EFL teachers' perceptions regarding the contribution of CELTA to their professional development

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) on EFL teachers' professional development from the perspective of those who have this certificate. Within this framework, teachers' reasons to get this certificate, the impact of this training on their teaching and professional development, and finally their suggestions for the future implementation of CELTA training were investigated. For this qualitative study, the data was collected through an open-ended questionnaire and an interview. The open-ended questionnaire was administered to 16 EFL teachers who are experienced in teaching in Turkish context. Later, a semi-structured interview was conducted with four of these participants. The findings suggest that teachers find it beneficial to take this certificate due to some pedagogical, personal, and professional reasons including getting better job opportunities, utilizing diverse instructional methods, and getting constructive feedback. Regarding the impact of this training on their teaching, the findings suggest that this certificate program led to general, professional, and academic changes on their classroom management, lesson planning, and material development. These findings suggest that there can be more focus on practice and during their pre-service education to bridge the gap between theory and practice and the candidate teachers can be given more feedback as a result of their practices. In addition, pre-service education programs should be applied in a more reflective and collaborative manner. Furthermore, in-service teacher training programs should be more need-driven rather than to be approached in a top-down manner.