CELTA refusal

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JuSoBe

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Hello everybody! :)

Nice to meet you, as I'm a newcomer here! :-D

A very important question for me is: am I really suitable for CELTA or not, if I got the following reply :-(

In fact your application, Language Task and overall command of the English language were all comfortably
above the standard required to attend the course but because we received an unprecedented number of applications and because CELTA is a basic teaching qualification and we were keen to form a group of 'teacher trainees' with more or less the same level of expertise and previous practical classroom experience, on this occasion you have been unsuccessful. However, it is very possible that a second CELTA course will be held at a regional venue next year and, if this is the case, as part of our equal opportunities policy, we will seek to select teachers with a similar profile to yourself.


I understand the text, but I have some doubts -- I have never heard of any people, who were not selected. So, may it be my fault and the letter was written in order not to hurt me? Do I still have a chance? Or should I do something to get one? :cry:

I will really appreciate your opinions and do my best to participate in other discussions if I can help!

Thanx for your attention!

Good luck! ;-)
 

Tdol

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What level of experience do you have?

To be honest, I think they'd be mad to lie when they say that you were comfortably above standard. If you had failed, it would be a whole lot cleaner and neater to tell you that, espeically as they raise the possibility of re-applying, which would mean another messy rejection if they were not telling the truth about your application.

In your profile, it says you're a teacher, and they do talk about it being a basic qualification, which makes me wonder whether you have a lot of experience and they felt that might affect the group dynamics.
 

petershell

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Nov 13, 2009
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The reply sounds legitimate to me.

Why don't you contact the people running the course and make further enquiries. You have nothing to lose by asking relevant questions. The rest of us would just be guessing.

Ease your mind and contact them with your queries.
 

JuSoBe

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Thank you all for your opinions! :-D
I've been teaching English for more than 10 years, though I don't have special pedagogical education. I have learnt a lot of necessary and useful information myself - with the help of books and colleagues. But I still need perfection, as I feel.
And I prefer your opinions more, because English people are sometimes too much polite to tell the truth, if I am not mistaken (am I?);-)
Thanks again and good luck!
 

david151

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Don’t worry about it. I applied to one institute and received the following reply:
Thank you for your application. I'm afraid that I can't offer you an
interview based on your home based task. The celta course assumes a really
solid grounding in the knowledge of grammar before the course starts and
your task was too weak.

I realise that this must be disappointing, and I am sorry for that. You
could try applying at other centres, or again at this one after some home
study.”

I then applied to another centre and was accepted. I think there are huge variations between the different centres on entry criteria. Why don't you apply somewhere else?
 

Tdol

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David, did you reapply and give the same answers? This is interesting and shouldn't be taking place IMO.
 

david151

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The tests at the 2 centres were rather different. At the place where I was rejected they seemed to expect me to know all the advanced grammar rules of English before the start of the course. The place where I was accepted just tested me on general areas such as distinguishing past / present tense etc. I also had to choose correct words to form sentences and write a 500 word piece on why I want to take CELTA. They told me not to worry if I don’t know the exact technical grammar terms as these are things that would become clear as the course progressed.
So there you go, two different centres with two totally different admissions policies. Which one is correct? I have to say I was a little angry at being rejected from the first place, as I am a native speaker with a 1st class honours degree and masters (in Law). I don’t class myself to be unintelligent and believe with a reasonable amount of study I can learn almost anything. In my opinion it seems bizarre to expect a student to know all the technical aspects of grammar before the course starts. If the student already knew everything there would be no point in doing the course! What do people think?
 

konungursvia

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It sounds like they have too many qualified applicants for now.
 

Tdol

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True, but the inconsistency shouldn't really be there.
 

konungursvia

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Yes it was a strange letter.
 

I'm With Stupid

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Oct 21, 2007
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Hmm, from my experience, they expected you to identify the correct grammar terms, but told you to use a book to help you. You certainly weren't expected to know it all off the top of your head even throughout the course. As long as you revised any grammar points you were actually teaching, of course.
 
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