Cambridge CELTA Interview Task

So you’ve applied for a CELTA course at ITTC, you’ve been invited for an interview, and
sent some tasks to complete beforehand. What now? Here’s our quick guide...

1. Don’t be nervous - it’s not an exam! Both you and we need to see where
you’re starting from so we can help you prepare for your course and plug
the gaps in your knowledge. If we feel you need a bit more time to
prepare, we’ll help with that.
2. If you had a bad experience of learning grammar or a foreign language
at school, don’t worry – it’s not like that! Grammar is just one area of
language you’ll be teaching, not the whole thing. The most important
thing is to find clear, simple (and possibly visual) ways to help students
understand what bits of language mean.
3. Have a go at the tasks and don’t get stressed if there’s something you
don’t know - you’re not expected to know everything! The tasks are
designed to make you think about important features of language and
teaching, so if they’re new to you, that’s all part of the learning process.
4. But if you want to do some research for the tasks, that’s great – it’s not
cheating! Any preparation you can do, e.g. to make yourself more
comfortable with grammar, will be really useful. You can learn a lot from
websites, such as esl-lounge.com/student/grammar.
5. At the interview, don’t be embarrassed about any little mistakes or
questions you have - everyone has different gaps in their knowledge and
different levels of experience, as a teacher or learner. If it’s all completely
new for you, you’ll get a good idea of what’s involved.
6. By this stage, you should be relaxed and, who knows, maybe even
enjoying it! There’s no pressure on you to decide to join an ITTC CELTA
course so you can ask the CELTA Tutor anything you want to help you
make your final decision in the week after the interview.

7. And that’s it. If we feel you’re ready, you’ll be offered a place and
guided in your course preparations. If we feel you need a little more time,
we’ll give you a little guidance on what to do so you will be ready soon.
And then, congratulations! You’re about to begin your ITTC CELTA course!

©http://portal.beet.co.uk/ITTC/CELTA/Interview/Interview Tasks/Celta-Interview-Task.doc
 Cambridge CELTA Interview Task
Name: Course applied for:

In order to help you prepare for your interview, and to give us a clearer picture of each candidate applying for a
CELTA course, we would like you to answer the following questions as appropriate.
Please write two or three full sentences for each question.

Do you have any transferable skills (personal, technical, communication) from your current or previous
employment?

What kind of travel experience (apart from regular holidays abroad) do you have that could be useful for an English
language teacher?

What kind of foreign language learning experiences have you had?

Where do you intend to stay while you are doing the CELTA course and how do you intend to travel to the centre?

©http://portal.beet.co.uk/ITTC/CELTA/Interview/Interview Tasks/Celta-Interview-Task.doc
 Writing Tasks
During the course, you must show that your spoken and written language is clear, accurate and natural.
Please complete the following tasks to give us an idea about the standard of your written English.

Task 1
Explain how three of the jobs below might (not) help someone become a language teacher. (80 words)
 journalist  actor  social worker
 lecturer  sports coach  driving instructor

Task 2
Rewrite the text below, correcting any errors that you notice and adding correct capitalisation and punctuation.
You should keep as closely as possible to the wording of the original text.

©http://portal.beet.co.uk/ITTC/CELTA/Interview/Interview Tasks/Celta-Interview-Task.doc
 Language Tasks

How much do you know about the English language?

Part of the interview will be concerned with your own language awareness, as it is important for us to establish
how much you know about the English language, and how much preparation you will need to do before you are
ready to take the Cambridge CELTA course.

Task 3 Word Class

Look at the sentence below and label the 15 parts of speech using the key given. You will need
to use some of the abbreviations more than once.
A really good teacher thinks hard about likely errors and then he/she plans the lesson carefully.
noun (n.) verb (v.) adjective (adj.) adverb (adv.) pronoun (pron.)
article (art.) conjunction (conj.) preposition (prep.)

A really good teacher thinks hard about likely

a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h)

errors and then he/she plans the lesson carefully.

i) j) k) l) m) n) o) p)

Task 4 Learner Problems

Look at the sentences below and make notes about the meaning/use and form of the language
in bold, including any terminology that you already know. You can use your own existing knowledge, as well as an
appropriate language reference resource.

a) When we arrived home, he was leaving. a) Help me with these bags, will you?
b) When we arrived home, he’d left. b) Could you help me with these bags?
c) When we arrived home, he left. c) Would you mind helping me with these bags?

a) a)
b) b)
c) c)

a) I’ll take the train tomorrow. a) We’ll pick you up tonight.

b) I’m going to take the train tomorrow. b) We picked up the language easily.
c) I'm taking the train tomorrow. c) Sales have picked up recently.

a) a)
b) b)
c) c)

©http://portal.beet.co.uk/ITTC/CELTA/Interview/Interview Tasks/Celta-Interview-Task.doc
Task 5 Grammar and Vocabulary Errors
a) underline the errors
b) write the corrections
c) describe how you would explain these language points clearly to a learner

1. I’d like some informations about your courses.

2. Why you no answer the phone?

3. I’ve played tennis yesterday.

4. Do you have got any money?

5. I made a terrific nightmare.

Task 6 Pronunciation Problems

What pronunciation problems might learners have with the following words?
answer honest row close

weather abroad luggage scratched

hotel comfortable music musician

So, whenever you plan a lesson, you have to analyse any language that you may teach and
for each language item you need to consider:
 what it means (the concept )
 how to make it (the form )
 how to say it (the pronunciation )
 when to use it (the use or register )
You will need to do this for the assessed teaching practice during the CELTA course.

©http://portal.beet.co.uk/ITTC/CELTA/Interview/Interview Tasks/Celta-Interview-Task.doc