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Hey, don't let shyness stop you! I told people for years that I would NEVER be a teacher, that I was terrified of having to talk to and manage other people, but it turns out I'm pretty good at it! It's all an act...you are an actor up there! Just channel your old teachers, that's what I do ;)

As for the lack of grammar knowledge...you could always study on your own.

These are some of the books we're using on the course:

https://www.amazon.com/Grammar-English-Language-Teachers-Parrott/dp/0521712041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481038149&sr=8-1&keywords=parrot+english+grammar

https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Tenses-Presenting-Practising-English/dp/0175559201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481038180&sr=8-1&keywords=teaching+tenses+by+rosemary+aitken

You'll learn the rules and how to teach them too. But keep in mind that a lot of people who enter the course don't really know everything.

I'm taking the course now, but I fell into teaching two years ago. I studied languages, but I never really had proper English classes here in the US. Now I'm pretty good at teaching, you can learn on the job!

So, it's not impossible. It's up to you if you want to give it a try.

If you do, I hope you come to love teaching like I do!

I think what you're looking to teach is phonemics. Phonemics--as I was taught-- means being able to hear the individual sounds in a word. For example, when you asked if they can think of a word starting with /d/ (a letter between slashes, like /d/, means the sound that letter makes, rather than the letter itself).

The first step of this is being able to isolate a specific sound when hearing it, eg, "What's the first sound in 'cat'?" You'll be surprised how difficult this is. Younger or less literate students hear all words as a big, single sound, and it's very hard for them to isolate one sound. Initial sounds are easiest, ending sounds are second easiest, and middle sounds are most challenging.

After being able to hear and isolate the individual sounds in a word, the next step is blending. This means that you can say three sounds, for example, "/c/ /a/ /t/," and the student is able to blend those sounds together to make a word: "cat." Again, do not underestimate how challenging this can be. Keep it to very simple words with three phonemes (a phoneme is a unit of sound, so words like dog, mat, can, tin, leaf, tree, bit, etc).

Last step is segmenting, which means you say the word, "cat," and the student can break it into individual sounds: "/c/ /a/ /t/." This is very hard.

These skills, plus letter-sound correspondence (knowing that D says /d/) are the fundamentals of literacy. Since your students already know the alphabet and the sounds the letters make, they have an advantage. Teach them phonemics as I described above, and they'll be able to sound out simple words.

I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Phonemic-Awareness-Playing-Strengthen-Beginning/dp/1574712314. It's got some very useful, concise information, and a lot of suggestions for games and activities. This http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Reading-Activities-Struggling-Students/dp/1607020548/ref=pd_sim_b_12?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GKX3H47ABESYV4F68TS is another book I've used, although I didn't like it quite as much as the first one. This http://more.starfall.com/info/downloads.php is another awesome resource. Scroll down to "Level I: Cut-Up/Take-Home Books" for really simple short readers focusing on specific sounds. I had the published versions of these readers, and my kids loved them. You can download them for free here-- and let the kids color them themselves!

Good luck! I did this kind of teaching for two years in the Peace Corps, and you'll be surprised how these very basic skills can develop literacy really quickly.

Personally, I've never had the chance to take a CELTA course, but I have heard many good things about it. I haven't heard of the other programs you mentioned.

BTW, If you would like to pick up some general TEFL tips in advance of taking a course, I'd recommend investing in a comprehensive text like Learning Teaching.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0230729843/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1393974279&sr=8-1

There's a fair amount of information in the text on lesson planning as well as teaching listening, reading, writing and speaking.

Cheers.

1. Make sure you brush up on the language point you're teaching. Have examples prepared beforehand that you can present to your students, and a way of explaining it that is concise and easy to understand. Practical English Usage by Michael Swan is quite a useful resource.
   
   
2. Have a good lesson plan prepared, but don't be a slave to it. Parts of the lesson may take more or less time than anticipated, depending on student interest, how long it takes to grasp something, etc. As you gain more experience you'll get better at estimating how long particular stages of a lesson should last.
   
   
3. Don't be too hard on yourself if you have a bad class. It happens. Reflect on it to see if there was anything you could have done differently, but don't dwell on it too much. Move on.
   
   Bonus tip - trying to get the students to speak English can be a struggle, but there are ways to motivate them. One method I use is to have a yellow and red card to hand, like a football referee. If a student uses their first language too much, they get the yellow card. If they do it again, they get the red card and have to do a forfeit - something like singing a stupid song or press-ups. Perhaps let the class take a vote on what the forfeit should be - that way no-one can really complain if they have to do it.

To be honest, instructor's guides for TEFL books aren't generally that useful (aside from a few gems like Cutting Edge). They usually just lay out which exercises to do in what order and toss in a few boring teacher-centered activities in the middle. Just looked at some of the reviews on Amazon and it looks like this was written for university-level native speakers. If the school isn't going to spring for the teacher's guide, it's not unreasonable for you to pick and choose what materials you use and design the course yourself.

Have you gotten a copy of the book yet, and is there something specific you're struggling with on how to adapt? I doubt that anyone has an entire course planned (materials included) for this book, and even if they did there's a good chance they taught it in a different context than what you're in. You might spend as much time adapting the materials to fit your needs as you would have making them yourself.

If you haven't taught writing before, it's a pretty straightforward process. Start with a model text for the genre you'd like the students to produce. Next pick out key discourse features, grammar points and vocabulary sets, and get them to notice how each is used in the model text. Next, start scaffolding the pre-writing process and get them started on their assignments. Follow that up with feedback, and use their strengths and weaknesses to plan your next cycle of lessons.

I've used the Longman Academic Writing Series before (Upper intermediate book in link) and it follows the outline above pretty well. Beginner/elementary students start with short paragraphs and it gradually builds to full essays in the last book.

Beyond the Sentence by Scott Thornbury is a great book for getting your head around discourse analysis, which is a key concept for teaching writing effectively. It's also one of the more readable TEFL theory & methodology books.

Sorry, that was all a bit off from your initial question, but I hope it was somewhat helpful.

If you're applying to a CELTA course, I'm sure that there's more to your reasons than "I like to teach." For example, think about these:

Why did you decide on CELTA instead of Trinity, SIT, or a no-name course?
Why have you chosen the field of ESL/EFL instruction? What makes you think you can succeed at it?
Why have you decided to start your career with CELTA (or, if you're already teaching, why have you decided to take it now)?
Are you taking the CELTA because you want to be employed in a particular market that requires it (e.g. Europe)?

As far as English grammar goes, I didn't have much knowledge of pedagogical grammar when I did the CELTA and it wasn't a problem. You'll be able to brush up on individual grammar points as you teach them. I highly recommend Michael Swan's Practical English Usage. It has about everything you'll ever need to know presented in a fashion which will help you explain it clearly to language learners.

Grammar for English Language Teachers by Martin Parrott, it's a super accessible book with great explanations and examples of confusing grammar points. I've heard from more advanced ESL teachers that it isn't as hyper-detailed as some of the other grammar books out there, but I think it's a good place for you to start, I know it helped me a ton when I was going through CELTA and my first teaching position. Once you've got the basics down, you can always invest in a more dense grammar book (like the other ones mentioned ITT) and use the two in conjunction with each other. Chin up OP! It's only a bump in the road, you'll find a course that suits you if ESL is what you're really passionate about and you stick with it.

Azar's Understanding and Using English Grammar

I've used it with many intermediate and advanced learners from many language backgrounds. It gives very good examples, has great exercises, and explains the usage of the tricky grammar well, but it doesn't always supply the rules behind the usage, so the teacher needs to figure out how to best do that.

Not meaning to berate you. It's very hard to tell which courses are worth anything before you start out in the business. There are a lot of con artists around and they all claim to be offering 'internationally recognised certificates'. Before I started out I almost did something similar until someone already in the business warned me off them.

The truth is though, only accredited courses with face-to-face teaching experience with genuine learners are of any real use (It doesn't have to be CELTA or Trinity although these are the most well known). Even these are really only a very basic introduction. If you're wanting to volunteer then any decent organisation would provide you with better training than you get from these online courses for free.

Instead of giving 49 quid to these de facto scam artists you'd be better off buying this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practice-Language-Teaching-Handbooks-Teachers/dp/1405853115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333046577&sr=8-1 If you want you can even send me the difference and I'll send you an 'internationally recognised' certificate'.

Most hagwons won't expect you to know anything about lesson planning. Nonetheless, I always recommend Jeremy Harmer's How to Teach English as a primer for new teachers. It covers the basics of everything you'll need to know to get started. I use his Engage - Study - Activate (ESA) model for lesson planning in a teacher training course that I teach. It's simple yet useful for people new to lesson planning.

honestly it is not as hard as some people make it out to be. I passed with a B last year. I had no teaching experience and a C at GCSE english. I read the Parrott grammar book and looked on the British council site.

It is very time consuming (I often ended up doing 12 - 16 hour days) Don't make any plans for the 4 weeks is best bet. Also always make sure you get as far ahead in assignments to keep the stress down.

Overall though, don't stress it, you are there to learn to teach, not to be assessed as a teacher.

This book is very dense but an excellent resource. I've used it as a daily reference for about 4 years now.

Personally, I would also recommend Teaching English Grammar by Scrivener - it's the reference book I used in my CELTA course. I've also been recommended How to Teach Grammar by Scott Thornbury as a comprehensive work on the topic.

[This](http://Grammar for English Language Teachers https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521712041/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ABpXzbWA9BY6S) book was my go to for improving my grammar teaching ability

I'd go with this http://www.amazon.com/The-Teachers-Grammar-English-Answers/dp/0521007550

It'll be helpful throughout the class as well as in your career.

Every EFL/ESL teacher should have a copy of Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. It is the ultimate language analysis of English.

Here's an abbreviated excerpt of a section from that book that addresses the issues in that above example sentence you gave:

>281 infinitives (3): without to
section 2: after let, make, hear, etc

>Certain verbs are followed by object + infinitive without to

>They include let, make, see, hear, feel, watch, and notice.

>ex: She lets her children stay up very late. NOT She lets her children to stay up very late.
ex: I made them give me the money back. NOT I made them to give me the money back.

>...

>For more information about structures with make, see 335.

If you can't get the book, you're looking for when to use to or not with infinitive verbs, which should be very easy to find online material for.

I also flipped through The Practice of English Language Teaching but I didn't read it in depth so I can't quite say. Amazon apparently has a table of contents in the preview section for How to Teach English so you could take a look at that to see if it's a retread or not.

Oxford Picture Dictionary. I can work from this book forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-English-Foreign-Language-Dummies/dp/0470745762/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1425626048&sr=8-2&keywords=tefl+for+dummies

Here is the mobile version of your link

http://www.amazon.com/English-Composition-Grammar-Complete-Course/dp/0153117362

The one I use is out of print.

The Practice of English Language Teaching by Jeremy Harmer. Read it. Then go in for your interview. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Language-Teaching-Handbooks-Teachers/dp/1405853115

How to Teach Grammar

Teaching English Grammar: What to Teach and How to Teach it

Explaining English Grammar: A guide to explaining grammar for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers)

Teaching Tenses: Ideas for Presenting and Practising Tenses in English

Grammar for English Language Teachers

Concept Questions and Time Lines

Grammar Practice Activities Paperback with CD-ROM: A Practical Guide for Teachers (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)

Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective And Drama Activities For Efl Students

Teaching and Learning Grammar

Oxford Basics: Teaching Grammar

Oxford Practice Grammar

Oxford Learner's Grammar:: Grammar Builder

Natural Grammar

Just Grammar (2 levels)

Grammar and Vocabulary for Advanced Book with Answers and Audio: Self-Study Grammar Reference and Practice

Grammar and Vocabulary for First and First for Schools Book with Answers and Audio

Cambridge Grammar for IELTS

Cambridge Grammar for PET

Longman English Grammar Practice

Collins COBUILD English Grammar

A Practical English Grammar

Practical English Usage

Grammar Practice for Elementary/Pre-intermediate/Intermediate Students

I can almost guarantee that it's a pretty shitty course made up of copy and pasted bits from Jeremy Harmer. You may learn something, but why not just buy his book for £30

If you do this course it's kind of like telling your future students to go fuck themselves, you're only in it for the money.

It's fairly insulting to anyone who's studied a masters to call it a masters course. I will say at least they were honest in this part:

>For some employers, this course is more than sufficient, combined with being a fluent English speaker to get paid teaching work.

Some employers in Asia will accept this as reason to give you a job. Although I think even in South Korea they are becoming more aware of how dodgy these online courses are and are asking for more of a face to face component.

Expressways. Unfortunately, it's quite outdated. For example, there's one lesson on how to leave a voice message and what to say if you phone the wrong number. However, it introduces grammar in a functional way, if not a modern one.