Job Discussion Forums

[daodejing]

I've searched a few forums and have not found the answer I'm looking for. I've seen references to people obtaining TEFL certificates online, and I think I'm interested in doing this. A few questions:

Will a TEFL certificate earned online significantly help me secure a job or a better-paying job? I will possibly be looking for a job in Shanghai in 2 months; I'm American; I have a bachelor's degree; and I have been to China before and can speak Chinese.

I'm guessing an online course would not help my teaching skills as much as a real live course, but will it help some? I've never taught before and I'd like to have some kind of good, formal training and idea of what to do if I get in front of a class for the first time.

Can anyone recommend a good website to take a course and obtain a certficate?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Gregor]

To start with,
Online TEFL courses are crap, sayeth the DoS who's hired some of those grads. That opinion is shared by a lot of people.
This is because what the certificate is for is giving the teachers some idea of how teaching English without use of the students' first language (aka "L1") works (which is easier to understand when demonstrated; it's hard to just explain to the uninitiated), give you some theories and so on (can be done online), and observe you as you teach classes of your own (ALMOST impossible to do except face to face, but read on).

That said, if you get a cheap one, that and the degree will allow you to find work in China and there is a HUGE job market in China. People will sometimes FORGE documents so that teachers can be hired. That's how easy it is to get a job here. And with an online TEFL cert, you'd be totally legal. Just don't say it was obtained online unless someone specifically asks. Don't LIE about it, but just say that you were told that it might be looked down on, but you got it because you wanted to comply, and yada yada yada.

OK. Cheap online courses are legion. There are TONS of them. Just do a google search and do the cheapest one. BAM! Finished.

If you want it to actually help you in teaching, it needs to be affordable, and you don't live in an area that has a face-to-face course, go to this site:
http://www.english-international.com/director.html
This site details a three-course system that is supposed to be equivelant to a face-to-face TEFL certificate course. The third one has the student putting together classes for free and recording them to video. This sounds like a lot of work, but surely it would be easy to get six or eight students interested in taking four or five free English classes to help you out. The total cost is a bargain at $615 US, and you just pay one course at a time, so that splits it up.
My sister is doing this, and she says the guy in charge, Jeff Mohamed, is awesome. He'll watch your classes and give you critiques, and I would hire someone from this course as comfortably as I would someone off a CELTA or Trinity College, London course.

If you prefer to do the cheap route, go here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2005-36%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=Online+TEFL+certificates

[lisa1968]

I don't know about China, although I was in Asia for some time, and I agree, on line courses are crap! You can't learn from them what you need to walk into a class of 15 teenagers who have never spoken a word of English before. It can be a scary thing. If you are willing to pay 600 for something where you only learn how to teach your peers, can't you come up with another 500 to actually do a real 120 hour course with real students.

If you have never taught before, it will be a waste of money. You may learn a little about grammar, but you won't be a teacher.

[tofit]

I just paid into one of these courses thinking it might help.

http://www.teflonline.com
After reading the first module, I don't think this will help at all. The course material isn't put together well, its lacking examples to expand on definitions.

I'm going to call and ask for a refund since its 100% money back guarenteed.