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Mena
Joined: 02 Jan 2009
Posts: 19
Location: California
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 Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:14 pm Post subject: Cheap and quick online TEFL Certificate |
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Which one is the best? I want to go to Buenos Aires in a month to get a teaching job. I have taught EFL before but without a certificate.
Thanks! |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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Mena
Joined: 02 Jan 2009
Posts: 19
Location: California
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:49 pm Post subject: Re: Cheap and quick online TEFL Certificate |
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What do you think about this site?
http://www.i-to-i.com/tefl/weekend-tefl/
The course is near my home. Is it any good? |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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If it is not 100+ hours on site, with at least 6 hours of practice teaching with actual students, it's below the basic newbie level standard.
Some of the online/short/without teaching practice courses have great advertising.
But the standard is as I've described above.
There are lots of very good reasons to take a course in the country where you want to start working, if at all possible.
Training in-country offers you a great chance to get your feet wet in the country/culture
while you still have a support system � they usually arrange for your housing during the course, airport pickup, and local orientation. Your practice teaching students will really be representative of those you�ll be working with when you start. You can be sure that your certification will be recognized by local employers, and a training centre can give you invaluable contacts and advice regarding reputable local employers. |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject: Re: Cheap and quick online TEFL Certificate |
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The "industry standard" (meaning the absolute minimum) is 100-120 course hours and six hours of supervised teaching practice with real ESL/EFL students. For i-to-i the basic certificate is only 40 hours. The on-site weekend is only 20 hours and the teaching practice is done on other i-to-i students and not on real ESL/EFL students. There are other "modules" that, if you take all of them, will just barely get you to that 100-hour mark.
Where are you located anyway? |
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Mena
Joined: 02 Jan 2009
Posts: 19
Location: California
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: Cheap and quick online TEFL Certificate |
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| Chancellor wrote: |
The "industry standard" (meaning the absolute minimum) is 100-120 course hours and six hours of supervised teaching practice with real ESL/EFL students. For i-to-i the basic certificate is only 40 hours. The on-site weekend is only 20 hours and the teaching practice is done on other i-to-i students and not on real ESL/EFL students. There are other "modules" that, if you take all of them, will just barely get you to that 100-hour mark.
Where are you located anyway? |
Los Angeles, CA
What would be these other modules? |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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Everybody wants three things: Cheap, Fast, and Good.
All three are never possible at the same time.
The i to i course is generally considered substandard for a variety of reasons. The online components sound good in print, but it's pretty hard to figure out what people have really learned from it. What they can apply, less.
In most short courses, practice teaching is divided throughout the course, so you learn to apply things as you go, rather than cramming it all together in a confusing weekend.
I've been told that on the i to i weekend course, one teaches peers, not real EFL students. If true, absolutely pointless in my opinion.
Even if you got real participants, what can you teach/learn/observe in a single weekend.
Best,
Justin
PS- As you can tell, I don't consider the i to i course to be adequate training. But please don't write it off as a grouchy DOS's opinion. Search this forum- what I'm saying here is pretty standard. |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:30 pm Post subject: Re: Cheap and quick online TEFL Certificate |
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| Mena wrote: |
| Chancellor wrote: |
The "industry standard" (meaning the absolute minimum) is 100-120 course hours and six hours of supervised teaching practice with real ESL/EFL students. For i-to-i the basic certificate is only 40 hours. The on-site weekend is only 20 hours and the teaching practice is done on other i-to-i students and not on real ESL/EFL students. There are other "modules" that, if you take all of them, will just barely get you to that 100-hour mark.
Where are you located anyway? |
Los Angeles, CA
What would be these other modules? |
You can find them on the i-to-i website. There's a 20-hour grammar module and the remaining modules are each a mere five hours, e.g. young learners, business English...
Since you are in the city of lost angels, one of your options is a combination of online (where you would do most of the course work) and on-site (where you would get the teaching practice), such as this one: http://www.teflcourse.net/tefl-courses-combined/ but the closest on-site in the US is in New York City. You could also try this: http://www.globaltefl.org/bayarea.html (though this one is up in San Francisco).
I did a 250-hour course recognized by the government of Canada (www.ontesol.com) and am arranging to do my teaching practicum (10 hours of observation followed by 10 hours of teaching real ESL students under supervision).
Otherwise, either do an on-site four-week course in the country where you want to teach (or here in the US, there are a few of them; here's one with courses in the US and Mexico: http://www.teflcertificatecourses.com/) or get a a degree or certificate in TESL from a university.
There is a discussion of i-to-i in the newbie section: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=69878
Last edited by Chancellor on Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Justin Trullinger wrote: |
| I've been told that on the i to i weekend course, one teaches peers, not real EFL students. If true, absolutely pointless in my opinion. |
Yes, it's true that one would be teaching peers. When I was looking at different courses I actually asked them about the teaching practice. |
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BenE
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 321
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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I remember when I was first thinking about doing EFL as a career move some people in my area recommended i-to-i over CELTA as a thing to do. As 'you're only going to do it for a year or so...' and because some friend of a friend managed to do an i-to-i course and have a 'wonderful' time
Now as a CELTA grad. with a fairly decent job I'm so glad I didn't take that advice.
Get a CELTA or equivalent if you want to do a proper job teaching. |
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Mena
Joined: 02 Jan 2009
Posts: 19
Location: California
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:50 am Post subject: |
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| BenE wrote: |
I remember when I was first thinking about doing EFL as a career move some people in my area recommended i-to-i over CELTA as a thing to do. As 'you're only going to do it for a year or so...' and because some friend of a friend managed to do an i-to-i course and have a 'wonderful' time
Now as a CELTA grad. with a fairly decent job I'm so glad I didn't take that advice.
Get a CELTA or equivalent if you want to do a proper job teaching. |
I hope I can find a course to take when I get down to Argentina. If you guys know of reputable programs, let me know! |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Mena wrote: |
| BenE wrote: |
I remember when I was first thinking about doing EFL as a career move some people in my area recommended i-to-i over CELTA as a thing to do. As 'you're only going to do it for a year or so...' and because some friend of a friend managed to do an i-to-i course and have a 'wonderful' time
Now as a CELTA grad. with a fairly decent job I'm so glad I didn't take that advice.
Get a CELTA or equivalent if you want to do a proper job teaching. |
I hope I can find a course to take when I get down to Argentina. If you guys know of reputable programs, let me know! |
It would make more sense to find the course you want to take in Argentina and then go down. Try here for a start: http://www.eslbase.com/courses/argentina/ (but ignore the one about i-to-i, that school doesn't offer a four-week intensive on-site course), here: http://www.teflcertificationabroad.com/Argentina.cfm; and here: http://www.learn4good.com/tefl/tesol_training_courses_argentina_buenos_aires.htm. |
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