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Monday, July 23, 2012

Teaching House Boston: A better class of illiterate CELTA trainers

Here is the photo of Boston that Teaching House Boston shows on its web page. I come from Boston. Boston is not a beautiful city, but it is not ugly. I am somewhat awed by how ugly this school managed to make Boston look. I am not completely sure that this is Boston.



(The quoted text from Teaching House Boston is in red. Here is the original source.)

“Offered in Boston (in the heart of the historic district,) Teaching House's CELTA training course is hosted at Faneuil Hall…”

The comma should not be placed inside the parentheses.
There is this remarkable invention that tells people where to put things like commas. It’s called a style guide. Teaching House Boston might want to consider buying one.

They all hold a CELTA and either the DELTA (Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults) and/or a Master’s degree in Education.”

They all hold certificates or degrees that one is supposed to be impressed by, but can they all use conjunctions? The above sentence uses a either…and/or correlative conjunction. Maybe this type of conjunction exists on planets in the far reaches of the galaxy, where the members of the staff of Teaching House Boston probably come from, but on earth, English does not have such a conjunction.

“The combination of our rigorous course standards and the accreditation provided by the University of Cambridge ensures that our teachers go on to obtain desirable teaching jobs whether they choose to teach English in the United States or teach English abroad.”

The authors do not understand what the word “ensure” means. There is absolutely no guarantee that course graduates will obtain “desirable teaching jobs.” The only thing that Teaching House Boston can ensure about its CELTA course is that students will be $2,500 poorer after they pay for the course.

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