I’ve just spent an intense four weeks training to teach English as a foreign language. I passed the course, which means I am now qualified to be let loose on hapless learners.
It hadn’t even occurred to me to do this until recently. I took a break from work last October to see what else was out there, and this is what I found.
The CELTA course was face-to-face and delivered by DC Teacher Training, and was amazing. I learned more about grammar in four weeks than in the last fifty years, and met some fascinating people – both fellow students and the brave souls we practised on – from all over the place: Pakistan, China, Sudan, Iran, Dominican Republic, Leicester….
CELTA is the Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Cambridge University (the acronym originally stood for ‘Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults’) and is (in their words) ‘the gold standard … the most widely recognised English teaching qualification in the world’.
I am so pleased I’ve got this, but I need to keep in practice – so, if anyone needs an EFL or ESOL teacher…?