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wailing_imam
Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 580
Location: Malaya
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 Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:03 am Post subject: Online TEFL Certs |
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I have been teaching English in Asia for over six years and have been lucky enough to get well paid work at crap schools. I have a BA (Hons), but no teaching certificate. I am starting to think it might help just to have that piece of paper and am looking into online courses (primarily because they are cheap). This might help me to get work at some slightly more sensible institutions.
What do you think of online TEFL certs? Most people say they are worthless, but in the East, they might just give that added touch that the CV requires for the better jobs.
Can you recommend any? I have looked at ICAL (which claims to be accredited by the Hong Kong Ministry of Manpower and Employment) and the one offered by teflonline.com (claims to be accredited by US Ministry of Education).
Ideas? |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 9:57 am Post subject: Re: Online TEFL Certs |
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| wailing_imam wrote: |
I have been teaching English in Asia for over six years and have been lucky enough to get well paid work at crap schools. I have a BA (Hons), but no teaching certificate. I am starting to think it might help just to have that piece of paper and am looking into online courses (primarily because they are cheap). This might help me to get work at some slightly more sensible institutions.
What do you think of online TEFL certs? Most people say they are worthless, but in the East, they might just give that added touch that the CV requires for the better jobs.
Can you recommend any? I have looked at ICAL (which claims to be accredited by the Hong Kong Ministry of Manpower and Employment) and the one offered by teflonline.com (claims to be accredited by US Ministry of Education).
Ideas? |
Kind Friend,
The United States Department of Education has no legal authority to certify an online TESOL course -- that is beyond the purview of its charter. In the United States, almost to a fault, certification is done on a state-by-state basis as indirectly set forth under the Constitution. Such a claim would make me a bit nervous, albeit skeptical.
Added: Having done a bit more research into the claim of www.teflonline.com that it is accredited by the United States Department of Education, I can assure you that perhaps you misunderstood what they wrote.
They are NOT accredited by the United States Department of Education, which as I said, does not have the legal authority to do such accreditation in this field. They were the subject of a professional audit by a PRIVATE, money-making, fees-charging organization called "the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training", based in Washington, D.C., which sells itself and its services to nonpublic training organizations to "monitor" the quality of their courses. This Accrediting Council is recognized by the United States Department of Education only on the grounds that it does the job that it purports to do -- to audit private language mills and to produce reports therein. This has nothing to do with accreditation at all.
Additionall, this program is just part of another large fees-based language mill in Denver, Colorado. They do have a nice website. It is pretty and charming.
HFG |
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Anda
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 2199
Location: Jiangsu Province
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| Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:06 pm Post subject: Um |
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You can do a Certificate of Linguistics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia by distance education and if you like build on it at a latter stage; grad dip, masters etc.
Go to their web site for costs! Two units are needed for the Certificate! About $1,000 Australian a unit for Australians. |
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Slick Fox
Joined: 08 Jul 2007
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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I recently earned a TEFL certificate from i-to-i. You may want to look into them. It was cheap and easy and got me a job at a university. I think, all they want to see is a piece a paper.
I will see China in late August! I am looking forward to it.
God Bless |
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MikeMick
Joined: 25 Feb 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| I did the i-to-i online course, to be honest it was ridiculously easy and quite expensive too.. It didn't teach me anything and all i got out of it was a cheap looking certificate that I could've made by myself!! |
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upchuckles
Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 111
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| Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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| i-to-i is not very a well respected brand.. surprisingly neither is oxford seminars.. or that other money grubbing site TEFL Institute, TEFL international. TEFL quite simply are about brand recognition not accredation. |
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naturegirl321
Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 9041
Location: home sweet home
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| Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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| upchuckles wrote: |
| i-to-i is not very a well respected brand.. surprisingly neither is oxford seminars.. or that other money grubbing site TEFL Institute, TEFL international. TEFL quite simply are about brand recognition not accredation. |
I've also heard that same about TEFL Intl. However, they say that they are recognised by the British Council. |
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jeffinflorida
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 2024
Location: "I'm too proud to beg and too lazy to work" Uncle Fester, The Addams Family season two
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:19 am Post subject: |
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Dude save yourself the money and put your time to good use by sitting down in front of your computer and using it to design and print your own TEFL diploma...
It has pretty much the same value... |
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james s
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
Posts: 676
Location: Raincity
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:26 am Post subject: |
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...
Last edited by james s on Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dave_merk
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 208
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:16 am Post subject: |
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| upchuckles wrote: |
| TEFL quite simply are about brand recognition not accredation. |
What makes any of you think that the above is true? How many potential bosses, administrators of Chinese schools, visa-granting police officers, or FAO officials have even the foggiest idea what a good TEFL certificate is? All they care about, if even that, is that you wave some certificate-looking paper in front of their face. I have yet to met the SAFEA official who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the TEFL certificate industry and can issue appropriate judgements about someone's qualifications based on that. Most of the time they don't even understand what the certificate in question even says. |
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