[nstphillips]

Hi all,

My name's Nick and I am new here. I have been reading anon. through your posts for a while though, and really love the site

However, my day has not been so great, and it is regarding my Celta interview. Here is what happened:

I turned up to work at 8 this morning feeling great, as I knew I would be leaving at 11am to travel to my Celta interview. I was a little nervous, excited etc, but very anxious to meet the staff. My interview was at 12:30 and the centre was only 45 mins away (usually), but that was o.k as I had left 1.5 hours to get there. I drove the majority of the journey with little delay and was looking to make good time, at least enough to grab a coffee, review my pre-Celta interview task anyway. This is when it all went wrong, I got stuck behind one of those police escort mobile caravan deliveries 2 miles away from the centre. I ended up being 20 mins late for the interview and not creating a very good impression at all However, the 3 person interview/roleplay thingy went very well, but the scrutinising, "how's your grammar?", "where's the pro-noun, conjunction, ad-verb?" bit didn't. I felt pig-sick that I continually failed to answer the grammatical questions, and really hope that I get a second chance to prove my worth. The interviewer gave me some v.good references for grammar books that I immediately ordered when I got home. However, to be quite honest, I think I have missed a good chance.

What do you guys reckon? Anyone else experienced anything similar?

Thanks for your time.

Nick

P.S the interviewer was extremely friendly and helpful, even with me testing her patience. Also, the two other Celta candidates were great to speak too, and I wish them good luck if they read these forums.

[clivehawkins]

hey, don't worry too much. it's great that you're concerned about how it went as it shows that you're genuinely keen on doing the course. However, the score on the grammar test isn't really that important. When I did my pre-test to join the CELTA course, I got around 50% - and that was having read a grammar book beforehand! I had no idea what the 'present perfect' was, and a 'conjunction' could have come in and slapped me and I wouldn't have been able to recognize it. My tutors subsequently told me that you learn the grammar as you go along, and that's exactly what I did (and am still doing).

What's more important for them is that you're serious about doing it, are willing and able to learn new ideas and have the confidence to teach. If your course is anything like the one I did, you'll have an enjoyable, stressful, rewarding, emotional experience. Have fun and good luck!

[Kont Dracula]

I really wouldn`t worry too much. I think you would have to a total disaster not to get accepted on the course. It doesn`t sound like things went too badly for you. I don`t think they expect you to be that great on grammar at the beginning of the course. I am sure you will get onto the course. As Clive said, you sound enthusiastic enough.

[Niamaat]

Poor interviews may indeed be obstacles to your getting an invitation to join the course.

I hope you do get in but whether you get an acceptance letter soon or not you might want to begin a serious study of English grammar independently. You'll have to know English grammar pretty well to get into CELTA and to earn the CELTA certification.

Unless you are teaching non-native English speaker children English through acquisition, it is very likely that you will eventually need to know how to teach grammar per se. So might as well get to know it, so you can eventually teach it.

I was devasted after my initial CELTA telephone interview. Although I was told I would have a follow up interview what I got was a "thanks, but no thanks" instead. I was double devastated.

I continued to study grammar. I traveled to the country where I wanted to take the CELTA course and began teaching English there. I re-applied and heard nothing. So I think I applied for about 3 places all witin the same two week period and finally presented myself at one of the locations. The director teased me a bit about applying all over the world.

I was offered an interview for the following day with the course instructor. About two weeks later I got my letter of acceptance.

So if by chance you are not accepted on your first try. Get better prepared and try again. You now have the advantage of knowing what the interview consists of and you know where you are weak. Get stronger. Don't give up. You can do it.

Determination may be everything.