TEFL online course

srcandas · 13 March 2017 at 5:28PM

Looking for an online TEFL course (Teaching English as a foreign language).

On the one hand there are cheap options (£49 to £100 offered via discount sites e.g. groupon) but the ones I have found are run by one man bands with little history and little in the bank. On the other hand there are some at over £1000 but no great guarantees as to quality.

Is there anyone out there who has done such a course and can make a recommendation?

Should say I'm not worried about accreditation (as anyone thinking of teaching in a school should be) or practise in a classroom. This is for fun and to help spanish family and friends; one to one. But I do not want to pay for poor quality, a ripped off course, and/or a supplier who will disappear before I finish the course

Any thoughts or help most gratefully received :beer:

trailingspouse · 13 March 2017 at 6:42PM

If you want a TEFL course that is actually of some use to you, then you need to go for the ones that are more than 100 hours long. Weekend courses and online courses really just don't cut the mustard. The 100 hour courses will give you something like 6 hours of classroom practice.

As this course seems to be a bit of overkill for what you have in mind, then the short courses are the way to go. You're unlikely to get a job in a school without one of these courses, but you're not wanting to do that so that's OK. How about starting with a book on TEFL and seeing if you need any more than that?

srcandas · 13 March 2017 at 8:32PM

Tx trailing spouse. By chance I have stumbled across the London Teacher Training College. They have been around a good while and offer a free introductory course. At least that shows they have some confidence in their offerings. So I'll start there.

As you say those who want to work in the industry need to look at a more professional approach but in my case I'm really giving my Spanish family and friends a helping hand. And in the case of the younger generation I'm backing up their college/school efforts. And here in Spain that often means they have a non native English speaker

And having some fun of course. Never been a keen soduku/crossword fanatic so need to keep the brain going somehow :rotfl:

I'll report back in a while but if anyone has completed a course would love to hear what you thought. :beer:

daytona0 · 13 March 2017 at 9:11PM

I did a TESOL course which cost about £1100 for 4 weeks.

It was really helpful and really intensive. Basically like a good, short and less stressful version of a PGCE..

Really helped to give me an understanding of the methodologies as well as the English subject content/IELTS exams etc.

Much of it was classroom-focused, but one module had us tailor a lesson plan for one individual student. You would benefit from this module.

I did mine at an accredited English school, so there was never any doubt as to how legitimate it was.

If this is "for fun" then I would recommend that you go for a much cheaper option. This will give you a much more solid understanding of the English language without the classroom experience. A TESOL would be absolute overkill in your situation!

If, however, you have plans to live abroad and work then a TESOL may well be a handy little investment as it is more well-recognised across the world.

If you do your research then I would anticipate that it would be very unlikely that you would get outright conned by a TEFL provider; they make more money by just providing this watered-down course, let alone running off with money!

Kit1 · 14 March 2017 at 5:49PM

I am interested in doing this course but not sure it is worth the money so would be grateful for any advice.

I am a TA in primary school so have lots of classroom practice. Is it possible to do this course and find work without a degree?

trailingspouse · 14 March 2017 at 7:00PM

I needed to have a degree in order to do the 100 hour course - shorter courses may not have the same entry requirements. Being used to life in a classroom will certainly help - on my course, the people who found it hardest were the ones who had never had to stand in front of a group of people before. I'd been a classroom teacher for 10 years, so the practical part of the course was a doddle.

srcandas · 14 March 2017 at 8:27PM

Kit1 wrote: »

I am interested in doing this course but not sure it is worth the money so would be grateful for any advice.

I am a TA in primary school so have lots of classroom practice. Is it possible to do this course and find work without a degree?

Kit1 may I suggest you have a look at http://www.teachenglish.co.uk/ There is a free intro course with code FCTEFL. It seems to give a good idea of scope to allow comparison of their many other courses (or at least give a good basis for discussion of what else they can offer).. The Intro only takes an hour or so to motor through.

My experience with their intro showed up a few issues:

- It gave me a good overview of syllabus.
- I found 6 typos that have been there for a while. They claim to correct typos but can't see much evidence of that. However they were obvious typos so didn't do any harm.
- The Intro is based on Moodle but their for example TEFL120 is pdf based. Maybe that explains the lower than normal typical cost £285. Although their pricing in general looks good to me.
- But they are a serious educational supplier and responded to my questions immediately.

I'll be looking further before I leap in so if you or anyone find anything interesting would love to here. :beer:

srcandas · 21 March 2017 at 9:44AM

Just as a warning learntefl.eu is a scam.

miss_edith · 21 March 2017 at 9:15PM

I'm just completing my CELTA. According to my college quite a few TAs have done the course so that they can move into EAL in schools.

I'm not sure what the requirements are for those jobs but one student in my group is struggling to find a teaching job abroad due to lack of a degree.

Kit1 wrote: »

I am interested in doing this course but not sure it is worth the money so would be grateful for any advice.

I am a TA in primary school so have lots of classroom practice. Is it possible to do this course and find work without a degree?

srcandas · 17 April 2017 at 5:00PM

As I said above http://www.learntefl.eu is a scam. Paypal have given me a full refund.

I'm now doing a 150 hour TESOL with https://www.global-english.com.

Used a discount code from eslbase.com so less than £250.

Once paid had access and had contact from allocated tutor within 24 hours. Nice on-line user interface so no need to download big pdfs. Interface shows course structure, progress, marks gained, time schedule for modules, mail to/from tutor and technical support, and more. Materials include video and audio.

Assessments: A few on-line with immediate automated marking. They represent about a quarter of the marks for the course. Most marks come from submitted work that is marked and commented by your tutor. All happens very quickly.

I’m 25% through.

It is in parts challenging and more interesting /in depth than I imagined. (there is a 120 hour but this is 150 hour) but if you study, follow the recommended external research, and use common-sense it would be hard to fail. But less than 50% would be a fail.

Based on progress so far I’m very very pleased.

paddyrg · 17 April 2017 at 8:09PM

For anyone reading this thinking "That's easy! I can speak English!", a friend gave me a good example of the nuances - he said...

Explain the difference between-

I am in hospital
I am in the hospital
I am at the hospital

We understand they all have clearly different meanings despite being rather similar in absolute terms. I think it's a good illustration

TEFL online course

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