CELTA coursebooks

[justgiveemwhiskey]

Can anyone tell me if I would be prepared for the CELTA course with just the following books.

Cambridge Grammar of English by Carter R. & McCarthy M.
Learning teaching by Scrivner J.

Any other recommendations would be gratefully received

[Jaguar]

I also read 'The Practise of English Teaching' by 'Jeremy Harmer', which is basically the same thing. Don't bother reading anything else.

Anyway, the Cambridge book is good for reference, but when you have to prepare a 60 mins class for the following day, you really want something that is going to be a bit more to the point. I used 'usingenglish' for grammar reference, and all CELTA centres have a library. I also used 'Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation' by 'John Seely'. Very to the point.
Take into account that when you give a class you will only be expected to get one point across to the students. Present perfect, for example. This is where you'll have to be creative. Do you like cutting things out and sticking them together?

AND, brush up on your tenses. Active and passive.

You'll feel great at the end of your last class

Where are you going to do CELTA?

Jag

[justgiveemwhiskey]

Thanks for the advice, I will check it out. I will be doing the course here in sunny Lisbon. If the weather is good, I feel good!!

[DaveMidgley]

It's probably a bit late, but I have a complete set of the "required" CELTA course books that I would sell secondhand. They are:
Practical English Usage (3rd Edition) by Michael Swan
English Grammar In Use by Raymond Murphy
Teaching Tenses by Rosemary Aitken
A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers by Tony Penston
How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer
Concept Questions and Time Lines by Graham Workman
(The last one wasn't on the list when I did the course, but believe me it's really necessary).
They are all in good condition. I am going to teach in Africa so I don't have room for a lot of books.
If you or anyone reading this message is interested in the books, or any other aspect of the course, get in touch.
Dave

[Kyler]

Hiya,

I have not yet had an interview for my Celta course, so this may be slightly premature, but nevertheless, how much are you looking to sell your books for please? If required, would you be willing to sell them separately, or is it just the full set?

Thanks in advance

[DaveMidgley]

The total for the books new is around £120. I would sell them for £70, which is more or less half price plus postage costs.
I would rather sell them as a set if possible. Assuming every course has the same book list you will find that these are the five marked as being essential, except for the "Concept Questions and Time Lines" by Workman, which wasn't on the list at all. This was odd, because the use of concept check questions is particularly stressed during the course, for all aspects of language comprehension. However it becomes clear that for the use of tenses the CCQs are pretty much standard, and quite near the end of the course I said to the teacher that there really ought to be a book with them in, and she said there was, to which we all replied "Now you tell us!!" Anyway, this is the book.
Let me know what you decided to do. If you really only want some of them I'll see what I can do but obviously I will give priority to someone wanting the set.

[Kyler]

Thanks for your quick reply and thats understandable that you would give preference to someone interested in the set of books.

At the moment it is probably too early to buy all the books, as my interview is not until the end of this month.
When do you hope, or need to sell them by?

Thanks

[DaveMidgley]

I'm not in any particular hurry. I would like to sell them before I go to Africa, but I've not even decided when that will be yet. The absolute earliest would be the end of August.
This thread is the only place I've advertised them so far. I'll probably put them on a couple of other forums (fora?) over the next week or so.
Where are you doing your course? I was rather under the impression that all the schools had closed for the summer now.

[BobK]

Could you take this negotiation into the realm of PMs? Thanks

b

PS I'm not saying that we don't discuss suitable books in the forum - simply that the forum is not a marketplace.

[DaveMidgley]

For the benefit of anyone reading this thread, Kyler didn't buy the books in the end, so they are still for sale if anyone is interested.