teaching sessions.

The application consists of two parts; the general information form and the pre-interview tasks. The tasks are to give us a focus to talk about and gauge your suitability for the course. If you find any of the tasks difficult, do not worry, complete it all to the best of your ability. Make sure you keep a copy for the interview.

Email the completed forms to celta@chester.es. On receipt of the forms we will get back to you to arrange the interview. If you are based in Madrid we will arrange a time for you to come to the Don Ramón de la Cruz centre & if abroad we will arrange a telephone interview.

The interviews should not take much longer than 30 minutes.

After the interview we send you a confirmation email together with the pre-course booklet and password to the online resource centre.

Course Preparation

After successful application, a pre-course booklet is emailed & access to our online resource centre is provided. It is essential that the pre-course work is completed.

Trainees also need to buy two books to use with the pre-course work & also throughout the course:

Practical English Usage – Michael Swan (OUP)

The Practice of English Language Teaching – Jeremy Harmer (Longman)

2021-2022 CELTA

2022 Fees

Prices include Cambridge fee

Payment: Successful applicants are required to pay a deposit of 500€ with the remainder due at least a month before the course starts.

*The Chester guarantee (garantía Chester) is not applicable to CELTA or DELTA courses.

Sample Timetable for the 4 week intensive course

A typical day on the course

This extremely practical course revolves around the teaching practice, each trainee being observed for varying lengths of time over the course, for a total six hours.

The seminar sessions take the form of active & enjoyable workshops as trainees work though teaching & language issues. There are two experienced tutors on each course.

Contact CELTA at Chester