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iverin
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 111
Location: Ontario
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 Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:05 pm Post subject: Are there any "good" online TESOL programs? |
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I've been planning on applying to the TESOL program at Woodsworth College at the University of Toronto (http://www.wdw.utoronto.ca/index.php/programs/tesol/overview/)
Someone I know mentioned taking an online TESOL program but I didn't catch the name of it. Doing the program in Toronto would mean losing a lot of work hours, busing two hours a day and paying $400 a month for said bus pass. If there were online programs where the end certificate would have the same qualifications as the in-person one I would really like to look into it. Any information about online TESOL programs would be greatly appreciated. (I already have in-class experience having taught briefly for 2 months in Japan and I've been tutoring with my local library since July) |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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I did a university TESL certificate in Ontario (not UofT, though that's where I did my BA- I moved out east for a couple of years). It's the equivalent of an MA in TESOL from a university from another country.
Benefits: you learn a SHITLOAD!!! Especially if you didn't major in Linguistics, it'd be a real eye opener. You do a real practicum that could include teaching university students in the university itself.
Drawbacks: you could get a couple of years of experience, do a similar amount of work from a university from Australia, or the UK or the US by distance (off-campus study from the US is still not quite to the level of the off-campus programs in the UK or Australia) and have an MA.
And because of that, bitterness can set in because you will have a 'certificate'. A 'certificate' could mean a weekend at Aunt Sally's TESOL boutique (***act now and get a free red felt tip pen for marking!!!!***). A masters degree can get you into jobs at the university level. A certificate that's at the level of a masters???? = a certificate. BUT, if you want to teach ESL in Ontario, one of those certificates is required. If you want to do UofT's masters in SLA (or whatever they're calling it) you need either a TESOL Certificate from a university OR a B.Ed that qualifies for k-12 sector (not sure about Brock's B.Ed in Adult Education or Native Teacher Education programs) then the TESOL Certificate from UofT is required.
So it's sort of up to you. You need a couple of years experience to get into a MA TESOL by distance from more countries. You don't to get into a TESOL Certificate on-campus in Ontario. But a 'certificate' in TESOL doesn't say 'professional teacher' outside of Ontario (and maybe Canada), so you will likely have to get an MA in TESOL in the future anyway, but you may be able to get up to half of another MA as transfer credit, so it wouldn't be a total waste.
I have a CTESL (Certificate in TESL) from a university in Ontario. I also have a masters in TESOL from a university in Australia that I did off-campus. Together they are two very different ways of looking at language and so now I understand both. I wouldn't trade in either and one is not better than the other (though one is definitely more marketable than the other). But I did spend an awful lot more money than I had to to get the level of education that I have. |
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iverin
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 111
Location: Ontario
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santi84
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 1317
Location: under da sea
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:49 am Post subject: |
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| iverin wrote: |
I guess my main question really is which program would be best to take the wouldn't result in wasting my money (basically). I'm already way over my head in debt from my undergrad and I'm trying not to add too much to that.
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I have a certificate that I'm sure is identical to GambateBingBangBOOM's certificate, which is a TESL Canada Level II from a university (30-45 upper level university credits). It is *EXPENSIVE*. If you are short on cash, there are other options. It is an excellent path but very expensive. Here (Vancouver), the university courses are $500 each (4 credits) and you need about 10 of them  The math speaks for itself.
| iverin wrote: |
My long term goal is to be able to teach ESL to adults in Canada. I would go abroad again if need be but would prefer to stay in Ontario if possible.
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You would be looking at an MA in TESOL in the long term. I would recommend CELTA (cheaper and much less time than the uni certificate), build experience, then get the MA.
I'm in BC, not ON, but as long as it is TESL recognized, it is fine. Out here, a TESL Canada certificate is simply not enough for any good job in the market (since you are looking long term).
| iverin wrote: |
Also, what is the difference between the Professional Certificate Standard One, Two and Three that each of the courses have beside them in the list of recognized programs, |
One and Two refers to number of hours taken (I think one is 100 hours, I know two is 250 hours, which is what I have). Level 3 is either 2500 hours or an MA, sorry, it slips my mind 
As GambateBingBangBOOM already said - it is A LOT of work for just "a certificate". You might work with people who have done i-to-i or other fly by night garbage certificates, despite doing multiple 20 page research reports over 1-3 years of work. Even CELTA, in my opinion, does not compare. My certificate required one month of full time teaching AFTER 1 year of full time upper level TESL credits. If I could redo it, I probably would have gone right into a provincial teaching certificate for ESL. It was a lot of work, a lot of time, and very expensive. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:32 am Post subject: |
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| iverin wrote: |
Thanks for the reply!
I guess my main question really is which program would be best to take the wouldn't result in wasting my money (basically). I'm already way over my head in debt from my undergrad and I'm trying not to add too much to that. Another big question is what is the difference between the certificate program and a diploma program. For example, the program at Woodsworth is 8 months long and called a certificate but this program at Greystone is 12 weeks long and called a diploma (http://www.greystonecollege.com/toronto-tesol-tesl-canada-cambridge.aspx). |
The name thing is a huge problem with Ontario university and (to a lesser extent) college certificates (college ones are at least called 'postgraduate certificate', though in other countries that only takes one term, whereas in Ontario, it's two or three).
Greystone is not a 'real' college (in the sense of Humber, Seneca etc)- it's a private institution. I wouldn't go there if you want to work in Ontario or the rest of Canada, if I were you.
If you want to be able to teach ESL in Ontario (at a Seneca or Humber kind of college [as in, 'a real one'] or at a university or through the LINC program), then you need to do a TESL Ontario approved program as opposed to a private career college kind of program (you can get jobs at universities and colleges in Ontario with masters degrees in TESOL or Applied Linguistics from universities from other countries, but you DO need real training from a recognized, real university). My advice is to go with one through either a real college or a university. When I was looking into it, I was told by the universities that you needed to do a university certificate to get into the MA, but the colleges were saying that you can do a recognized college certificate and also get in. I figured that the universities are the ones who have the masters programs and I don't want to take any risks, because if you decide to teach ESL for your career, then you will need a masters in it (unless you have a masters in something else) to teach in college or universities. One advantage of the universities over the colleges are that you can do part of your practicum in the university itself (but I guess teaching in the college is also another possibility).
http://www.teslontario.org/uploads/certification/RecognizedTESLTrainingInstitutions.pdf
http://www.teslontario.org/certification/
Yeah they're expensive, but at least OSAP is an option if you do it through a real college or university- it wouldn't be through a private institution.
One of the pitfalls in the TESOL area is that there are so many crap certificates out there pushing the idea that you just need to be able to speak your own language and that they teach you in four weeks everything you would learn in a year at a university. It's just not true, and the universities themselves are at least partially to blame for not having some sort of moniker that differentiates their programs from the crap. Brock's program used to be called a B.Ed in TESOL. They stopped that (maybe the Ontario College of Teachers got all uppity about it) though they still have B.Ed in Adult Education and Adult Native Education that don't lead to a k-12 designation. In other countries, they call them M.Ed / MA TESOL etc. But not in Ontario. I personally feel like they should just become more uniform with other countries and call it an MA, or at least call it by the British name for a B.Ed (to get around any potential Ontario College of Teachers issues) by calling it a PGCE or a PGDE. They can't possibly be so stupid as to not realize that a LOT of people who do that kind of program will go overseas to teach, and so the marketability of the education (for which the name itself is important [which is why these private providers call their training 'dilploma'- something that can refer simply to the piece of paper itself as separate from the actual education]) and when a job says you need a masters degree in TESOL or Applied Linguistics, people from Ontario are blocked because potential employers read 'certificate' and think, 'next!' before reading further.
ETA
UofT's is called a 'Certificate' [they recently changed it from TESL to TESOL to reflect actual practice--> meaning they know people go overseas to teach and the training is equally useful for overseas as in-country, though they didn't change the name of the qualification to something that would be useful in describing what it actually is to people outside of Ontario] but in their M.Ed (through OISIE) they describe it as a pre-teacher education program equivalent to a B.Ed (which is obviously a much more marketable term). |
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iverin
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 111
Location: Ontario
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:02 pm Post subject: |
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