- What is the difference between TESOL and TEFL?
- There are so many teacher-training courses advertised (particularly in the "Dave's ESL Cafe"). How do I know which to apply for?
- I've heard that these courses are really tough. Can I really make it through?
- What is the difference between the TEFL International TESOL Certificate, the Trinity TESOL certificate and the Cambridge/RSA Certificate (CELTA)?
- Why should I take a TEFL International course?
- What are the requirements for getting on to the Certificate course? How do I know if I am suitable? What kind of people will be on the course besides myself? Am I too old? What is the success rate and how many people fail?
- Do I need knowledge of other languages?
- Is there an age limit?
- When is the best time to do a course?
- What are the chances of finding a job after the course? Does TEFL International help with this?
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For all intents and purposes the terms mean the
same with TESOL being more common in America and with
large state sector colleges in Britain (e.g. the
Institute of Education in London) while TEFL is more
common in U.K. Language Schools and in the
U.K. press. There is a slight technical difference
since TESOL refers to all learners whose first
language is not English, including ethnic minorities
living in this country whereas TEFL refers only to
"foreign" students. Potentially, therefore,
a TESOL course encompasses more than a more narrowly
defined TEFL course.
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There are many good schools out there. Many are
professionally managed and have qualified, competent
teachers. Unfortunately, there is no law to prevent
anyone from setting up as a teacher-training centre
and there is nothing to prevent you from being
"ripped off" by a company offering so-called
recognised certificates or diplomas. You should be
aware that any training course taken purely through
correspondence and with no system of teaching
observation and observed teaching practice is highly
suspect: it is like learning to swim without ever
having to go into the water.
Moreover, there are many organisations offering one
or two week introductory courses perhaps with the
offer of job placements afterwards. These certainly
give you a "taster" of TESOL/TEFL and some
of these are very professionally conducted courses but
what have you got at the end? If you seriously want to
become an ESOL/EFL teacher and look for different job
opportunities, you are going to need a recognised
Certificate qualification validated by an external
examination board.
Please refer to External Moderation and
Affiliations for full details of the Moderation
status of our school.
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There is no way around it. These courses all
contain a great deal of content in only four
weeks. Yet the educational philosophy of those
providing the course can make a huge difference. We
believe in a mentoring, nurturing environment. We do
everything within our power to ensure that everyone
passes our course, otherwise why accept them onto the
course in the first place?
Similarly, TEFL International courses encourage all
native English speakers (or those with near-native
abilities) to attend. Our trainers would never
discriminate against North Americans, Australians, or
British because of different pronunciations or
slightly different grammar. All are equally
welcome.
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TEFL International began as a Trinity course, and
was one of the largest and most popular Trinity
courses until December of 1999. As a result, the
course content of the Trinity and TEFL International
courses are quite similar.
Most importantly, all are monitored by external
examiners that visit each course at least twice a
year. These external moderators set these certificate
courses apart from all others.
However, there are a few areas in which we feel the
TEFL International certificate holds an advantage. The
UCLES/RSA Certificate is specifically designed for
teaching groups of adults (hence the "A" at
the end of "CELTA"). On the other hand, the
TEFL International Certificate provides for the
teaching of
- younger learners as well as adults;
- one-to-one students as well as groups/classes of students.
In summary, the TEFL International course gives you
the following benefits:
- one-to-one meetings with learners of English as
well as with full classes;
- experience
being a learner of an unfamiliar language in order
to make you think about the problems of teaching
beginners;
- the opportunity to create your
own teaching material as a form of practical project
which you can take away and use in your future
teaching career;
- experience with younger
learners as well as with adults (in some of the
sessions)
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There are several reasons why you should take the
TEFL International certificate course:
- TEFL International trainers make every effort to
get you through the certificate course.
- The TEFL International certificate is an
international certificate, accepted worldwide.
- TEFL International courses conveniently include
course fees and accommodations into one very
affordable package. And by taking the course in
exotic locations, you have a great advantage in
finding jobs in those same exotic locals!
- TEFL International is much more involved in your
job search than other centres are. Our Alumni Job
Page gives you direct access to hundreds of course
alumni-teachers currently teaching in schools with
extensive contacts within the country. And we even
offer our own "Job Offered" web page!
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A lot of questions but all interrelated. We find
that courses tend to be taken up by a "mixed
bag" of people. For example, we get a lot of
people in their early twenties who are recent
graduates and want to travel overseas but we also have
people in their thirties and forties who either want a
career switch, have been made redundant or are moving
overseas with their spouse. In addition, we have
people either approaching or in retirement and who are
looking for something to do in their free time or who
have got property on the continent to which they are
going to move. Finally, we sometimes have people from
other English speaking countries on our courses as
well as good non-native speakers from other
countries. We had one course where we had a
twenty-year-old, a seventy-five year old and two
course members from Hungary!
As far as entrance requirements are concerned, if
you are to be a teacher of English, a high standard of
both spoken and written English is demanded. By this
is meant your use of English, not necessarily your
knowledge of grammatical terminology: you will be
given an introduction to language awareness on the
course itself.
As the four week course is very intensive, you
should be prepared to work very hard indeed, have no
other distractions, and be mentally/emotionally
completely fit and well, including having no current
domestic worries. You should also be presentable in
appearance. Finally, you should be able to teach! Not
TESOL, of course, but anything. Do you have the
confidence and personal presence to stand up in front
of a group of students and teach them for, say, 45
minutes? You will not be asked to teach at interview
so you need to self-select on that one!
Courses inevitably have some "casualties"
and the purpose of the application form is to try and
diagnose any potential problems in advance. However,
this screening process is not foolproof since the only
way one can judge whether you are going to make a
successful teacher of English or not is to see you
teach. Nevertheless, to reassure you, we are not
obliged to have statistical failure rates and we
genuinely want to take on people whom we think are
going to pass. Moreover, when you are on the course
itself, we shall be pushing you like mad to pass!
If you are a person of "more mature
years" or a senior citizen, do not let this in
itself put you off from applying. Providing you are
receptive to training you should have no problems. If,
however, you are rigid in your ways of thinking and
are unwilling to shake off past ways of thinking and
behaviour, you may have a problem. For instance, we
have reluctantly had to fail some experienced teachers
and lecturers! On the other hand, our greatest
"star" was a retired head teacher - an
extremely broad-minded one.
The last examples concern people who have taught
before. If you have never taught before, you are
"an empty vessel" as far as teaching is
concerned and are not "carrying around any
baggage"; you may ironically be at an
advantage.
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No you do not. TEFL International uses the
international standard communicative approach to
teaching, where English is the only language used in
the classroom.
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Whilst there is no official upper age limit, you
must be at least 19 years of age for your application
to be considered. We have successfully trained
(and found employment for) graduates of all ages.
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There is really no best or worst time. Jobs
are available year round with academic terms varying
from continent to continent.
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The chances of finding a job after the course are
excellent. Most of our trainees have received a
number of interview and job offers before they
graduate! TEFL International will assist at all
stages of the job search from putting a CV/resume
together to interview techniques to arranging
interviews. TEFL International has many contacts
worldwide who approach us with suitable job vacancies
and we even have our own job page.
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