Yes!!! The CELTA gave us a class on Business English! It was so much fun! One of my tutors told us about how Businessmen learning Business English enjoy kinaesthetic activities! It was funny thinking about adults in suits running around for a task! However, one of my colleagues thought teaching Business English requires wearing a suit! Hehehe!

Many people have many opinions in regards to Business English. Here is how it was defined;

* Communication with a sense of purpose. Language is used to achieve an end, and its successful use is seen in terms of a successful outcome to the business transaction or event.

* Users of Business English need to speak English primarily so that they can achieve more in their jobs.

* Performance objectives take priority over educational objectives or language learning for its own sake.

Teaching Business English – Mark Ellis and Christine Johnson 1994 OUP

Here is a great BoArD GaMe by ESLbase for Business English.

http://www.eslbase.com/resources/business-english-board-game.asp

The best thing about the CELTA course is that they go through other areas as well, like teaching Young Learners (YLs)!! Before starting the CELTA course, I was teaching English to YLs and it was wonderful looking at the difference between the two learners (adults vs. young learners)!

¨ Adults can concentrate longer than children.
¨ YLs learn quickly and forget quickly.
¨ We need to consider motor skills when teaching YLs.
¨ Teachers need to think about activities to develop social skills for YLs.
¨ Routines help to solve behavioural issues in the YL classroom.

¨ YLs energy levels are high.
¨ Accuracy is not important to YLs
¨ YLs are usually externally motivated.
¨ It is important to do creative and imaginative activities with YLs.

¨ YLs tend to acquire language whereas adults actively go about learning it.

Here are some new ones. These ones are related to language teaching:

PPP: Presentation, Practice, Production
TTT: Test, Teach, TestOHE: Observe, Hypothesize, Experiment
TBL: Task based learning
TPR: Total Physical Response
ARC: Authentic use, Restricted use, Clarification and Focus
ESA: Engage, Study, Activate
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
CLL: Community Language Teaching

If you are interested in further information about Methodology & Lesson models you can download the documents below

*** Download File 1 – (History of Language Teaching)

*** Download File 2 – (Lesson Models)

Enjoy

Trivia about the English language and word origins 

• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
• Of all the words in the English language, the word “set” has the most definitions.
• “Ough” can be pronounced in eight different ways.

The following sentence contains them all: “A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.”
• “Rhythms” is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.
• The word “assassination” was invented by Shakespeare.
• The ZIP in Zip-code stands for “Zoning Improvement Plan.”
• DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today and English is one of them. I was talking to some friends the other day. We were trying to figure out whether English was a easy language or a difficult one to learn. I couldn’t decide.

What do you think?

Here is a fun spelling game you can have your students play. It can be useful in teaching phonemes with two letters like “sh”, “ch” and “th” as well. Don’t let spelling become a nightmare!

Spelling Game

By: GamesDr.com

Instructions: Click and drag the letters to form a word!

GAME 1:

Here is a video by “Berlitz” that explains why you need to learn English

P.S. Take a look at my Patience entry after this !
http://www.eslbase.com/diaries/hilalhastaoglu-2007-01-patience

Most students think grammar is a big monster. You need to tell your students that “GraMMaR tHe MoNsTeR” never kicks people, never punches people and never bites!

Advice:

* Use visuals to teach grammar: Use time clines with pictures, examples with pictures (Here is a website that is useful for visual learners: englishtenseswithcartoons.com )

* Avoid mathematical formulas: To be (am/is/are) + going to + Verb1. Use this structure with examples! Using this form alone will look boring and boring and boring… Zzzz!

If you are planning to start a CELTA course, here are the golden rules to follow;

Be organised: Those of you that have a computer, create a folder for everything you do (Homework, Assignments, Lesson Plans, Self Evaluations, Observations etc.). If you don’t have a computer, prepare your self a folder with all the documents in separate files.

Sleep well: You need to have enough sleep! Otherwise you may have some mood swings which might affect your teaching, understanding and patience.

Go to the institute early: If you are planning to take a CELTA full-time course, try to go there early. It will give you the chance to speak to your tutors, ask for advice, and listen to juicy gossip (hehe just kidding).

Take notes: Even if you think the topic of the lesson is easy, you will need something to refer to when you are lesson planning. Those easy things are usually hard to remember when you have a teaching practice to plan for.

Take your chores seriously: Even if it is as simple as A B and C, your tutors will want to see how you handle the tasks given to you.

……. and everything will be just fine!

Woohoo, I’m half way through the CELTA course!!

What I learned from the course so far:

You might know everything about a language, yet if you don’t know how to share, you know nothing at all.