TEFL Certificate

Phil01

hi,

Apologies if i posted this in the wrong thread, i'm not really sure where to post it. Anyways, i'm wondering if anyone has done a TEFL course(Teach English as a Foreign Language), or gone on to teach English in any country after completing the course.
Some insight into the course would be good, is it a good course? worth the money? is it easy to get a job after completion?

is_that_so

This will probably be moved. Go to the Teaching and Lecturing Forum and do a search.

great unwashed

I did one in a place in Dublin - €500/600 for 70 hour course - something like that anyway. It prepared me well enough and I got two years work in Spain - jobs quite easy to come by if you pound the pavements and stick your neck in doors of schools. You can get private work easily enough too in Spain by literally advertising on street poles. Luckily didn't have to do that though - got work within three days.

I can see the benefit of doing a fuller course if you have a grand to spend and you feel you are into it. It's no cliche to say you will travel the world with it if that's what you want.

Phil01

Yeah i'm think i will start one in a course in january, i'n not sure how many hours i would need. For the reasons that 1). I probably wouldnt need to do a 100 hour course but I think that potential emloyeers would want to see that you dont a basic 70-100 hours on the course.
I would like to go to Brazil to teach over there for a few years. I'm not sure how to start i guess like you said, go over there and but my head in the door!!

Lauren Awder

I have just completed a CELT (Certificate in English Language Teaching) at xxxx. Avoid. THe woman who runs the course is extremely unprofessional and hysterical. WHen I complained, the owner/director xxxx didn't want to know and said that if I didnt leave he would call the gardai. I stayed as I don't succumb to bullying. THe gardai came. The rest, as they say, is history, but ongoing.(As an aside, I have to say I was quite impressed with the conduct of the gardai towards me.)
I have also heard others comment negatively about this woman. I referred the matter to ACELS (the apparent regulatory body of Englsih Language Schools in Ireland). It will be interesting to see if they also try to cover up for her, or whether they will handle my complaint more professionally. If anyone wants to hear a recording of this woman's ranting, let me know as I have one.
THe ironic thing is when I returned home from the 2nd day of trying to get my complaint addressed my cert arrived with brilliant credentials. Another way of trying to shut me up? It won't work- although to be fair I think this was maybe coinincidence and an overlap.

peanuthead

Hi OP

I have a huge amount of experience with this.

This is actually about the 5th time I've written a post like this and for the life of me I can't find the others so note to self: copy and past this one!!

Okay, So, here's the thing.

The think you really need to ask yourself is where do you want to use this cert?

If it's abroad, then some places will take as little as an 8 hour i-to-i weekend course.
Some places will be more strict, the main thing they concern themselves with being the number of hours the course is, rather than who accredits it.

However, if you ever see yourself wanting to teach here in Ireland you must do an ACELS accredited course. You will find details of all acels accredited courses on their website, just google ACELS. In addition, all NUI's are ACELS accredited too.

The course I did was in UCD. It was advertised as a part-time course, but it was later changed to full time.
It was tues evenings, then teaching practice on two of the following days (wed evening, thursday evening, friday afternoon) the occasional saturday held lectures too, a total of two in the year. Teaching practice was done in UCD with Erasmus students.
It was for a full year and was tough at times. But I am extremely knowledgeable in the area of ESL now and it has gotten me a lot of work and a lot of recognition. I'm extremely confident in the subject and I know English grammar quite in depthly. I'm not saying I'm a master at it, but I am very good.

Some of these weekend courses don't leave you very knowledgable in the are of English grammar. I obviously can't speak about them because I haven't done them, but all I will say is that for all I moaned about the course in UCD when I was doing it, I very rarely get asked something I can't answer.

Only thing I wil say is there wasn't a lot of prep for teaching complete beginners, its probably the area I feel weakest at.

About the money. My course was about 3grand but I feel it was well worth the money. I see ESL as part of my career though. I have set up a webpage and hope to get a little school up and running when the time is right, you can see it here www.dublin-tuition.com. IM NOT TOUTING FOR BUSINESS AS WEBPAGE CLEARLY STATES IM NOT TAKING CUSTOMERS. I'm just getting it up and running at moment.

If its just for travelling, you can pretty much do any course, just check with the country. I have contacts on various ESL sites, so if you have a country in mind post it and I'll see if I can find out what is required.

For travelling I think its a fantastic tool to have. But if you see a future for yourself here doing it then you will have to invest more time and money.

by the way, you will be left amazed at how little you know about grammar!! I was!!

essdee

Hello OP,

I present a radio programme about education on 103.2 Dublin City FM. Teaching English is a topic that was covered earlier this year, including a discussion of the courses available. You might be interested in listening to the podcast at: http://insideeducation.podbean.com/2009/11/20/programme-4-english-language-teaching-in-ireland-and-news-2-8-09/.
I hope that helps answer some of your questions.

Toto Wolfcastle

I have deleted a couple of posts containing personal arguments. Please use the PM function for any such arguments. Thank you.

Konata

If you plan to do a PGDE (formerly H.Dip) in UCD, you can do the TEFL course at the same time and at a reduced rate of 1000euro (from 2400euro). Here's the info: http://www.ucd.ie/alc/post_grad/gradcerttefl.htm

That's what I'm planning to do in another 2 years anyway.

The country I'm interested in going to is Japan - anyone have any information on teaching there?