Job Discussion Forums

antonics · Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 1

Hi,

Am about to take TESOL class soonest and am inclined to take distance learning instead of classroom type because there were some delays in the start of the classroom type of training owing to the fact that there were some students who backed out of the program leaving me alone which was not cost-effective for the school. (I hope they return my 50% downpayment!!!). I was able to locate a school within the Philippines which discouraged me from taking their classroom type of training for the same reason. I am about to embark on the distance learning but want to know the pros and cons. Distance leaning is much more affordable, i know, but what about the total scenario? Will i have less of a chance of getting a job because the TESOL certificate will reflect "distance learning"? The distance learning school accredited by ACTDEC will grant me associate teacher in TESOL. Will that already qualify me to teach abroad? Appreciate anyone who can clarify the picture. Best regards.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject:

When hiring teachers, I might accept a "generic TEFL qualification," as there are a lot of them around. But I would research exactly what the course involved.

A good course has:
Highly qualified trainers
at least 100 hours of classroom time
observed teaching practice (6 hours minimum, but more is good)

There are not many online courses that meet any of these requirements, let alone all of them.

I would only consider hiring the holder of an online cert that didn't meet these requirements if the teacher had other experience and qualifications. For example, I have a teacher working for me now (and she rocks!) who has an online cert. As she also has a degree in education, and several years classroom experience, I would have hired her, certificate or no certificate. But if she only had the online qualification, she'd have never made it to the interview stage.

Best,
Justin

Chancellor

Chancellor · Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject:

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Calories · Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 361 Location: Chinese Food Hell

Dude, don't worry about it. You'll probably be fine with that. Do which ever course you feel you want to do. A lot of people on this board are upitity about their teaching qualifications because a lot of people on this board don't have any. Like me! Er, I mean, I got the oxford seminar which is way less work than that course. Got me a job no problem. Besides, if you get yourself a job as an "oral english teacher" then you don't need to worry at all.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 4:24 pm Post subject:

Chancellor · Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:33 pm Post subject:

Chancellor · Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:35 pm Post subject:

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

Beware of Oxford Seminars job placement service for its graduates! You are better off finding a job yourself. I activated my job placement service in May 2005 and the so-called coordinator never took the initiative to contact me other than to confirm that she had received my activation and later, the documents needed to process my case. I was told a recruiter had been working on my behalf to find me a job but I never heard from this recruiter, or any others that the coordinator later told me she had given my documents to. When I e-mailed her, she told me that because (1) I was not a university degree holder and (2) because of my Chinese background the recruiter was having a difficult time finding positions for me. She also used this excuse that because I had "insisted" on working in Dalian it made things more difficult. That was of course a lie because I had only said that my preferance was Dalian, but never did I say Dalian ONLY. As for the no-degree and Chinese-face problems, I received plenty of job offers from my own job searches and even had to turn down a few contracts before deciding on well-paying job in a northeastern Chinese university last year.

The Oxford Seminars course is useful for anyone without any teaching experience. To me it was just spending some money to buy a piece of paper in order to increase my marketability.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

I've never taken their course, but I have known several people who have, and they've found really good jobs in Japan (where I met and worked with them), as well as in Toronto (even though they didn't have the supposedly required year long training from a community college or university- and it is this latter that I have. Note: private language schools can hire whoever they want). All of them have had university degrees, though.

I think the story the previous poster was getting may well have been exactly the position that the company felt they were in.

ktodba · Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 54 Location: UK

Are you looking for a 'qualification' that will allow you to get a job somewhere or are you interested in a qualification / course that will help you once you are in the classroom? An online course's suitability for employment will be determined by the individual customer but as far as developing as a teacher goes there's no substituite for experience in the classroom - there's always something different in a classroom from a training course and knowing how to react to the unexpected comes from in class experience first and foremost.

JDYoung · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 157 Location: Dongbei

Teaching is a people-skill. You learn people-skills by interacting with, duh, people. You learn in the classroom by making mistakes, learning from them and learning from the mistakes of others. It's a trifle difficult to do that on-line. Personally I think lots of courses can be learned on-line but teaching isn't one of them.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:14 pm Post subject:

There are some very well respected distance teaching qualifications. I'm considering a distance MA, and there are some pretty good names in the field.

I feel this option won't really be less effective than an on-site Masters, because it will allow me to stay in my own working environment, with my own students, and apply what I learn to my own classroom, then reflect on it with the feedback and evaluation of an experienced tutor. (Who will probably be in a different country.)

As a working teacher, I may choose this option, because it lets me keep working, avoiding the major "loss of income" cost of an on-site program.

BUt for a cert, it's a little different. Most people doing the cert aren't currently working as teachers. So most of what they learn on the cert is applied to...nothing. It remains purely theoretical, until they get their first jobs, where they are applying theory to practice for the first time, and their students are paying for it. This is true, even of a good online course.

But let's be honest. Most online certs aren't good. Most aren't even intended to be good. Most are intended to separate you from a few hundred dollars, and to do it in such a way that you believe you're getting value for money. And to pretend that their "qualification" is equivalent to or the same as the standard set by the on-site TESOL courses. (CELTA, Trinity, SIT) They aren't. And even these on-site courses are an entry level minimum. They don't "teach you all there is to know," nor anything like it. When they're good, the best of them teach you enough to start teaching without having too many disasters, and to learn from those disasters. That's all.