Ever thought of teaching English and exploring the world? How about an read this blog post to know more.
Today, I decided to tell you a little about the TEFL (teach English as a foreign language) course that I chose. It is indeed possible to find teaching work without a teaching degree. Read my post about teaching ESL in France to know more. In order for others to take you a little more seriously though, it’s always good to have some experience and a degree/certificate. That was my idea. Before you go any further with this post, this blogpost doesn’t intend to guarantee you a job. This is what I did, and how I advanced in my teaching career. You probably don’t have to take the same route.
What is TEFL?
TEFL (also known as teaching English as a foreign language) is a teaching certification accepted my many countries. A quick google search popped up this result:
A teaching certificate is not always necessary if you have some experience teaching abroad but it is always good to have one to show that you are serious about the field you have chosen, and that you’re constantly working towards improving your skills.
Why I chose the course from this particular company?
To be very honest:
- I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. So, that was my priority. I found a lot of online courses but those were super expensive. So I decided not to go ahead with them.
- I wanted to get some theoretical knowledge about teaching.
- I wanted to do a course with genuine accreditation.
TEFL courses provided
You have two main options to choose from: an online course or a combined course.
An online course is good for someone who is already teaching somewhere or has some experience of teaching. Since I was teaching part time in a Cambridge examination center, I decided to go with the online course.
The second one is a combined course that gives you hands-on teaching experience as well. The combined version of the course includes a Ten-Hour Teaching Practice Course (this seems new to me because I didn’t have the opportunity to buy this one when I purchased my TEFL course online). But it looks good.
TEFL course content / what to expect
Time duration: You have 6 months to finish the course. If you work on it full time, you can totally finish it in 6 weeks.
The online TEFL course provides you with 10 modules that you can finish at your own pace.
It is accessible as soon as you enroll. It covers a detailed theory of TEFL including teaching methods & grammar. As far as the assessment is concerned, each section will have few short tests and coursework to finish. Course tutors can be contacted anytime. They are pretty quick at generating a ticket for your query.
Here are the units to give you an idea : An introduction to lesson planning, teaching english vocabulary, teaching english pronunciation, understanding english grammar, teaching receptive skills, teaching productive skills, teaching english grammar, history of English language and English language teaching, teaching materials and aids and classroom management strategies, the effective use of ressources for TEFL.
There are three compulsory written assignments. This does require a lot of preparation. I had to resubmit my first assignment (this is to tell you that they are pretty strict about the quality of work that you produce).
My views:
- I liked the course and learned a lot along the way.
- The course is not expensive considering they also have a classroom teaching component – which is definitely a steal.
- In case you’re not able to finish the course on time, you will have to pay an extra fee unless you have a compelling reason that the tutors accept.
- It is not going to be a cake walk – so be prepared to work. An online TEFL course doesn’t mean ‘no efforts needed’.
In case you found the information, you were looking for through this blog post. I would appreciate your comments or suggestions. In case you would like to follow my adventures as a TEFL teacher in France, do follow me on instagram.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write back to me.