Job Discussion Forums

[edenpark]

Can someone address what IT is they feel is gained from the TEFL, CELTA, TESOL certifications. In terms of teaching methods, instruction proficiency, lesson planning, English grammar, ect. What did the training/certification do that makes you believe in its worth. I'm contemplating enrolling in a course and I want to hear more than increased employablility as a benefit.

[grahamb]

I've decided to become a brain surgeon. Perhaps someone will be kind enough to explain why I should go to university instead of just picking it up as I go along?

[Mark Loyd]

Hardly the same thought is it?

If a brain surgeon makes a mistake it could be a matter of life or death. The biggest mistake a tefler could make is pressing the wrong button on the photocopier, if their crappy school even has one.

[Fatcat]

I think part of the answer may be that if you actually take the time and spend the money on a cert. program then a potential employer will see you as more serious than a random backpacker trying to make money, who may up and leave in the middle of the night. From what I've gathered, if you have no teaching experience (like myself) a crash course like this is the groundwork you need to start your career and give you a little bit of experience so you don't freak out the first week of teaching and have some sort of blueprint of what/how to teach. I know it's nothing compared with experience but it's a start. Even though you may have volunteered forever but don't have any credentials, most employers won't care. They want to see some sort of training (at least what I've read about South America and Mexico) It reminds me of my brother-in-laws brother. He's very well versed in computer programming but has never bothered to even get a 2-year degree. He says he doesn't need one because he can get a job without one, but he hasn't been able to. No employer wants to hire him if he can't even enter a program for 2 years and stick with it. Maybe a CELTA, etc. is looked at the same way.

Like I said, I haven't even started teaching but this is my take on it. I wouldn't dream of going over there without getting my cert. From everything I've read it will increase your marketability and therefore paychecks.

Good Luck!!

[Russell Hadd]

[Justin Trullinger]

Increased employability is a serious benefit, and probably the single biggest reason people do training courses. But here are several more:

Having some idea what's going on:
While this is not seen as essential by some TEFL teachers, it has been known to reduce stress, especially during the first months on the job. While nobody serious believes that you can come off a 120 hour course ready for all teaching situations, it can give you the rudiments of class planning, the basics of explaining grammar, etc. This means that your first months on the job can be spent learning new stuff, rather than reinventing the wheel. (An important part of a good course should involve learning to evaluate your lessons and learn from your mistakes.)

Making more money:
While it's not guaranteed, in general, more training equals higher up the pay scale. Also, if you have no training, a good director, hiring you against his or her better judgement, due to the neccesities of the moment, may have doubts about your abilities, and start you on fairly few hours. Basically, if you're spending all your time learning how to plan for a few classes, I wouldn't give you more till I had seen, satisfactorily, that you've picked it up. More hours equals more money.

Not being on the run:
And not having to lie. A lot of schools require some form of qualification, as does the ministry of education in many countries. If you don't have anything, low quality schools will probably ask you to lie. Better schools will use you very little, if at all. And when a school's books get checked by the ministry...don't let the door hit you on the way out.

English grammar:
You won't learn English grammar on a certificate course. The course is to short, and having a decent grasp of English grammar should be an acceptance requirement. What you can learn is how to teach/explain it. And this is pretty important. If you're a native speaker with a good level of education, there are a lot of things you've been saying correctly all your life, without having the faintest idea why. Students will ask you why, and a good certificate course can give you an idea how to develop coherent explanations for them.

Teaching Methods:
A good course should present a good variety of teaching methods, and expose you to various schools of thought on the teaching/learning of languages. They won't have time for a super in depth look at them (No Chomsky! There isn't time.) but should give you an outline of what some prevailing ideas are, which will make it easier for you to further your own education later on.

Convincing people you are serious:
When I'm hiring teachers, I need people who are serious about being teachers. Investing some time and money in training means you see teaching as something you're committed to. That you take it seriously. That you want to improve yourself as a teacher. If you come along with no training, or perhaps a low-rent online cert, what I see is a person who is interested in doing the minimum possible. This person will probably also spend as little time as possible on lesson planning, and try to spend as little non-class time around the school as he/she can manage. Probably won't come to staff development meetings either. Maybe I'm wrong about some particular individual, but in general, I see someone who has done as little as possible to prepare as someone who is likely to do as little as possible once they're on my team. And I don't need'em.


You're right, Mark, a teacher's errors won't be lethal. (At least I certainly hope not!) But I have put a lot into developing the quality and reputation of this language program. And a teacher who doesn't work out endangers that work, and that reputation. And considering what I'm gambling, I will always try to choose a person who gives the best probability of doing well.

A teacher who has a bad time and does a bad job will just move on, and I'll still be here picking up the pieces. Compared to the local competition, we offer a lot of benefits. But we need people who will earn them.

Regards,
Justin

[Glenski]

I agree with most of what Justin wrote. In my own experience, the TEFL course (about 8 classes lasting 6 months) was a good one. I thought I was good with the English language before setting foot in the course (and I was), but it opened my eyes to various things.

Speaking and writing English well does not mean one can teach it. A TEFL course should help you do that. Not all do.

You never know who you may meet in a TEFL course. I met a German woman who, although quite irritable, gave a different perspective on learning English. Native speakers often don't realize that there are rules for things that they feel they otherwise learn "naturally". Knowing that such rules may exist will help you be a teacher.

One of my classes dealt with which reference books to choose. That was a good one and it saved a lot of time surfing the Internet. Of course, it also initiated a Web search, but it gave me a starting point.

Less than half of the people in my course already taught in some mainstream school in the USA. Meeting them gave me some ideas of what they face when they are (often) suddenly thrust into teaching ESL. Many others simply wanted to go abroad and teach, and getting to know them helped establish some connections and make plans of my own.

In my 8 classes, about half of them required that everyone make lesson plans and present them to the rest of the class. This was extremely helpful, especially when the class provided feedback.

The courses also pointed out a smidgeon of teaching theory, as they should, and gave a concise description of the various popular methods used in teaching ESL/EFL.

[Cdaniels]

[Uschi]

If you are a trained teacher then you certainly don't need to go on a course. If you are not a teacher then you should definitely go on a course. Teaching a language is not just to be a native speaker. You got to explain grammar, you got to hold a lesson where students walk out and feel they learnt something. We all can hold socalled 'rab bag' lessons, but this is not teaching.
If you wish to teach in Thailand - there is no way around a TEFL or TESOL etc. Don't forget that you also need a degree if you want to teach in a real school.
I found the course very useful but I do not see the reason why these courses have to cost from 1000$ upwards. No doubt the school owners (all expats and not even teachers) rip you off.

[grahamb]

Mr Loyd, I was being sarcastic. In future I'll put "Sarcasm" in the subject box for your benefit.

[joshua2004]

[Gregor]

I gotta back up Justin.
I got the impression that the OP was asking about what someone off a TEFL certificate course gets from the course, as a teacher - in what way(s) do you improve or prepare or the job?
Well, the answer is that it very much depends. What will you be doing? And what do you WANT to do, as an ESL teacher?
If you don't know, then take the course. Oh, my God, TAKE THE COURSE! If not CELTA or Trinity College, London, TESOL cert, then at least a face-to-face, 120 hour course with teaching practice.
That's your training. If you do that, then you will come off the course (supposing that you paid attention to the course and NOT to the people who don't know better, telling you that you've wasted your money) more or less trained to do the job.
You get your first job off the course with a language school (hopefully - because it's the closest to what you were trained for), where they hand you a textbook (maybe a teacher's book, maybe not) and say, "There ya go. Teach. See you in a couple of hours."
If you've had the course, you'll have some ideas of how to get to know the students and break the ice. How to determine what their individual needs are, and how you can work that into the course. You'll have a fair idea how to get the points across, and how to determine whether you're getting through to the students, and if not, what to do about it.
When students complain that you are "not their previous teacher," which will often happen, you'll be prepared to cope with that. These are VERY harsh realities that TEFL teachers have to cope with, and ones who have passed their certificate courses and who have internalized that training the best they can will be able to deal with those situations.
If you take the course with a bad attitude, or you don't take the course at all, those complaints can cost you your job. I've ben doing this for ten years now, y'all, and I have seen it happen a few times. And that is a very messed up situation. Not fatal, no. But SEVERELY uncool.

Now let's look ahead a few years. I don't know you, OP, so I don't know your motivations. Mine are well-documented on this forum, but I'll do a short version here: I entered the field out of desperation, not knowing what I want to do for a living. I took a course, and eight years later, I still didn't know what I was going to do when I grew up. Which, by the way, I had already done.
So I decided that TEFL was a pretty good career. I decided to pursue a diploma and a management position (Director of Studies). I didn't have a degree, but I had a lot of years experience, and because of that, I got onto the diploma course with Trinity College, London. That course requires a degree or equivilant, AND a TEFL certificate, AND two years' experience.
I was able to show intelligence beyond the baccalaureate level (there's the degree equivilant), I had my years' experience, and I HAD THE CERTIFICATE. if you want the diploma down the line, you will need to earn the certificate first. If you don't, you don't know the very basics of the field that the diploma is supposed to improve upon.

On the other hand, if you KNOW that this absolutely will not be your career, AND you have a degree, AND you are happy enough being a "dancing bear" in front of 60 middle school students in China, instructed IN PARTICULAR not to actually teach anything, and you can stand by and watch the "regular" teacher (who is Chinese and doesn't have a firm grasp of English) teaching things that are out and out WRONG, then you don't need the certificate. Just go to China. Or Japan or Korea. That's what they want. Degrees, for the work permits. That's IT. If you don't care that you aren't actually TEACHING anything, then you're cool.
And that's not even meant to be a jibe at anyone. That's the job for some people, and that's fine - they just want the adventure of living abroad for a little while, and those jobs are plentiful. And you will be better off in those WITHOUT a teaching background. Because with a teaching background in THOSE jobs, you'll feel misused.

But if you want to actually teach ESL, you would be best off getting the certificate.

[Justin Trullinger]

Well said, Gregor.

I guess I got my start as a dancing bear in Italy. (Teaching English and theatre simultaneously. Weird.) And enjoyed some parts, while I thought other parts were bullshit.

And realized that I wasn't going to get a non bullshit job until I got some proper training. The Trinity cert was the first step. (And I've had several non BS jobs since then.)

[Gregor]

Justin wrote:

[DKatz]

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