Job Discussion Forums

[ksagain]

Does anyone have information about their program? Pros and cons? I would appreciate any information that you all have.

Thanks!
Kara

[tedkarma]

Aside from general reputation - ask a LOT of questions.

Many good ones are at "How to Select a TEFL School" at: http://phuketdelight.com/TEFL.htm

A good one to ask is, "How long has the trainer been teaching?" The reason I make that point is that I just got an e-mail for a trainer today who was hired as a teacher trainer after completing the TEFL course at that same organization. She has NEVER taught in a real classroom! And, about four years ago I had a student who completed the course I was teaching and was offered a job as a teacher trainer - though he too had NEVER taught in a real classroom.

Some of the teacher trainers out there are very inexperienced - or not experienced at all. This is one way for TEFL schools to keep their costs down - as they don't have to pay for an experienced trainer.

Only my opinion: a teacher trainer should have at least six years experience, taught in at least two countries, have a minimum of a BA/BS (preferably a graduate degree in education - though some will pooh pooh that), experience teaching a variety of students (kids, adults, business classes, other ESP classes, EAP classes, and all four skills) - AND a good sense of the difficulties his/her teacher trainees will face in the course of a fairly stressful 4-6 week courses.

Few schools offer such teacher trainers. If the school has such trainers ask if they will teach your course and how much of it (will they pass through and teach just one small segment?).

[stillnosheep]

I agree with all of the above, with the possible exception of the need for a trainer to have a minimun of 6 yrs teaching experience, which seems a bit long (and would disqualify the overwhelming majority of EFL 'trainers' at a stroke. On second thoughts..... ).

I would however emphasise tedkarma's last point: Check that the institution not only employs a trainer/trainers with years of solid teaching experience, but that said trainer/s will actually teach the majority of the course.

I was once offered the opportunity to set up a Tefl training course (on a profit-share basis, no less) by a previous employer when I had less than 18 months of classroom teaching experience under my belt. I turned the offer down. Beware sharks!

[tedkarma]

[Gregor]

In the past, I have been an advocate for independent TEFL certification schools. Check into them, make sure they offer the minimum amount of classroom time (100 hours), the minimum of observed real teaching practice (6 hours), check into the backgrounds of the trainers as much as possible, and do a face-to-face course (NOT! an online certificate)...This all will give you a perfectly good entry level qualification.

Today, I have to change my tune. I now recommend that, for an entry-level certificate, you do a CELTA, a Trinity College, London TESOL certificate, or an S.I.T. course. MAYBE an EF certificate (EF has been around for a long time and seems to be growing, but by itself I wouldn't trust it 100% JUST YET).

Why? Because I have been offered a job in Vietnam. They wanted my certificate to be authenticated. And it can't be done. The school that issued my entry-level TEFL cert. went out of business in 2001. It was registered in the State of California, and California only keeps records for five years after the school closes. So my certificate cannot be corroborated. I may as well have printed it out of my computer at home for all it's worth, legally speaking.
Fortunately, I have since earned a diploma from Trinity, and THAT one is easily authenticated. So is a CELTA/DELTA, and so is an S.I.T. certificate. And that's why I tentatively approve EF certificates - they do a good course, much like the one I did, but EF is likely to be around for a while, so it can be authenticated easily (will they be so accommodating if you want to work for someone other than EF? I don't know, hence my reluctance).

So. Newbies, by all means, check out your trainers, but remember this - once you are on the job, the training ALMOST doesn't matter. I mean, if you are slow on the uptake (like I am), you will draw from the training a lot. If you learn quickly, however, then the new job will have you trained to work THERE in no time, anyway. I've worked with plenty of really good teachers who had no teaching certificate at all. They took the classroom dynamic well, so it was no problem.
If there is ANY CHANCE AT ALL that TEFL will be your life for a while, then get a CELTA. Or a Trinity College TESOL cert. Or a S.I.T. cert. Those are the big names, and they are not going away.

And don't worry if you have something else. But be aware of what you have, and pay attention to the course provider. Remember: self-education is the best and most valid kind of learning that you can do, but it's impossible to quantify. With teaching certificates, what you want is the LEGAL RIGHT to work where you want to work. make it easy on your future self. Because if you don't, that guy (or gal) will curse you, and there is nothing worse than having to curse your own past self, I am here to tell you.

[spiral78]

GLOBAL TESOL is not an on-site course! All of the above posters are basically correct, but they have written from the perspective of a 100-120 hour on site course, with actual trainers offering supervised teaching practice.

GLOBAL's methodology section is distance, and the one weekend on-site part of the course is a seminar in "how to get a job overseas". There is NO supervised teaching practice.

The most salient point, IMO, is that better employers worldwide want a certification from some organization offering that supervised practice. GLOBAL doesn't live up - it's only slightly better than an on-line course. You can do a search for other opinions on this matter - but I believe it's fair to say that there is general agreement on on-site versus distance/online courses being much less desirable.

[tedkarma]

[tedkarma]

[Gregor]

Tedkarma wrote:

[amanda22]

I am also interested in the Global TESOL College. I like their website and brochure, and also the fact that you can get specializations. I actually called the Chicago location to see about upcoming dates for their classes. I was not super impressed with the quality of customer service I got from the guy. I asked about the teacher practicum and he said they do that there. Do you think he was lying to me? There website even says they do it. I am thinking about doing the IICA program as I love Brazil and have been there many many times, but thought getting a TEFL certificate from Global College would give me a little more background. Has anyone else studied there??

[stillnosheep]

Wny not simply do a Cambridge Celta or Trinity Tesol:

On site; independently verified; 6hrs of observed teaching practice; recognised throughout the world.

[spiral78]

GLOBAL's new rap is that they offer 'supervised teaching practice,' but it's peer teaching - not actual language students. This still won't make the cut with reputable language schools when a GLOBAL grad goes looking for jobs.

[winterlynx1]

GLOBAL offers an optional supervised teaching practicum course. It is necessary for the student to organize their own practicum. I did 20 hours classroom teaching hours to REAL second language learners in my practicum. I was supervised by two college level ESL instructors. GLOBAL's practicum is not mandatory, but to say that they don't provide cerification that can include a supervised practicum in an actual classroom setting is not accurate.

I had previous, degree level background in education as well as many years of teaching experience. So, GLOBAL was exactly that I needed - an orientation to the world of TESOL.

However, if a young person is pursuing a long-term commitment to ESL, then I would recommend a CELTA or similar course. Actually, what I would really recommend is a university degree plus the specialized TESOL training course if your degree is not in a related area. An MA will open further doors.

[spiral78]

So, winterlynx, what percentage of GLOBAL trainees do you estimate have the resources and take the time to organize their own practicuums? An, thus, actually have a certificate that includes at least the minimum 6 to 8 hours of supervised practice teaching actual students that any basic on-site course offers?
And, truly not to be nasty, but to be clear: you are supervised by college-level by Canadian standards (meaning that those teachers have a BA, a basic cert, and have taught abroad themselves for a year or two at least) or by U.S. standards (implying some rather more serious qualifications)?

These are important questions for newbies on this board, because GLOBAL isn't cheap, and I think most of us feel pretty strongly that to compete for even entry-level positions in MOST places at DECENT schools, you really need, at minimum, a 30 day on-site course with REAL teaching practice.

I understand that you yourself were not a typical trainee, and I agree that for someone in your position a GLOBAL style intro to an overview of ESLEFL might be an acceptable entry. But most of the newbies on this forum do not have backgrounds similar to yours.

[winterlynx1]

My supervisors had related MA degrees and each had over 10 years experience teaching ESL, including overseas experience. They were certified college ESL instructors, currently teaching in ESL at public college in Canada. I delivered my practicum to two different groups of students, and the practicum itself was over 20 hours of classroom teaching (that's in addition to the 'book work.') My practicum was really very good by any standards.

I'm not taking sides in the GLOBAL debate, and you will note from my previous posting that I actually recommended CELTA or the like for people without previous teaching background. In fact, for serious ESLers, I recommended a university degree.

I don't agree with a 'one size fits all' approach to education and qualification. Because of my previous background in education, CELTA would have been a waste of time and money for me - and I was an ESL newbie. Many ESL newbies have lots of education and experience in education. CELTA may be a good program (I'm sure it is), but for a professional educator, CELTA has a lot of redundancy.