TEFL - [TOP SECRET]

You've completed your application and secured an interview, and you're close to starting your TEFL course. These example questions will ensure you are fully prepared for the final stage of your application. Good luck!

TEFL Course Interview Questions - Examples

1. What do you know about the CELTA/TESOL & why do you want to do it?
   • Do your research: a good start is TEFL Explained
   • Show that you understand how intense the course is: it is very demanding and will require your full attention
   • It's a good idea to know the number of hours of class time, teaching practice and homework
   • Have your own personalised reasons ready for wanting to do the course
2. What are your plans after the CELTA / where do you intend to teach?
   • Show that you've thought about what you want to do with your qualification and where you want it to take you
3. Do you have any language learning experiences, positive or negative?
   • Be honest: think about the way in which you learnt language at school, the teaching methodology, the context and whether you felt comfortable or not
   • Show understanding of how English language teaching will be different to more traditional or conservative ways of teaching language
4. Think back to the best teacher you ever had - what made them a good teacher?
   • Think about your own personal experiences
5. In a group situation, how would you get students to communicate with each other?
   • Think about: pair work and small group work; activities that encourage information exchange; giving students a reason to speak to each other; making it personalised and meaningful; getting them out of their seats, to the board and around the room
6. In the classroom, is it more important that the teacher or the students speak?
   • The only answer here is: the students
   • Think about why
7. Say you have a group of pre-intermediate students, how would you teach the word 'umbrella'?
   • Use the actual item
   • Is it tangible / can you draw it / can you use visuals?
8. With the same group of students, how would you teach the word 'generous'?
   • Can you use visuals or something physical? If not, what else could you use? Give an example or a concept or the context.
9. I'm going to give you a set of instructions. Please tell me if you think these are good or bad instructions and why:

   "Find someone to work with, have a look at the activity on page 23, match up the letters in column A with the numbers in column B...ok everyone, do you understand?"

   • Think about the staging and the order of the instructions
   • What information do the students need in order to understand the instructions?
   • Is asking "Do you understand?" a useful question?
10. Explain the difference in meaning between these 2 sentences:

    i) When John arrived at the party Sarah went home
    ii) When John arrived at the party Sarah had already gone home

    • The first sentence shows that the two actions happened at the same time. The second sentence shows that the two actions happened at different times. Sarah left the party before John arrived.

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