TEFL

Da Shins Kelly

I plan on traveling when I finish my degree in college, and I'm interested in teaching English as a foreign lanugage in order to earn some money so I can come back here and do a masters. I'm studying Spanish, so I was thinking of going to a Spanish-speaking country like Argentina so I could improve my Spanish and earn money teaching English. I also want to spend some time in the US, and I've heard that there are jobs there teaching English as a second language because of the huge influx of immigrants from the non-English speaking world.

I'd just like to hear from some people who've done TEFL. Is is worth it? Where did you work after doing it? Also, is it possible for me to do the course while I'm still studying my course in college, or would that be too much to take on in an academic year?

Thanks!

Pretty Polly

Hi,
I did a Tefl course in college but unfortunately i discovered a year or so after that the course wasn't accredited. The cert was/is basically worthless now.

The proper Tefl courses cost about €1,000 i think.
Check here for more information- http://www.acels.ie/

poozers

Hi!!! im also extremely interested in hearing any TEFL feedback so i said id give this thread an ol' bump!! but i also want to go to south america teach english, but i dont have a college degree! i requested a call back from TEFL and they got back very swiftly (you can do it on their website) but i cant remember if she said i need a college degree to do it or not! i know in certain countries you do, but unsure about S. America! but to be honest, any country would do me has anyone any info or stories to share about how yee got on with teaching english abroad?????

edelnig

There are some tefl courses (eg.i-to-i) that are only a few hundred euro and look like good value. I did the full CELT (Certificate in English Language Teaching) course costing 1,150 euro though, as it was the qualification I needed for my work in a VEC. Everyone I know says don't bother with the i-to-i as they are not accredited and many schools abroad (and in Ireland) don't rate them. But I don't actually know anyone who has done one, so I can't really judge it.

The CELT course was very intensive. I'd been working as a resource teacher with foreign students for a few years so my experience helped me, but the others on the course were occasionally overwhelmed with the amount of new information. We had 120+ hours of lectures, 7 sessions of live teaching practice (some half hour, more one hour) where we had to plan and deliver a class to real students, while being observed and assessed. There were 6 teaching observations divided between watching DVDs and observing real teachers. Then there were a number of written assignments, amounting to about 4,000-5,000 words in total. We did the course over one month, with the fifth week of the month spent putting our portfolio together.

The content was definitely useful. I got plenty of good tips on how to engage students, how to handle bad behaviour, how to plan out lessons to include various skills, how to source resources, how to arrange students in pairs, groups etc. to vary lessons. Also important were the lectures on points of grammar, integrating the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking, using textbooks, assessing students' abilities, use of technology in the classroom and so on.

I would recommend the course. It is Dept. of Education recognised here in Ireland so that you can get work in schools and VECs. And it is recognised by International House, one of the biggest language schools worldwide.

If you are thinking of signing up for a course in Ireland, look it up on the ACELS website, the official government body charged with accrediting TEFL courses.

Hope this helps!

ayumi

Im interested in doing this too,but I have discovered through research that CELT are more recongised around the world even though its expensive from looking on the colleges who this like international house,google it and you will see its around 1300 for the 4 weeks fulltime.
Also from looking around some require you to have little or no teaching experience