Job Discussion Forums

[manojl17]

Hi,

Firstly, greetings to the group. My name is Raju. I'm helping a friend based here in the United States who wishes to go overseas to teach English. She did a little digging on her own but came to a dead end. She seems to have found out that there is an exam or certification called TOESL required for teaching English in certain countries. I used to work as a PR Counsellor for an institute in Japan for 2 years and I never came across this term. I haven't been able to find too much information on this. Would anyone in this forum know anything about it or be able to point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance,
Raju

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Hi Raju

There are so many acronyms in this field!

Try searching TESOL - instead of TOESL, and you'll find a lot of relevant info.

TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

TESOL is a field of study, and is sometimes called EFL or ESL:

English as a Foreign Language :: English as a Second Language

TESOL is also the commonly used acronym for the certification courses

teachers often take in order to qualify for certain jobs.

A good TESOL cert course usually runs 120 hours (or more) and includes observed teaching.

People can actually get an MA in TESOL, if they wish.

You'll find several TESOL course adverts & discussions on various forums here @ Dave's.

Anyway - send your friend over here. She'll find everything she needs

and probably some things she doesn't need!

[manojl17]

Thanks a million Kent. I did what you asked, and keyed in TESOL and yes, I got like a million links.

I've forwarded this site to my friend. She'll join it and will seek all the help she can get here.

Thanks,
Raju

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

A TOESL test is a Test of English as a Spoken Language. It's akin to a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). It would be required of your friend if English is not her first language. Finding employment as a non-native speaker can be difficult in many countries because the feeling is that each country probably has enough non-native speaking teachers already. The fact that in many ways a non-native speaking teacher could be a lot of help (for example absolutely fluent French Candadians could be useful in Japan where the English level aquired by many of the Japanese teachers of English is a little on the low side- being polite here) doesn't seem to be recognized.

If English is her first language (or if she has done all of her schooling in the US and is absolutely fluent) then she shouldn't need to take it.

Here's an example of a situation in which a TOESL test is required from Loma Linda University's School of Dentestry (in California):

http://www.llu.edu/llu/dentistry/bulletin/admissinfo.htm