Teaching Certification - How Specialistic Is It?

[Girino]

I know many of you came here as TEFL teachers, some of you even took a teaching certification before/after coming down here to increases your chances to find a job in a school, but that is not what I wanted to asked today.

I would like to know if the course contents are really interesting or necessary. What do they consist of? Grammar rules? How to explain things? Types of in-class exercises? Different learning styles? How you body language influences the way you speak?
Do you need to be above average in your language knowledge or the course is sort of back-to-school and covers the grammar used in school?
How long did the course last? How long is the certification valid?

I'd be interested to hear experiences especially from people who always maintained an interest for their native language, or that worked in a related business (PR, copy writers, translators, teacher of something else, copy editors, etc.) and already had a sound knowledge of their language.

NOTE: this thread is not about English native speaker, only. I would like to hear also from other language speakers.

 

[lucha54]

I did a course in New Zealand a few years before I ever come to BA (just thought it would be useful at the time). I can send you all my course materials in PDF if you want. Not the same thing as taking the class (you get to design practice lessons, try them out and get feedback) but at least you can see the materials... send me a PM!

 

[Alicia karr]

Hi Lucha,
I've been doing some teaching and would love to see your materials. Could you please send them to me? Thanks!

 

[Flay]

I did the CELTA course about five years ago before going to teach in Spain and I'd say it was pretty essential. I wouldn't have had the first idea of what or how to teach a class without it (I'd never have got a job either, of course). There was no learning grammar rules, other than what I needed to look up myself for the specific classes I had to teach; there was some focus on raising awareness of your own language (I worked as a journalist before this, so I guess I fall into the category you mention, and I found this part interesting. Unless you've studied applied linguistics, you'll probably find there are lots of functional and phonological features of the language that you've not noticed) and then there was work on teaching methodologies, techniques to use in the classroom, lesson planning, use of materials, presentation of language, classroom management, and, most of all, real practice. If you're going to teach private one-to-one conversation classes (probably the only way to make ends meet as an English teacher in Buenos Aires), some of the topics of the course are a bit irrelevant, but I'd say it's still useful for the language awareness and methodology components, and most of my students like to know I have some kind of relevant qualification.

An intensive course lasts four weeks. Certification does not expire.

 

[Meri]

I got a TESOL certificate in San Francisco, CA and I don't think I would have felt qualified to teach without it. The grammar instruction and reference materials were huge for me because I had forgotten (or never properly learned) all of the terms and rules and a lot of students - especially beginner-intermediate levels - really want them. I took an one month certification course and it was actually super intense and stressful but prepared me for teaching groups.

If you're going to do a casual conversation class with a more advanced speaker you can probably get away with just winging it - but I would say that for any real classroom situations the training and lesson plan/reference materials you get with a certification are well worth the time/effort.