School Details - Buenos Aires Belgrano
About Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the cultural and commercial centre of Argentina, where South America and Europe meet to create a stylish and cosmopolitan city that takes the term 'fashionably late' to a whole new level. Don't be suprised if you find yourself eating dinner at midnight, or seated in a bar with other porteños (residents of Buenos Aires) at 4am.
Sometime referred to as the 'Paris of South America', Buenos Aires is the largest city in Argentina with around 13 million inhabitants. There is an efficient subte (metro) network and bus (colectivo) system which keeps this bustling city moving, as well as lots of bars, cafés, parks, museums and theatres in which to to seek refuge.
Despite the political and economic challenges that have faced Argentina's previous governments, it's a lively and fascinating country with vastly differing landscapes and climates - a great place to travel and teach and start or develop your career as an EFL teacher.
About the school
The school is a centre for high quality teacher training offering year-round intensive and part-time DELTA, CELTA and IHC Spanish courses. Their dedicated team of highly qualified staff who have many years of experience allows them more flexibility in the design and range of courses offered.
The school has been established in Argentina since the 1970s and has grown into one of the largest and most prestigious private language institutes in the city of Buenos Aires. The quality of their staff and their in-service teacher development programme is second to none and their reputation for high quality English language instruction is unrivalled.
One of the aims of their international network of schools has always been to promote the development of high-quality English language instruction throughout the world and Teacher Training Centre in Buenos Aires has been established specifically to meet this need in Argentina.
Course Description
What is the CELTA course?
The CELTA course is an initial certificate course for candidates who have little to no previous English language teaching experience; or for candidates with some experience but little previous training.
During the course, candidates develop familiarity with the principles of effective teaching and acquire a range of practical skills for teaching English to adult learners.
The course is designed around a preparation, teaching and feedback cycle, and includes daily teaching practice, observation of experienced teachers in the classroom and completion of a range of practically focused written assignments. There are also daily input sessions dealing with current methodology, language analysis and its application in the classroom.
Please note that the CELTA course is highly intensive. Cactus TEFL advises all applicants not to have any other work commitments outside of the course.
CELTA course aims
- To develop an awareness of language and knowledge of the description of English and apply these in their professional practice
- To develop an initial understanding of the contexts within which adults learn English, their motivations and the roles of the teacher and the learner
- To develop familiarity with the principles and practice of effective teaching to learners of English
- To develop basic skills for teaching students in the language classroom
- To develop familiarity with appropriate resources and materials for use with learners of English for teaching, testing and reference purposes
- To identify opportunities for their own future development as professionals in the field
CELTA course features
* Daily teaching practice and observation
* Practical experience teaching students at different language levels
* Detailed feedback and discussion sessions with a course tutor
* Observation of qualified teachers
* Guided observation of videoed lessons
* Seminars and demonstrations to improve language awareness
* Classroom management and lesson planning
Assessment and certification
The Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults is awarded to candidates who have completed the course and the assessment successfully.
There are no examinations at the end of the course the assessment is continuous. The pass grades A, B, and Pass are awarded as a result of continuous assessment by our tutors. Trainees are always kept informed of their progress during the course through individual tutorials and group feedback sessions.
Your course tutors
Your course tutors are highly-experienced teacher-trainers, usually from the school's international network of partner schools, and all are approved by the University of Cambridge ESOL. Each course is also inspected and approved with a visit by an external assessor from Cambridge ESOL.
Timetable
The part-time blended CELTA lasts 25 weeks. Candidates complete the methodological input online and the teaching practice and some input sessions face to face in the evenings.
Teaching practice Evenings 17:00 � 21:00
Input online (approximately 3 hours a week for 25 weeks)
Course entry requirements
It is generally recommended that candidates should be aged 20 or over. Any applicant under this age will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Applicants must have an awareness of language and a competence in English, both written and spoken, that enables them to undertake the course and prepare for teaching a range of levels.
Applicants must have the potential to develop the necessary skills to become effective teachers and to complete successfully the written assignments and the assessment of teaching practice.
Timetable
Teaching practice: 18:00 - 21:00
Customer Feedback
The course is very intense and I got much out of it. I found it to be a very well structured and the support we got throughout was excellent.
- Francesca Avanzini -
Excellent - good resources, supportive, friendly and experienced trainers.
- Jennie Rhodes -
The school is fine.The trainers were extremely good. I would strongly recommend this course to other potential CELTA students. The course is very intensive and very informative. Buenos Aires is a great city.
- Russell Ormes -
Help for Jobs
We give advice and information during the course about the local and international job market. For those wishing to remain in Buenos Aires, we provide a list of teaching agencies that have been used and recommended by ex-CELTA teachers. These agencies send teachers to companies to teach either general or business English and usually operate from small offices close to the business district. They recruit and operate all year round. This list has contact details and short comments from the people who have worked there.
We also provide the website address of an organisation called SEAWEB which hosts many schools and institutes in Buenos Aires. It has short details, addresses and contact names, as well as links to the individual websites. These are more traditional language schools, where group classes operate in the school and are given to kids, teenagers and adults. These types of institutes (like ourselves) tend to follow the Argentinian academic calendar where the school year starts in March and finishes in November and December. Many however, are increasingly operating all year round as well as offering in-company services, so there is a fair bit of crossover between the two. The summer months, December - February, are fairly quiet, with many people on holiday.
As regards to jobs elsewhere in the world and South America, as a CELTA graduate from this school, you will have immediate access to the school's Recruitment centre which advertises jobs with all their schools worldwide (about 150 in total), some of whom do take CELTA graduates with little experience and organise working visas for them. In the past three years, we have successfully helped some of our CELTA graduates obtain jobs with our schools in Bogota, Colombia and in Santiago de Chile and we provide references for all our CELTA candidates for as long as they need.
In addition to the above, the teacher development session gives advice on how to write your CV and questions to ask and those likely to be asked at interviews. We also receive regular job vacancies from institutes and agencies and these are forwarded to CELTA graduates for 3-6 months after the course has finished. Many ex-CELTA graduates pass on their jobs when they leave the country both private and professional.
How to Apply
1. Choose the start date which interests you. If you’re still unsure, please choose an approximate date for now - you will be able to specify later.
2. Register your details with Cactus TEFL (1 minute) to help us track your application.
3. Download the application form and save it on your computer.
4. Complete it offline in your own time
5. Go back to www.cactustefl.com, sign in and submit your completed form.
You can also submit an application by email. We will explain how to do this on the application form. Please contact us if you have any problems with the application procedure.
