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Teaching practice or no teaching practice?

People talking about the benefits of teaching practice
4.1
We learn a lot of things, like I said before, stepping back, letting the students take control, not interfering too much. We do a lot of, like - it has taught me a lot in the sense of how to manage students effectively. Because I’ve done this before where I’ve taught adults and now looking back on the adults that I’ve taught before, I now see what a mess that was in comparison to what it’s supposed to be now. A lot of little things that you don’t really ever think about and you wouldn’t really think about it unless you kind of analyse and re-evaluate your own teaching styles and practise in classroom management.
48.2
So a lot of it I would say stepping back and seeing how it’s supposed to be done. The most valuable part of the course I feel is the tutor support. It really makes the class that much more effective and it really gives me confidence in what I’m doing with my lessons, when I’m planning and actually executing my lessons, and thinking about the planning sessions and the feedback that I’ve been given. So it really makes me more confident when I’m teaching. It’s really just brushing up everything, so I really, really love it. And my tutors are extremely helpful. And if I need to just pick something, I would say the concept checking questions.
90.2
I love them really much, how to elicit things from the students then check whether they understood. And afterwards how to reduce my teach talking time. It’s really a great piece of mind. So I talk a lot and I love talking, and let them talk and just wait. OK, wait just one more and one more second because they need time to talk. We learn just to make the class more dynamic so students are always interested so they never have a wandering eye. Their focus is on you but it’s also on each other at the same time. So it’s important to kind of remember to switch things up.
133.9
Just keep it dynamic, keep it interesting, keep a good flow in the class so they’re not just slumped over and bored.

In Step 6.2 Monica talked about the CELTA course she took before she started teaching and about the benefits of doing a course which had assessed teaching practice with real learners. Here are some of our CELTA teacher trainees talking about the benefits of teaching practice.

Watch the video and look at this list of the benefits of teaching practice. Which do the CELTA teacher trainees mention?

Benefit of teaching practice
Learn how to step back and let students take control  
Learn how to manage students  
Learn how to teach grammar  
Helps you to step back, analyse and evaluate your teaching  
Learn how to evaluate learners  
Tutor support and feedback helps to develop confidence  
Provides an opportunity to practise using different types of questions  
Learn to reduce teacher talking time and provide wait time so learners can talk  
Learn how to monitor learners when they are working in pairs or groups  
Learn how to listen to learners and check that they understand  
Learn how to make classes dynamic  
Learn how to write on the board  

Check your answers here or in the pdf below.

Task

Look again at the list of benefits the CELTA teacher trainees mention. Which are important for you? Choose two and share them in the comments. Tell us also on why they are important for you.

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Exploring the World of English Language Teaching

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