Job Discussion Forums

[mattdsoares]

Let me start by saying I'm 25 years old with 2 years experience teaching K-5 students in South Korea. I have a BA in Linguistics. I do not currently have any teaching certifications.

That being said, I'm finishing my 2nd year in Korea and am looking to move on somewhere new. While I know that if I choose to stay in most of Asia I don't need any kind of certification, I'd like to explore my options in places like Turkey, Russia, or other non-EU countries. I'd also like to make a bit of a career of ESL instruction.

So I'm thinking that I ought to look into a certification course so I can expand my job market outside of E. Asia. The problem is that there are soooo many ESL certification options.

From what I've gathered TEFL courses are not regulated and can be "accredited" by a number of different non standardized organizations, or not accredited at all (Oxford Seminars springs to mind). Then there's CELTA, which is fully accredited by Cambridge and held to more rigorous standards as well as being more respected internationally.

Basically I'm looking to take a 4 week course abroad in my target country. I'm looking at Turkey being that target country. I'm confused as to whether places like Via Lingua, or TEFL International are worth my time and money and will provide me with a respected certification, or whether I ought to stay to hell with TEFL and the often fly by night nature of some of the organizations and go with a CELTA course.

I'm really quite confused overall as the lack of international standards makes it quite difficult to figure out what is a good course and what is rubbish. I'm willing to spend the money on a good course. I don't want to be applying for a great position in 4 or 5 years and not get the job because TEFL International or Oxford Seminars isn't a properly accredited institution.

I love the look of TEFL International or Via Lingua's courses because the price is reasonable and they set you up with housing for a month as well as claiming to help you find a job in that country. At the same time, these programs also seem to garner some negative feedback at times and lack the type of high profile accreditation of CELTA.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[golsa]

Save your time and get a CELTA.

Shop around before deciding where to take the class because you can save a lot of money. Here in Tbilisi, the CELTA class costs 975 Euros and you can find housing for under $300 for the month. In a US city, the CELTA will cost upwards of $2,000 and the housing will be almost as much.

[nomad soul]

[mattdsoares]

[golsa]

[naturegirl321]

In my experience, again this is just mine, after the first couple of jobs I haven't been asked about my TEFL cert (which is good because they just went out of business ) INstead they ask for your masters, publications, workshops, etc.

[spiral78]

The real keys are that a course is on-site and includes supervised teaching practice with real students. I have a generic cert, and it's been accepted by all my employers over the years and is also officially recognised by the Canadian authorities as an acceptable entry-level cert.

If you did go for a generic, you would need to be sure that you highlight the fact that it was on-site and included the key teaching practicuum. A CELTA is easier, because most reputable employers know already that it meets the standard.

Depending where you go, a cert will often be needed, even later on if you've got a related MA/publications/workshops, etc. It's an entry-level qual and is certainly trumped by other stuff, but it's still considered a necessary step in the eyes of many employers, because of the supervised teaching element.