Recommended post-course reading

1.- 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy
Andrew Wright (Longman ELT)

Probably the best, most useful book I've come across in 25 years in English teaching. You can't draw? You don't need to be able to! All you've got to do is be able to copy – which is easy!

Definitely get yourself a copy if you are going to be teaching young learners (see below), and learn to draw (sorry, copy!) even if you are not: it will save you wasting hours on the Internet looking for pictures.

2.- How Languages Are Learned
Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (OUP)

The second book I'd buy – or at least ensure I read carefully – is How Languages Are Learned. It's a superbly readable account of what is obviously something you should know a lot about!

3.- Teaching Languages to Young Learners
Lynne Cameron (CUP)

Most people who take CELTA – which is designed to equip you to teach adults – in fact find themselves teaching at least some young learner classes. Lynne Cameron's excellent book provides you with a thorough understanding of the subject.

4.- Drama with Children
Sarah Phillips (OUP)

Among the excellent OUP teacher's resource books [ website ] are a number, packed with practical, re-usable teaching activities, for young learners. My favourite is probably Sarah Phillips' Drama with Children, partly because there is so much that you can do (and that is fun) with drama with kids, but her Young Learners is also excellent.

Either makes a great title to go with the Lynne Cameron book (3, above).

5.- Teaching Business English
Mark Ellis and Christine Johnson (OUP)

Apart from young learners, many CELTA course trainees also find themselves teaching Business English. This title gives you a basic overview of what it involves.

6.- One to One: A Teachers' Handbook
Peter Wilberg (LTP)

Apart from teaching groups in language schools, teaching 1-2-1, either as private classes or in-company is the other scenario CELTA course trainees frequently find themselves in. "What coursebooks should I buy for teaching 1-2-1?" is another of our support forum FAQs.

I would suggest that you don't buy coursebooks but buy this one instead – as it gives you both a thorough overview of what 1-2-1 involves plus lots of practical ideas for lessons.

7.- How to Teach Vocabulary
Scott Thornbury (Longman)

I'm a great fan of Scott Thornbury's books on ELT, partly again because they are designed for your average English teacher, not someone with a PhD in applied linguistics. He also has an excellent How to Teach Grammar, but my choice would be How to Teach Vocabulary, as I think that as teachers we perhaps tend to overstress the former, and see vocabulary as being somehow less important.

8.- The Internet
Scott Windeatt, David Hardisty, and David Eastment (OUP)

Another of the excellent OUP resource books with its own companion website (particularly important for the Web, when links and so on have an annoying habit of getting broken). How are you going to use the Internet, to do what, is something I think teachers should know about, and not just use it anyhow, just because it's there.

For teaching young learners, there is also Gordon Lewis' The Internet and Young Learners in the same OUP series.

9.- Process Writing
Ron White and Valerie Arndt (Longman)

A personal favourite. Process Writing is an approach to writing that says that the actual process of writing is as important as the finished product. As a language teacher there's a lot of teaching you can do – and collaborative classroom activities you can create - during that process.

Writing isn't (or at least shouldn't be) just a question of writing it, handing it in, and getting it back, "marked".

10.- About Language: Tasks for Teachers of English
Scott Thornbury (Cambridge)

About Language isn't my favourite Scott Thornbury title. It's much harder to work your way through, for one thing, basically setting you a series of tasks to discover what you know (and don't!) about the English language.