Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Leilam]

OXford Seminars -hmm, no hands on teaching practice...

or

Global - there is a practicum...but do i really wanna do all that work? -_-

has anyone here ever done their TEFL with Oxford?

[Zutronius]

I would imagine having the experience would come in handy. I'm starting the course at Global early next week and I'll let you know what I think of it as I go. I'd rather go to a country to teach having some kind of practical experience instead of none.

[Leilam]

Yeah, i just wanna get my money's worth...

let me know how it goes, Zut. =)

[LateBloomer]

Have you considered a CELTA? I wanted to keep my options open and since CELTA is the certificate that's valued in most European countries, that's what I did.

I've since spoken to people who have taken TEFL courses and none of them got as much teaching practice as I did.

A CELTA gives you constant teaching practice with real students. That's the emphasis of the course. Although some rightly point out that the course is geared to teaching adults, you can apply many of the principles to any kind of teaching. Regarding Korea, my CELTA was paid for in my first year teaching at a public school because it put me a higher salary classification.

[kiwiliz]

CELTA and TEFL are just different franchise companies and as often happens it depends onthe individual school. I believe many TEFL courses also include practical teaching experience, the one I did we were teaching, supervised, from the second day. The course was 100 hours long and very intense with reports and essays to write as well as lectures to attend.

Ask around, as your doing, good luck

[bassexpander]

The CELTA is geared toward adults. Will you be teaching adults in Korea? Do you plan on teaching in many countries?

Why not invest in an accredited full-time program with a university, which is accredited by an actual accrediting body, rather than an accrediting body created by CELTA to accredit the CELTA itself? Not to pick on the CELTA... most every other non-school affiliated TEFL program out there is in the same boat.

If you want to go long-term, and want to better yourself, get a real degree. If you want to raise your pay in Korea, there are far cheaper alternatives which won't cost you as much as 2 million won plus another 2 million in lost wages that month (assuming you do it all in one month).

This course costs $250 US, and is accepted by the Korean Gov't as a 100+ hour TEFL certification: www.koredinco.com

Sure, you aren't getting the hands-on training like with the CELTA or others like TEFL International, but I believe a lot of that can be picked up by watching videos (youtube is great), reading books by people like Nunan and Harmer, and just plain practice at the hagwon level and onward.

I also learn a ton from other teachers who have been doing this a long time, as well as by attending events that have speakers giving demo lessons. That has been my best resource.