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I took the CELTA course because I wanted to up-skill to teach English effectively in an ESOL context for a couple of reasons. Firstly so that I am equipped to teach internationally, should I decide to relocate overseas. Secondly, a majority of my students as a teacher in the public school system have English as a second language and so it's very valuable that I have some tools to teach them with as well.
I'm currently teaching in a public secondary school, predominantly teaching music with a little bit of ESOL. Currently, my ESOL students are Years 9 and 10, who have come to New Zealand hoping to join our mainstream curriculum and gain secondary qualifications in Year 12 and 13. Most secondary schools in New Zealand now have an ESOL department, but are mostly staffed by former English teachers and people without training in second languages. The CELTA gives me the skills to contribute enormously in this environment.
My typical students are Chinese students in year 9 and 10 who are here to learn English well enough to engage with mainstream curriculum by the time they are in the senior school and gain NZ high school qualifications. Most of them lag behind in speaking and are unwilling to integrate into NZ society by way of sports teams and other co-curricular activities which further hinders their progress in this area.
Just to name a few, some skills that I use from the CELTA course are: lesson sequencing , task before text, eliciting vocabulary, asking questions to check understanding of concepts and instructions. When teaching grammar I use strategies to present meaning, form and pronunciation.
