Job Discussion Forums

bigchief · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Colorado

I have a BA and want to teach esl in Latin America, hopefully west coast of Mexico or Peru or Costa Rica. I am looking at courses in TEFL or CELTA at Linguatec in Denver as a 1st and 2nd choice, or TEFL or TESL online from Winfield College of Vancouver. What do you reccomend? Several weeks ago Guy wrote someone that TEFL was more recognized in MX than CELTA because it is associated with British. Every course description I've read contradicts that, saying the more expensive CELTA is better recognized. What gives? And if I simply can't afford the Linguatec course, would an online course(with some volunteer experience) suffice? Who knows what about Linguatec and/or Winfield College? Recomendations?

bigchief · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Colorado

The TEFL and CELTA courses in Denver are at Bridge Linguatec.
Any advice on TEFL or CELTA from Bridge Linguatec or TEFL or TESL from Winfield College via internet?

Sekhmet · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 329 Location: Alexandria, Egypt

Check out a search about online courses - they're not the best plan. Anything without at least 6 hours of observed teaching is not worth the money.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I had tried to clear that up in the Mexico forum. My thoughts were that TEFL, as an acronym is more widely known than CELTA is, simply from experience in filling job vacancies for a variety of schools around Mexico and Latin America. TEFL is too varied too say that it's better than CELTA.

elverlith · Joined: 02 Feb 2005 Posts: 5

I don't know how things work in the US, but in the U.K. I understand TEFL to be the Teaching English as a Foreign Language industry. CELTA is one course you might consider taking which is monitored by Cambridge.
It's intensive and lasts 4 weeks, and, along with TESOL (Trinity), is one of the more widely-recognized courses you can go on.

A lot of schools run their own 4-week course, at the end of which you get a TEFL certificate. These seem good too, and can be a bit less expensive, but there does seem to be a lot of cachet surrounding the CELTA and TESOL.
I would steer clear of online and weekend TEFL courses.

As I said, this is what I understand, and I'm not sure how it works elsewhere.

ElNota · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 123 Location: Buenos Aires

I would go with the CELTA over any other program. The program is demanding and well balanced, and gets your mind started in thinking about what it is to be an effective language teacher.

Also as ls650 said, CELTA is a TEFL certificate, so if you wanted to, you could put TEFL on your resume if it would make you feel better.

You posted over a month ago, so you probably already made up your mind, but thats just my two cents.