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Julieanne · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 120

Yes Justin but as the internet grows and technology improves you have to be more open minded to online certification. As a matter of fact many more schools accept it than they did a few years ago even. It is like saying people should not have web meetings or teach online via Skype because in person is better.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 4:52 pm Post subject:

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

It's not just the hours- it's the lack of supervised classroom practice. Substandard in the region where I have worked the past 12 years.

Sorry. Fact.

Julieanne · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 120

Where is that spiral?
Justin we will have to agree to disagree as to what constitutes an opinion about a course. You have to take it and also see if said course provides you with a job before really being able to critique.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Western/Central Europe, Julianne. It's a lot of territory.

Julieanne · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 120

Not certain about that naturegirl, I suppose you could write them and ask them if you do not see it on the site itself which I don't.

Julieanne · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 120

spiral I have heard there are some good courses in that region, not true?

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Yes, the standard is 120 hours on site and including the teaching practice. Some generic courses do meet the standard - some are a bit dodgy. But employers in general here don't look favorably on on-line certs - you can read up on this on the country-specific forums. I recall one specific thread on the Poland forum about a guy with an online cert and his job search (which was ultimately successful, but he ended up with a dodgy employer after a very long discouraging search).

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Ultimately, my own (relatively educated on the subject) opinion about Serious Teachers is that it's not (serious). I would never recommend such a course to a newbie, or inflict a teacher with this kind of 'training' on paying students. My opinion as a career teacher with 12+ years of experience, and having worked on three different training courses, and being involved currently with both training and hiring.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 5:04 pm Post subject:

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 5:17 pm Post subject:

BenE · Joined: 11 Oct 2008 Posts: 321

Julianne what is the world of TEFL course sales like?

I looked at what you have posted and it seems like you have quite a history of posting for some small websites probably run from the same location offering small time courses for new 'TEFL seeking' people.

I will jump straight to some questions:

Can you tell me if a course with seriousTEFL is comparable or better than the three main courses I mentioned beforehand (CELTA, Trinity TESOL and SIT) and why?

How does an online cert sucessfully teach the techniques required to teach in a class? How does it also substitute the the more practical approach of a student actually teaching a class?

I am eager to hear your reply.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

For me, the simple fact that they use "serious" in their name, means that they shouldn't keep taken serously.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 8:08 pm Post subject:

Further thoughts on SeriousTEFL.

Since I first posted on this thread, the NAFSA logo has gone, and stayed gone, from the ST website. THere is, however, a link to NAFSA's website in the space where the logo used to be. Sort of implying the same thing, but without the logo. (Which is wouldn't be legal to use.)

THe IATEFL logo, I swear, disappeared off the website for a few days, then re-appeared. I don't know what's up with that.

Another poster also implied that perhaps ST, and others, had permission to use these logos, and I wanted to clarify.

I didn't just guess that they don't. The IATEFL and NAFSA websites make completely clear that they do not "recognise" courses.

But to be double-sure, I wrote to both organisations; both responded that they would be writing to ST and asking for their logos to be taken down.

I wonder if they did. And I wonder why it hasn't yet worked, at least not entirely.

Best,
Justin