Greetings to everyone

Have you decided to take CELTA yet? Whether your answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’, if you are reading this newsletter, you are probably a keen teacher who is interested in CPD. Oops, and here comes the first acronym to know! CPD stands for Continuous Professional Development according to Cambridge. There is a range of professional development options for teachers, regardless of their level of experience or training, and CELTA is one of them. In today’s newsletter, you will find out about many more abbreviations you need to know to survive the CELTA course.

Essential terms you need to know to survive CELTA (ICQs, CCQs, MFP, TTT and others)

If you are new to teaching English or reading professional literature on ELT, you might probably want to know what some abbreviations or acronyms stand for. We have collected the terms that are surely most frequently used by all teacher trainers and trainees during the CELTA course.  It’s something trainees often struggle with, comment on, and joke about.

• ICQs is short for instruction checking questions, i.e. asking questions to check that your students have understood the instructions to a task or activity you have set, e.g., So will you show your paper to your partner? (No) or Do you have to describe what’s in the picture? (Yes)

• CCQs stands for concept checking questions and is one of the most useful and common ways of checking concept before moving on to the next topic. The teacher asks a series of simple questions that break down the meaning of the language being presented instead of asking ‘Do you understand?’ which can be answered 'yes' without indicating true understanding.

‘One of the strengths of the CELTA course is that it forces teachers to be efficient with their words and engage students in different ways to make sure they understand activities as they progress through them,’ says Stephen Beale who started CELTA Helper blog for those who would like to know how to avoid the troubles and stress of doing CELTA.

• TTT is short for teacher talking time, the amount of talking done by the teacher in class. Excessive is counterproductive, especially if it's extraneous. It includes unnecessary TTT, commentary, asides, colloquialisms, echoing your students etc. This is what the tutors usually look for during the first week of your teaching practice. Don’t worry, by the end of your CELTA course, it will decrease sharply. 

• STT is student talking time, the amount of talking done by students in class. In a language classroom, this should ALWAYS be higher than TTT. Students must have an opportunity to speak to each other in a meaningful way.

• MFP (Meaning, Form, and Pronunciation) is an effective way to present new language.  When presenting new language to students you have to cover these three areas. 

• TP is short for Teaching Practice, the part of the CELTA day when you are the teachers. You will have to do 8 TPs during your CELTA course. This is what makes CELTA stand out among other courses for English teachers. There is a six hours’ assessed teaching practice per candidate supervised by a course tutor. 

• FB doesn’t stand for Facebook. It is short for feedback, the part of a stage or activity in which learners share their answers with the group and the teacher. This could be to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions or to check answers to the activity. You will also receive feedback on your teaching practice from your peers and tutors.

• PW stands for pair work.

• WC  is short for whole class. 

• Demo. You will have to do a lot of demonstration when teaching during your CELTA course, especially if you teach beginners. A demo is the best way to show your students how to complete the task. You can do demos with one student or a pair of students can do a demo for the rest of the group. Your tutors will also do a demo lesson for you at the beginning of the course. 

• Elicit – to draw an answer, grammar structure, word, and example, etc. from the students by asking questions and giving prompts.

We do hope that now you are better equipped for doing your CELTA course. CELTA’s fun when CELTA has been done. Become one of the teachers who survived CELTA!

Want to learn more terms? Check here:

CELTA Terminology Quizlet Set

NILE ELT Glossary

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