Ten Top Tips for Online CELTA TP

How to Ace Online CELTA Teaching Practice: Ten Tips from 726 CELTA Tutors

If you’re preparing for CELTA and feeling nervous about delivering your teaching practice online, you’re not alone. For many trainees, the idea of managing a lesson via Zoom instead of a physical classroom feels overwhelming, especially when you're already juggling grammar terminology, lesson planning, and performance pressure. That’s why I asked 726 CELTA tutors for their best advice, and in this post, I’ve distilled their collective wisdom into a practical, reassuring guide.

1. Physical Environment

Let’s start with the basics: your physical environment. In a traditional classroom, the space is ready-made. Online, your background is your classroom and it makes a strong first impression. So it’s worth checking what’s behind you. Aim for professionalism, even if it’s just a blank wall. Good lighting matters, too. You need light from the front to ensure your face is clearly visible. Avoid being backlit by a window, which can leave you in shadow. And be sure to position your camera so your face is centred: no awkward angles, cut-off foreheads, or looming chins. One final point: look into the camera lens, not at yourself on screen. This helps you replicate eye contact, a small but powerful way to build connection online.

2. Less is More

One of the strongest messages from tutors was this: less is more. It’s tempting to pile on new digital tools, but the best strategy is to pick one or two and learn to use them well. This gives you fluency and confidence under pressure. Whether it’s Jamboard, Padlet or Wordwall, choose tools that serve your goals and invest the time to master them. As one tutor neatly put it, “Pick and stick.”

3. Know your platform

Closely related to this is the need to become thoroughly familiar with your teaching platform. Whether you’re using Zoom or Microsoft Teams, don’t wait until your first assessed lesson to figure it out. Learn the shortcuts, know how to share your screen, manage participants, and set up breakout rooms. Also, take time to train your learners: show them how to adjust their view, use icons, or share their own screens. These small steps can make a big difference to the smooth running of your lesson.

4. Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms, in particular, are central to online CELTA teaching practice. They’re the online equivalent of pair and group work, and they create crucial space for learners to practise. But they must be used strategically. They’re best suited to longer activities- five minutes or more-because moving learners in and out takes time. Avoid using breakout rooms for brief feedback tasks. Instead, plan ahead for how and when you’ll use them. Check your settings in advance and keep return timers short- ten seconds is usually plenty. You can also monitor breakout rooms effectively by dropping in briefly, listening in with microphones on, or using shared Google Docs where groups can collaborate and you can view their work in real time.

5. Using the ChatBox

Another essential tool is the chat box. Used well, it enables simultaneous participation from all learners, something not easily achieved in a face-to-face classroom. You can use it for warm-ups, concept-check questions, controlled practice tasks, or even simple check-ins during independent work. A particularly useful trick is to ask learners to type their answer into the chat but wait to press ‘send’ until you say so. This levels the playing field, giving everyone time to think before contributing.

6. Communicating with Learners

Drilling leads us naturally to the broader question of how we communicate with learners during an online lesson. In a face-to-face environment, communication often happens spontaneously: you can read the room, pick up on body language, and respond in real time. Online, those signals are harder to catch, so it pays to build clear, structured communication into your lesson.

One simple but effective technique is to ask learners to type “done” in the chat when they’ve completed a task. This gives you a visual cue that helps you manage pacing and move on when the group is ready. You can also use camera cues. For example, during a silent reading task, ask learners to turn their cameras off while reading and switch them back on when they’ve finished. It’s a quick way to check progress at a glance.

Encouraging learners to use platform tools- such as the “raise hand” icon or reaction emojis- can also streamline communication. Early in the course, take time to show your learners how these tools work. Once they’re confident using them, you’ll find it much easier to gauge engagement and respond to questions efficiently throughout your lessons.

7. Focus on Planning

It’s also worth saying that while a polished PowerPoint can enhance a lesson, it should never replace solid planning. Don’t fall into the trap of spending hours on visuals at the expense of your lesson design. The goal isn’t to create the Sistine Chapel. It’s to deliver a lesson that’s clear, engaging, and responsive. Great visuals can support your teaching, but they shouldn’t constrain it.

8. Drilling

Then there’s drilling. Many trainees feel that pronunciation work becomes awkward online but it’s still vital. Drilling helps learners produce and internalise language, and there are ways to do it well remotely. Mute drilling, where learners repeat a phrase silently but with movement, allows them to practise without the chaos of everyone speaking at once. You can also use chain drills, nominating learners one after another, or ask for written transformations in the chat box to practise grammatical changes.

9. Teaching Receptive Skills

When working with receptive skills like reading and listening, be mindful of how your learners access the text or audio. Make sure the font is large enough or consider sharing a Google Doc so they can read more comfortably. For listening tasks, sharing a link allows learners to control playback, useful if they want to listen again or pause and replay specific sections. PowerPoint’s bookmark function can also help you cue up exact sections of audio without fumbling during a live lesson.

10. Giving Feedback

Finally, feedback is just as important online as in person, perhaps more so, since monitoring can be trickier. Use the chat box to identify patterns in learner responses or collect errors during breakout room monitoring and turn them into quick correction activities. Shared writing tasks using Google Docs allow you to see all groups’ work at once and offer real-time feedback. You can even repurpose learner errors into delayed correction activities that benefit everyone.

Teaching online brings new challenges, but with the right strategies, it’s absolutely manageable and even enjoyable. The key is to be prepared, intentional, and adaptable. With these tutor-tested tips, you can approach your online CELTA teaching practice with confidence and clarity.

And remember, you don’t have to do it alone. For more help, check out my Complete CELTA Preparation Package or my free CELTA Toolkit. You’ve got this.