Hilal Hastaoglu » native speaker

First of all I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Emek Dedeoğlu and I’m currently working at a private school teaching kids between the ages of 7-14. I’ve heard CELTA from a friend who is working at a university. After a quick research I decided to take it in order to improve my teaching skills and apply more of the methodology I know to my practical teaching as well as getting a better job. After one week I realized that I was not aware of the content of the program I had decided to attend. It was ‘much more’ than what I had expected in many aspects. CELTA did not only help me with practical studies but also provided me with embodying my knowledge about teaching.
To me; the most challenging part of the experience was it being full time and the deadlines coming one after the other as it was an intense course. I would also admit that being observed is not something you completely feel fine with.

Most of the other teaching training courses involved in-house training or a longer term experience. Although I had been teaching for 6 years before CELTA, I thought it is better to start from the basics. I would definitely recommend the course to people who are thinking about doing the course if they really want to raise their awareness on teaching and improve their skills. I would still say that do not push yourself hard on conforming with the ‘criteria’ that you will hear of during the experience because there can be no such criteria as the tutors have different approaches and understandings; being careful about your deadlines and doing the best you can do will bring you the ultimate result but in the long run I would say it is worth taking the course. 

My teaching before and after CELTA is totally different, I never hesitate or question the time spent in my classrooms as I know what I’m doing well now, it also improved the idea of how planning a lesson works. Awareness and setting up the most effective activities in order to reach the aim of the lesson has helped me a lot. 

 Turkish students’ biggest problem (actually it is a problem for all non-native speakers of English) is that they tend to speak Turkish in the classroom; for YL it is easier to cope with; giving them awards when they speak English motivates them, for adults it is a good idea to give clear instructions and the task language clearly.
Teaching English in Turkey makes you satisfied as there are too many people who want to learn the language and they are eager no matter what their age is but honestly you do not get paid as much as you should have as an English teacher. 

To sum up; I wish luck to everybody who wants to take CELTA and build up a career in teaching. I hope you can find what you look for in life…

Making errors are part of learning!

Let’s face it; hardly anybody likes others finding their errors/mistakes! However, there are several ways to treat errors/mistakes without having anyone hate you for it!Error: Lack of knowledge – Don’t know the correct version yet - Fossilised

Mistake: Slip of the tongue (ooops!)

A - English as a first language: We know how to correct our mistakes/errors and we can recognize our mistakes for what they are.

B - English as a second language: Not only do they not always recognize their mistakes, but when their attention is drawn to them they often cannot correct them; they may even commit another error in trying to do so. (Reference: S P Corder: Introducing Applied Linguistics pp.256/7)

TREATMENT:

* Concept Questions * Face expressions * Gestures * Re-formulation * Peer correction * Using the white board * Repeat sentence with a blank (beep) for them to fill in with correction etc.

The other day, during our error correction class, our tutor read intonation as in-te-nation. She was asking us whether any of us say it in another way. I told her that I say in-tow-nation! Canadians say it different!

Conclusion: It may not always be an error/mistake; it may be a pronunciation difference.