About CELTA

   WHAT IS CELTA?          WHO IS IT FOR?          COURSE FORMAT          TEACHING PRACTICE          SEMINARS          ASSESSMENT         JOB ASSISTANCE     
   ENTRY REQUIREMENTS         WHY CELTA?        WHY CELTA WITH AKCENT IH PRAGUE?

What is the CELTA?

CELTA is the original TEFL course and the global industry standard in English teaching. It provides the initial training leading to the Cambridge English Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) needed for new teachers to enter the industry and an important addition for existing teachers who wish to build on their existing skills. CELTA enables you to obtain your first English teaching position or to improve on your current teaching situation. The course is highly regarded by employers around the world as it provides sound training and a strong basis from which one can continue to develop into a highly effective teacher of English. Indeed, in many parts of the world, including Prague, employers simply won't consider applicants who have not passed the CELTA.

Who is it for?

Our CELTA courses are attended by people with a truly wide variety of professional and cultural backgrounds and experience and very often long-term international friendships are started during the course.

Despite being created for those with no experience or formal training, many of our participants choose to take the course to add to their existing university teaching qualifications; either to learn more modern (now also online) classroom methods or to be coached and observed by experienced, Cambridge certified, teacher trainers.

Course Format

AKCENT IH Prague offer both full time and part time CELTA courses, in order to match our participants’ availability and circumstances. Part time courses seem to be proving particularly popular now, during the Pandemic, and so we offer a range of different part time schedules.

Teaching practice

Teaching practice is a significant part of the course, and is valued the most highly by our course participants. The benefit of online CELTA is to become an expert in online teaching.

The teaching practice includes guided preparation, analysis and reflection on the lesson. Each trainee teaches for a total of eight 45-minute lessons with two groups of students at two different levels of ability. Teaching practice is organised in small groups of 5-6 trainees who also observe each other. Each teaching practice session is followed by a group feedback session, led by your course tutor, as well as a detailed, personalised written feedback and assessment of each lesson. In addition to feedback, there are one-on-one tutorials to monitor and discuss progress through the course.

Seminars

Seminars and observation of experienced teachers take up approximately half of the course. These seminars are interactive.

Areas of focus include:

• Classroom techniques: language clarification, practice, checking learning, error correction, classroom management, group work and pair work
  
• Teaching and learning the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in classroom and virtual classroom environment
• The English language: linguistic form, function, meaning and phonology
• Principled lesson planning of different types of lessons, course planning
• Different learning and teaching styles at adult level, adult learners‘ motivations and learning styles
• The evaluation and use of IFL textbooks along with learning how to adapt real life materials into concrete learning tools

Assessment

CELTA is awarded to candidates who have completed the course and who have met the assessment criteria for lesson planning, teaching and for written assignments. The outcome of the course is decided on a continuous assessment basis, there is no final examination. The grades for successful candidates are PASS, PASS A or PASS B.

Job assistance

The course tutors and staff are available to provide a great deal of useful job and career advice during and after the CELTA course.

This includes:

• A 90-minute session dedicated to job searching, CV writing, and finding the right schoolsAn up-to-date job board
• Continued email support for three months after course
  

While we try our best to assist trainees in their job search, it is our policy to never “guarantee” jobs to trainees as we feel this is the wrong approach. If someone does not complete the course requirements, we would not feel comfortable placing them in a position. On the other hand, a number of successful trainees in the past have been employed by AKCENT IH Prague and some of those have gone on to higher things!

Entry requirements

Before you start filling out the on-line application, please check you meet the following criteria:

• Are you 18 or over?
• Do you have a standard of education equivalent to that required for entry into higher education?
• Is your English good enough to teach at a range of levels? You need a CEFR Level between C1 and C2 or above (IELTS 7.5+)

Why CELTA?

• CELTA is the most internationally recognised TEFL certificate in the world
• Designed and closely moderated by Cambridge English Language Assessment
  
• Practical, hands-on teaching experience and feedback, either online or face to face
• Highly qualified, experienced and regularly standardised course tutors
• Low student-trainer ratio
• Great post-course support, including jobs vacancies

Why CELTA with AKCENT IH Prague?

• A member of the International House network of more than 130 schools in 35 countries
• Prague’s major language school able to offer teaching posts to successful CELTA graduatesmember of the International House networkteaching posts to successful CELTA graduates
• Over 20 years of training experience of Cambridge courses
• Permanent team of enthusiastic, supportive and personable trainers
• Quiet residential area only 10 minutes by public transport to the city centre
• Good-standard and affordable accommodation close to school and shops
• Further professional development courses offered at a reduced price: The Cambridge DELTA, IH CYLT, IH LAC