CELTA, Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, is an internationally recognised initial qualification for English Language teaching to adults. It used to be called the Cert.TEFL.

What kind of course is it?

It is a pre-service course for those with little or no previous teaching 
experience. The course programme, staffing and facilities are approved and recognised by Cambridge ESOL Teaching Awards. The course programme focuses on: language awareness, the teaching/learning context, lesson planning, resources and materials; classroom management and professional development. We recommend that you go to the Cambridge ESOL site for information about CELTA courses in general.

Certificate award

The Certificate is awarded to candidates who attend the whole course, and whose performance meets a clear set of criteria on all three
assessment components; the three components are teaching practice, written assignments and professional development. It will thus be clear that it is not possible to achieve a CELTA without taking part in a course, and also that taking part in a course does not in itself guarantee the award of a CELTA. However, the process of selection that all CELTA centres are required to operate aims to ensure that those accepted for the course are suited to it.

The Münchner VHS CELTA course

Type 1

This is a semi-intensive course, running for four days a week over five weeks once every June/July.

Type 2

This is an intensive course run for five days a week over four weeks in February every year.

Type 3

This is a part-time course run from the autumn until early the following summer. It is held once a week, on Fridays.

Lesson observation and teaching practice

Important and compulsory elements of the course are teaching practice and the observation of experienced teachers. We arrange your teaching practice. You will work in a group of six trainees and will teach beginner and intermediate level students. A course tutor helps you plan your teaching, observes the lessons and gives you feedback afterwards. You give feedback to your fellow trainees and receive feedback from them. We also arrange for you to observe experienced teachers.

Why take your CELTA at the Münchner Volkshochschule in Munich?

We have ten years' successful experience of running CELTA courses and a highly skilled, well-qualified and capable tutor team (see the page About our tutors). We are proud of the fact that our previous trainees have written to us about their satisfaction with our courses (see the page Testimonials) and that many of them come back and see us (that is the ones who are not teaching in exotic locations overseas which includes many former trainees!). Trainees on our CELTA courses have come from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, UK, USA, The West Indies and Zambia so you can expect to benefit from working in an international group. 

We only take twelve trainees per course, giving you the opportunity to receive individualised help. Good face-to-face support is backed up by access to our Virtual Learning Environment (a Moodle), where you can download useful documents and take part in online discussions with tutors and fellow trainees. session on how to use the Munich CELTA Moodle, a skill that is transferable to other areas as well as helping you on your CELTA course. 

Munich is a delightful city, large enough to have a full range of cultural, sporting and shopping facilities but small enough not to be overwhelming. Fantastic countryside with lakes and mountains is within easy reach. The course is held in the Gasteig, a modern, pleasant building in the centre of Munich. The Gasteig is a cultural centre as well as being home to the Münchner Volkshochschule (adult education institute), the host institution for CELTA courses in Munich. The Münchner Volkshochschule is a well-known centre for language teaching, with over four hundred general and business English courses per semester as well as many other language courses. Classrooms are modern and well-equipped. The Gasteig building houses the city library, two small theatres and a large concert hall, home of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. There is a pleasant cafeteria in the building as well as other cafes and restaurants just a few steps away. 

Accommodation 

If you are from out of town we will help you find reasonably priced accommodation for the duration of your course.

Courses and dates 

The next Munich CELTA course (full-time) runs from February 2nd 2009 to February 27th 2009. Applications can be made between Sat. Nov. 1st 2008 and Mon. Jan 5th 2009. All fees must be paid on registration in December/January 08/09. The next course but one (full-time) will be held from June 8th 2009 to July 10th 2009. Details on this website from early January 2009.