Hello Exam Seekers,

If you are still questioning yourself about taking or not taking the CELTA Course, I brought a subject today to aid you in deciding.

As I mentioned before, the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) is a very demanding course. Both the part-time and the full-time courses expect candidates to take long hours of their day/week/semester to work on their assignments and lessons. Not everybody is actually ready or willing to spend so much time and attention on this course. Therefore there are a few needed steps prior to entering the CELTA.

1. The Interview

It is required that you have a C1 (CEFR) level of English to take the CELTA, but it does not mean that you need to have the Cambridge CAE certification. It would be helpful if you did because it shows that you have the required language level; however, you can show that you know English enough by answering the questions during the pre-course interview.

This interview has two purposes:

1) to show the tutors that you have language enough to take the course;

As I said before, it is a very demanding course, and that’s why they expect that you have a C1 level of English. Also, if you don’t have enough English, you won’t be able to attend the pre-requisites of the assignments and follow the tutor’s classes. Moreover, you will be teaching English to advanced volunteer students, so you need to know more than they do.

2) to make the steps of the course clear for you.

Since it is very demanding, some people tend to drop out in the middle of the course. Other people tend to blame the center when they get a bad mark on an assignment or a lesson by saying they didn’t have time to prepare things. For these and other reasons, the tutors invite their future students to an interview so that they can explain in detail what the CELTA is like and prepare candidates for what is coming.

In this interview, the tutors explain how demanding the course is and the number of things that should be delivered throughout the course. It is as if they were explaining the CELTA Syllabus to the candidates.

Depending on the center, there might even be some possible changes to the syllabus – in relation to ours of study and all -, so the tutors need to explain how the course will work if you take either the full or the part-time course.

There are many topics that they will be covering during this interview: which assignments you will be expected to deliver, what kind of marks you can get, the lesson preparation and the amount of time you will spend doing it, etc.

This is a very important step of the course, and it is the one time you will be facing your future tutor before starting the course, so if you have questions about it, take the time to clear your doubts.

2. The Pre-Course Task

The Pre-Course Task is actually a file with 50 tasks over 32 pages. You can find the pre-course task here:

It is given by the tutors for you to read and to get familiar with some of the areas covered on the CELTA. It’s long, but by doing the tasks, you will have the opportunity to get prepared for the course.

You are required to send it once you are done, which means that they give the pre-course task for you to do by yourself at your own house. Remember that they are not grading you at all or taking it into part of your actual course, so don’t worry!

It is advisable that you answer the questions in the order it’s given; however, you don’t really need to do it all in one sitting; you can do it slowly at your own pace. So if you have decided to start the CELTA only next semester, you can start doing your Pre-Course Task now.

There are five sections to the task:

• Unit 1 – Section 1 – Learners and Teachers, and the Learning and Teaching Context
• Unit 2 – Section 2 – Language Analysis and Awareness
• Unit 3 – Section 3 – Language Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing
• Unit 4 – Section 4 – Planning and Resources
• Unit 5 – Section 5 – Developing Teaching Skills and Professionalism

Some tasks are grammar-related; others make you think about your teaching. Some examples of tasks you may find are:

• TASK 1

1. In what context will you be doing the CELTA course?
2. Do you know what context you will be teaching after you finish the course?

• TASK 29

Underline the /ə/ in the following words:

mother | forget | to | announce | tonight | notable | mention | patrol | indicative

• TASK 39

Make a list of reasons why you think speaking fluency practice could help learners’ language development.

3. Get prepared

The last step is for you to get ready. The tutors ask that you buy a binder/file folder like the one above. This is because you are going to receive lots of paper and you have to keep yourself organized!!! Well, this used to happen with the in-person CELTA Course; on the online course, you don’t need to print all the handouts given to you, but even though you don’t receive papers, it is good that you organize your digital/in-print files.

Also, there are some books that you may need, here I put only the ones that I bought that are essential:

• Jeremy Harmer: 2007 The Practice of English Language Teaching, Fourth Edition, Pearson. (US: https://amzn.to/3NFeMtf / BR: https://amzn.to/3u1XnD2)
• Martin Parrot: Grammar for English Language Teachers, Second edition, Cambridge. (US: https://amzn.to/3J4IZOw / BR: https://amzn.to/3DybymC)

Take a look at the full list of books at the link above with the task.

I hope that this helps you get a better grip on the CELTA Course before taking it! And that you are able to decide if you are taking the CELTA or not. Moreover, if you want more information about The Pre-Course Task, leave a comment below.

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Have a great week,
Patricia Moura