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kcat
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 35
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 Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:02 am Post subject: TEFL and courses the "count" vs those that do not? |
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Hello, I'm an ESL teacher looking into courses for TEFL/CELTA and I enrolled (and I'm not sure if this is a great decision but I hope so) in one whose source is http://www.teflcourse.net/
Anyone know how to judge the validity of courses? They cost a great deal and I don't want to waste my money on something that won't be of use to me (in an employers eyes).
Thank you |
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Sekhmet
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 329
Location: Alexandria, Egypt
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:54 am Post subject: |
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| It depends where you want to go, and who you want to teach. But if you have a certificate with teaching experience from a known company, you should be fine wherever. You won't get university jobs unless you have a Masters, but language schools will be fine with a cert and BA. Just make sure it has teaching practice!! |
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kcat
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:20 am Post subject: |
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| Sekhmet wrote: |
| It depends where you want to go, and who you want to teach. But if you have a certificate with teaching experience from a known company, you should be fine wherever. You won't get university jobs unless you have a Masters, but language schools will be fine with a cert and BA. Just make sure it has teaching practice!! |
I see, do you happen to know if that company is known well? There are 12 observed teaching hours. I really appreciate your help, thank you. |
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kcat
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:20 am Post subject: |
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| Sekhmet wrote: |
| It depends where you want to go, and who you want to teach. But if you have a certificate with teaching experience from a known company, you should be fine wherever. You won't get university jobs unless you have a Masters, but language schools will be fine with a cert and BA. Just make sure it has teaching practice!! |
Also, I wish to work in North America as I'm from Canada (but I am overseas right now teaching ESL) |
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Sekhmet
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 329
Location: Alexandria, Egypt
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:00 am Post subject: |
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kcat,
teflcourse.net is one of the websites for TEFL International. They are pretty well known, and are getting more so - I did my certificate with them as it happens!!
I'm not sure if a cert like TEFL International's will help you in North America, especially if you want to teach in state schools - I'm not sure what the regulations are, but I would contact schools you might like to work or, and ask them about their requirements. However, if you want to concentrate purely on EFL in America, it should work. |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:25 am Post subject: |
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Keep in mind that it's very difficult to get full-time, salaried work in North America. It's more common to get an hourly rate (and I've seen some ridiculously low hourly rates!) with no benefits, holidays, etc. The number of hours you get depends on enrollment. And a lot of these part-time positions ask for an MA. A TEFL certificate might not help too much.
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:28 am Post subject: |
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| kcat wrote: |
| Also, I wish to work in North America as I'm from Canada (but I am overseas right now teaching ESL) |
Do you want to teach in English Canada or French Canada (finding work in the US would be very, very difficult- they seem to have enough people who want to do it without importing people from Canada. For Mexico, you should check the the appropriate forum)?
Assuming you want to work in Canada, do you want to work at
(a) private language schools, (they can hire who they want, but more and more almost all of their employees have a year long certificate in TESL from a college or university, because there are so many people who have one looking for a job)
(b)for a government programme (LINC)- (the above mentioned year long certificate is amost definately going to be necessary),
(c)the k-12 system (you need a B.ed- plus a TESL add-on, if you want to teach ESL)),
(d) at a post-secondary (uni or college) institution? (you normally need an MA- usually preceded by the above-mentioned year long certificate in TESL, and very often the MA is in Applied Linguistics)
(e) private freelance tutoring (posting an ad at univerisites or international centres with a phone number/ email address and hoping people call for one on one tutoring for an agreed upon price) (Just post the ad and see what happens)
Go to TESL Canada's website www.tesl.ca and look up the courses you are thinking of taking and go to the provincial affiliate to see if there are further requirements (for example, I'm from Ontario, which is why I keep mentioning the year-long certificates- they are the requirement of TESL Ontario http://www.teslontario.org/ ) |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:28 am Post subject: |
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| Get a Trinity or RSA Celta. Nobody knows about any of the other courses so even if they are reputable, they won't really help you get a job. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:34 am Post subject: |
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| I've just looked at the website for the course. It is like the Celta in nearly all respects, including duration and cost, but doesn't give you a recognized certificate at the end. Give it a miss. |
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bluffer
Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 138
Location: Back in the real world.
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:27 am Post subject: |
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| Stephen Jones wrote: |
| I've just looked at the website for the course. It is like the Celta in nearly all respects, including duration and cost, but doesn't give you a recognized certificate at the end. Give it a miss. |
Lets not have a blanket dismissal please. It is certainly recognised and well known in Asia and increasingly so in Europe.
If I remember right, it used to be a Trinity course but they decided to do change adult content in the course to extra kids stuff - since thats where most teachers are working - so couldnt call themselves a Trinity anymore.
Kcat - are you wanting to do a course abroad? Dont think TEFL Int do anything in North America. Might be better / cheaper to do a course near your home town. |
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once again
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 815
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:54 am Post subject: |
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Lets not have a blanket dismissal please. It is certainly recognised and well known in Asia and increasingly so in Europe.
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If blanket dismissals are not in order, then neither should blanket praise. Asia is a very big place and so is Europe. Who says it is certainly recognised and well known is Asia. You? I have never heard of it. If it so well known and recognised, it seems strange that it would go under different names and web sites. Why would a qualification with such a recognisable name and reputation want to go under different names. I have never come accross Trinity or CELTA doing the same thing. |
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Deconstructor
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 775
Location: Montreal
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| Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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| kcat wrote: |
| Also, I wish to work in North America as I'm from Canada (but I am overseas right now teaching ESL) |
With CELTA or any cert obtained faster than a haircut you are condemned to work in language schools for the rest of your life for $15/hr. In US/Canada you'd better have something real: B.Ed or MA. On the other hand, if you are already working overseas, why would you want to spend all that money on a cert? After all, your career there is only horizontally mobile under the best of circumstances. Save your money or if you can�t, I�ll be more than happy to take it off your hands. |
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kcat
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:10 am Post subject: |
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| Deconstructor wrote: |
| kcat wrote: |
| Also, I wish to work in North America as I'm from Canada (but I am overseas right now teaching ESL) |
With CELTA or any cert obtained faster than a haircut you are condemned to work in language schools for the rest of your life for $15/hr. In US/Canada you'd better have something real: B.Ed or MA. On the other hand, if you are already working overseas, why would you want to spend all that money on a cert? After all, your career there is only horizontally mobile under the best of circumstances. Save your money or if you can�t, I�ll be more than happy to take it off your hands. |
I now agree with you, but I couldn't work in Thailand. I do agree though, and I will not take the course I linked above. Thank you. |
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CostaRicaTEFL
Joined: 11 Jan 2005
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:40 am Post subject: |
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| Stephen Jones wrote: |
| I've just looked at the website for the course. It is like the Celta in nearly all respects, including duration and cost, but doesn't give you a recognized certificate at the end. Give it a miss. |
Stephen, unfortunately your information is incorrect. I don't understand where the idea that trainees do not receive a legitimate certificate at the end of the course came from, but this is completely incorrect. All graduating tainees receive a TESOL/TEFL certificate.
As stated by another poster, the requirements for the CELTA vs. the TEFL/TESOL from TEFL International are the same. Additionally, both are externally validated, which is one of the requirements to be considered an internationally recognized certificate. Some of the others are a minimum of 6 hours of observed teaching practice (our Costa Rica course has a minimum of 8 observed hours teaching with Spanish speakers and an additional hour of assessment with locals and an hour+ of teaching your peers. And an additional hour of teaching practice for this particular coming cycle), 120+ hours of total contact time/teaching practice, etc. In other words, we are externally validated and exceed requirements.
Our program is supported by well-known people in the field, and the course designer/Academic Coordinator has over thirty years in the field. Take a closer look at some of the TEFL International websites. There's a link right at the top of the page of this forum. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:53 am Post subject: |
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Hmmm...
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| externally validated |
buzzword
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| internationally recognized certificate |
buzzword
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| exceed requirements |
buzzword
I empathize. I really do. But the flood of questions that come.
By whom? By whom? Of whom?
I have nothing against TEFL International. But, this kind of post doesn't help. |
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