CELTA at the Bell School, Cambridge

In October I attended the CELTA course in Cambridge at the Bell School. The CELTA course gives an excellent groundwork in teaching English. I already had a PGCE but the CELTA course taught you very prescribed ways of teaching lessons, for instance using pictures to elicit answers, and using controlled, semi-controlled and free practice to learn reading and listening. They use Raymond Murphy grammar books to teach grammar and there are books by Jim Scrivener that teach you how to teach English and how to teach grammar. When teaching English teachers should keep their own chatter to a minimum as it is distracting. Concept checking questions are used to make sure that the students understand and before each exercise the students are asked information checking questions. Listening and reading tasks are introduced gradually, using a short sample at first and making sure that before they are exposed to the text, students understand what questions that will be asked afterwards. I found the course very helpful and I would warmly recommend it.

Using 'Guess Who' to teach how to ask questions

The game 'Guess Who' is quite a useful game for teaching two students how to ask questions and also teaching some vocabulary related to appearances. Each student takes a picture and puts it into a frame. The other students, using their picture frames, have to deduce by power of elimination, which picture their opponent has in their frame.

Using 'Happy Families' to introduce vocabulary relating to professions

'Happy Families' is a game that uses a taylor-made pack of cards. Each card has the name of a family member such as 'Mr Bun the baker', 'Mrs Bun the baker's wife', 'Miss Bun the baker's daughter' or 'Master Bun the baker's son'. You need a minimum of three players but you can use a dummy. You deal out all the cards and then ask eachother for a specific card such as 'Do you have Mr Bun the Baker?' If the player has the card they give it to you but if they don't have the card they say 'Not at home'. Then it is that person's turn to ask. You can only ask for a card if you already hold a card in that family. Once you have collected all the cards in one family you put that set down on the table. At this point I asked my student to describe the picture. We had a baker so we discussed the words 'dough', 'kneading', 'rolling', 'pastry', 'filling', 'cake' and 'pie'. The player who puts down the most sets wins.

Trends in TEFL

Journalist Chia Suan Chong has written two articles about new tends and emerging technology in the world of TEFL and her articles can be read on the British Council's Voices Magazine. They are: Ten Trends and innovations in English Language teaching for 2018 and Ten Innovations that have changed English Language teaching.

English names of letters game

This game teaches you the English names for letters (lower case) using a memory game like Pelmanism.

Print out a set of 26 large coloured lower case letters in blue.
Print out a set of 26 large coloured lower case letters in red.

Ask the group what is the name of each letter and go through the alphabet in turn explaining all the names, for instance when you see a letter 'a' you say the sound 'ay'. Be careful that they know the difference between e, y and i, and write arrows on the ps and bs as you go to show which way up they go.

Turn over one set of letters and lay them down on the table top.
Turn over the second set of letters next to them.

Go around the table asking each person in turn to turn over a letter, taking turns between the two sets Once two are turned over turn them back again. Each time a letter is turned over the group have to say the name of the letter.

If two identical letters are turned over, the person to turn over the second one takes the pair as their own.

At the end of the game the person with the most pairs wins.

Beginners lesson plan 1: filling in forms

Lasts about 40 minutes.

You will need: a ball,
Beginners sheet 1

1) Begin with the Welcome warm up names game.

2) Hand out TEFLTips beginners sheet 1

3) Ask members to write down their first name in the space provided.

4) Ask members to write down their surname (their last name) in the space provided. They may have different forms of their names: an English form and a native form. They may have more than one surname.

5) Explain how to write a name clearly (i.e. print a name). Ask them to print their names in the space provided.


7) Explain that when they are speaking to people on the telephone they will need to be able to spell their names aloud using the English letter names. First we need to learn the letter names using a game.

6) Play the Names of English letters game (lasts 15 minutes but probably should last less).

7) Go around the group asking them to point to the letters on the print forms of their names and  spell the letters aloud.

8) Ask them the name of their road. (Some will not know).

9) For homework ask them to find out the name of their road, write it down and spell the name aloud the next week.

Beginners: Welcome warm up game for a group of 12

The teacher holds a ball (in our case it was a yellow ball with a smiley printed on it).

She holds it up and says "My name is Anna." Then she looks at someone and says "What is your name?" Then that person catches the ball and holds it up. "My name is Peter" he says. Then he looks at someone else: "What is your name?" he asks and throws them the ball.