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[profgizmo]

I have seen a lot of people post here asking questions about online TEFL courses, so I thought I would post about my experience with an online course I did with Teachers Latin America, also known as Teachers-International, also known as Innovative English. This is the school run out of Mexico City by Guy Courchesne, a frequent poster to this site. The whole experience was quite involved, and not too successful. This post is a little long, and for that I apologize.

I began investigating courses in early February 2005. After doing some research, I decided to contact Guy about his course. I should say that I am 48 years old, have taught in US public schools for 18 years, and was planning on traveling to Mexico with my family for a year. The teaching was to be a supplement to my income, the rest coming from savings. I was interested in doing the online TEFL course for some extra experience, in addition to an internship at a language school. Guy said that with my experience the internship should be enough, but I decided to be prepared by also doing the course. The cost of the course was $350, paid through paypal.

After paying for the course, I received in the mail a comb-bound book of a little over 200 pages, and a cd with extra resources. The book consists of twelve chapters to read, followed by questions to answer that are available at a special web site. In addition there are seven parts of a case study that are to be completed, followed with a final exam.

The book itself seems to be a collection of activities cut and pasted from other resources, then photocopied for the book. Clearly the book is the same one used by the teachers who take the course in Mexico City, as there were questions in the book slightly different from mine, and geared more towards a class. The cd was a collection of information and links from other websites. There were also links for resources listed on the question website page, but I found that many of them didn�t work, even after I emailed the webmaster about the problem.

All of this might have been acceptable if I had gotten support from the school. I emailed my responses to the chapter one questions to Guy on March 16. He sent back his evaluation of my work the next day. That was the last time I heard from Guy until August 29! In the interim I sent numerous emails and called their school in Mexico City several times. When I called the school I talked to a woman named Gabriela Ruiz, the director, who kept saying someone would contact me. Some people have told me they thought she is his wife, but I don�t know that for a fact. One time I talked to a David Cullar, who said he had taken over my work from Guy, but never did anything. I continued working on and sending in my work, but without any responses.
At one point I saw Guy post to the ESL Caf� that he had returned. I sent him an email but got no reply. At no time did the school say that Guy wasn�t there, in fact when I asked, they assured me that Guy still worked for them, and would get in touch with me soon. Finally I got an email from Guy at the end of August saying he was back. He made no apologies for the lack of contact, or any explanation as to why he had stopped responding to my emails. Instead he asked if I was still interested in the internship! I had already found one on my own, by reading posts here and sending emails out. In fact, I believe I ended up working for the same school he would have arranged for me in Guadalajara, without having to pay Guy the $300 - $450 dollars he wanted for setting it up.

I finally sent in the last of the work and received the final exam. Several times I thought about stopping, but I was determined to make them live up to their end. The final was a combination of true/false, multiple choice and short answer. I completed it as quickly as I could to get it over with. When Guy eventually sent it back, I got a 94! I never received any feedback on any work I did after the first chapter. None. Guy said he wanted to send me some, but couldn�t find my files. I told him I had all of my work and could send it too him. Surprise, surprise, I got no response. I did receive a certificate of completion in the mail, after threatening to post my questions to him on this site.

So the question is, did I learn anything? About TEFL teaching, not much, nothing that I couldn�t have gotten better from a book. Was it worth $350? Definitely not. I couldn�t recommend anything connected with this school to anyone. There was absolutely no support from this school for this course. For the incredible number of posts that Guy Courchesne continues to make to the ESL Caf�, you would think he could respond to someone who has paid for his course. My impression is he is very friendly and helpful, until he has your money. Several people have sent me messages that Guy posts here in order to get business for his school. There is probably some truth to this. One of the teachers at the school I interned at asked one day if anyone knew about this person on the Caf� that posted so much. I told him my story. He said this person must do nothing but sit at his computer to do so much posting. Maybe that is why he doesn�t have time to help the students taking his courses.

So here is my advice. Don�t do an online course. Buy some good reference books instead, and study on your own. Don�t pay for an internship, you can get one without paying for it. Read posts here, send emails to schools you are interested in, and get it on your own. If you have no teaching experience, then an on site course might be useful, but choose carefully. And finally, be very suspicious of anything connected with Teachers Latin America. Take Guy Courchesne�s advice with a grain of salt. They may seem helpful and friendly in the beginning, but it will change once they have your money.

[Guy Courchesne]

Well, here comes the response I guess.

First and foremost, all the above is pretty much on the mark. We certainly dropped the ball in your case, profgizmo...and I personally dropped the ball in a big way. A change in staff here was very badly managed and it resulted in extremely poor performance on our part and my part in handling your coursework. I can only offer our apologies again and say that we stand here ready to take whatever action you feel fit to resolve all problems, like I mentioned in an email today to you.

It's tough to eat crow, but we do deserve it. I do object to being labelled as someone who must do nothing but sit here at my computer posting all the time. That's way off the mark...I do enjoy posting here but will always be subject to criticism that I do so to recruit, since it's not easy to separate a person from their employer, I guess.

Anyway, consider that my own response and admission of guilt.