Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA)

The course is for people who are interested in learning to teach English and wish to gain an initial teaching qualification that is recognised worldwide.

It is suitable for candidates who have some English language teaching experience but no initial qualification, as well as for people with little or no previous teaching experience.

Entry requirements

You must meet the following entry requirements:

• have a standard of English that would enable you to teach a range of levels (for example a minimum of Cambridge English CAE Grade A or an IELTS score of at least 7.5)
• have a standard of education equivalent to that required for entry into higher education
• be 18 years old or older at the start of the course.

Course content

Classes are held on the UCL Bloomsbury campus every day from Monday to Friday, 09:00-16:45.

The course is made up of four parts.

1. Input sessions

You will be taught in the way we would like you to teach your future students.

These sessions cover:

• Language analysis and awareness (grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation)
• Language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening)
• Learners and teachers and the learning and teaching context
• Developing teaching skills and techniques
• Classroom procedures 
• Planning lessons
• Adapting published materials for use in lessons
• Use of resources and materials including ICT
• Introduction to a wider variety of teaching contexts e.g. younger learners, business, examinations, monolingual classes.
• Professionalism
• Future employment advice.

2. Teaching practice

You will undertake regular teaching practice throughout the course.

This will include six-hours of teaching while being observed by your tutors and classmates.

You will be observed teaching a range of English language levels during the course and teach lessons of up to an hour, depending on the stage of the course.

On days when you are not teaching, you will observe your peers and give constructive oral and written feedback on their lessons.

3. Assisted lesson planning

You will receive support from your tutors when preparing your lessons. This will be reduced as the course progresses.

4. Teaching observation

You will watch experienced teachers teach lessons (six-hours during the course).

Assessment and workload

We use continuous assessment rather than a final written examination.

You will be assessed on your language knowledge, lesson planning and preparation, teaching, and assignments.

You are expected to attend 100% of the course, and must:

• teach a total of six hours of assessed lessons
• write lesson plans and self-evaluations for the lessons you teach
• observe your peers' teaching and take part in giving constructive feedback on each other’s lessons
• observe six hours of lessons taught by experienced teachers
• submit four assessed written assignments (comprising a total of 3000 words).

In addition to the core contact hours, we estimate that you will need to spend a minimum of 80 hours during the course on the required reading, research, pre- and post-session tasks, assignments, and lesson preparation.

The final grades awarded are Pass A, Pass B, Pass, Fail.

Fees

The course fee is £1,750. This includes the Cambridge Assessment English entry fee of £162.

Once you have been notified that your application has been successful, you will be required to pay the full fees to secure your place on the course.

How to apply

Please note that this course is fully booked. If you would like to attend this course in the future, please email clie-celta@ucl.ac.uk.

Refunds

Requests for refunds will be considered if a replacement can be found to take your place on the course and provided the request is received before the relevant course application deadline (above).

All refunds will be subject to a £200 administration charge.

Requests for full or pro-rata refunds if you withdraw from the course after its commencement will not be considered.