CELTA Certification: Enhance Your Teaching Skills | The Magic Crayons

Recommended Reading for the Cambridge English Language Assessment (CELTA) program for English language teaching. Tips and resources for prospective CELTA trainees to help them prepare for the course and succeed in their teaching careers. 

These are the books I found useful prior and during the course. And the small number that I continue to use - Mr. Tim.

  • As a CELTA and CELTYL qualified teacher working in Japan I often get asked to recommend books that will help students pass that course.

    As much as you'd possibly like an answer key, I instead recommend the following to assist you with your pre course CELTA Task and the assignments Focus On The Learner, Language Related Task, Lesson From The Classroom and Skills Assignment.

  • In terms of improving your teaching in general all these books will help you to varying degrees. The ratings refer to how much they can specifically help you with your course assignments and classes whilst on a CELTA course. In other words, do I read this book before hand and take it with me.

  • The college you are studying at should have copies of all, if not most of these books. However, everyone else on the course will want to use them at the same time as you.

    If you are doing a one month course you will be teaching or in lectures until 6pm and almost certainly the college library will close at 6:30.The most useful item I can recommend taking with you is in fact a printer.

  • It will relieve you of all the stress of having to print your lesson plans, worksheets and handouts along with everyone else ten minutes before classes start.

    *Article written a few years ago. Your college may require all work to be submitted digitally, although that may revert back thanks to ChatGPT.

  • Pronunciation Games - Mark Hancock

    Publisher:Cambridge University Press
    Review: Does exactly what it says on the cover. Made a nice change to flip through this book rather than endless Google searches.

    Usefulness 3/5

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  • Ship or Sheep? Student's Book - Ann Baker

    Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product, collection, or blog post. Add details on availability, style, or even provide a review.

    Usefulness 4/5

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  • Learning Teaching - Jim Scrivener

    Publisher:Cambridge University Press
    Review: Great for pronunciation activities.
    Usefulness 3/5

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  • Learner English - Michael Swan

    Publisher:Cambridge University Press
    Review: A fascinating read. I used specific units during the course, and have referred to it many times since. It lists by country all the issues that students from that country have with pronunciation. Using this book to help identify the learners problems then allows you to create materials to help them.
    Usefulness 5/5

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  • Practical English Usage - Michael Swan

    Publisher:Oxford University PressReview: I didn’t use 95% of it, but that 5% will help no end with your grammar based tasks.

    Usefulness 5/5

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