TEFL/ CELTA/ TESOL and all that jazz

brokeinwales

Hi,
I wondered if anyone can help me.
I'm interested in training to teach English as a second language. after doing a bit of researched I've come to the conclusion that the Cambridge CELTA cert is "the one to do". Unfortunately it's not really a possibility for me - I can't take four weeks off work to do the intensive version, and even the part time courses that run nearest to me include daytime weekday lessons, which as I'm a grown up with a full time job, I can't make.
So what are the alternatives? I know there's a lot of dodgy tefl providers out there running useless courses, and I don't want to do a course that's all online, as I do actually want to be in with a chance of a teaching jobat the end of it.
So considering I don't want to get ripped off, and I have to fit a course around earning money - does anybody have any ideas about this?

Oldernotwiser

Could you take annual leave to go to the weekday courses?

Unfortunately, for a course to be recognised there has to be a fair bit of practical teaching, which must be fitted in somewhere.

purple12

I was lucky to be able to do the CELTA part time in the evenings so could combine it with a full-time job. Generally, I found that it was the certificate that was most respected where I was (I taught in Italy for a couple of years with it). Sure, some schools weren't too bothered but the 'better' schools demanded either the CELTA or the Trinity Cert.

brokeinwales

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Could you take annual leave to go to the weekday courses?

Unfortunately, for a course to be recognised there has to be a fair bit of practical teaching, which must be fitted in somewhere.

I have looked at one that includes a week of work experience in a Londonm language school. how about arranging my own work experience? Could that work? I was sort of hoping I could do one of the "lesser" courses and perhaps go on to get a full qualification on the job - once I've got my foot in the door. I really don't understand why more places don't offer the CELTA part time.

Oldernotwiser

brokeinwales wrote: »

I have looked at one that includes a week of work experience in a Londonm language school. how about arranging my own work experience? Could that work? I was sort of hoping I could do one of the "lesser" courses and perhaps go on to get a full qualification on the job - once I've got my foot in the door. I really don't understand why more places don't offer the CELTA part time.

The trouble about arranging your own is that it's not just the practice you need to have, it's being assessed in that practice.

About your second idea, I don't know. Why not make some enquiries to language schools to see if they offer this?

I'm not sure whether you're familiar with this site but there's masses of information on here and a forum as well.
https://www.tefl.net/

lbell_3

The best course for you to do depends on where you want to work afterwards, eg. if you want to teach in this country, or across Europe then you will need to do a course like CELTA. If you want to teach somewhere like Japan or South Korea then you can do that with just a degree (and of course gain experience over there)

benjus

This is another good site that's been around for years: http://www.eslcafe.com/

There are essentially two questions you have to answer:
1. What is the minimum qualification I need in order to get a reasonable job in my chosen location? As mentioned above, you may not need anything.
2. How much training do I need in order to be able to teach English effectively?

The second question is the trickier one - for me it was more of a moral question. I was teaching in a poor country, so I had to remember that my students were investing what was for them a significant amount of money to improve their prospects for a better life. Trying to "wing it" seemed immoral to me, so I was glad I at least had the knowledge from the 4 week intensive course (I did the Trinity cert rather than CELTA) to fall back on. You can't learn to be a great teacher in 4 weeks, but it does give you a solid foundation to build on.

The Trinity College certificate is also worth investigating - it's not as well known as CELTA but it's generally given equal status.

Oldernotwiser

benjus wrote: »

This is another good site that's been around for years: http://www.eslcafe.com/

There are essentially two questions you have to answer:
1. What is the minimum qualification I need in order to get a reasonable job in my chosen location? As mentioned above, you may not need anything.
2. How much training do I need in order to be able to teach English effectively?

The second question is the trickier one - for me it was more of a moral question. I was teaching in a poor country, so I had to remember that my students were investing what was for them a significant amount of money to improve their prospects for a better life. Trying to "wing it" seemed immoral to me, so I was glad I at least had the knowledge from the 4 week intensive course (I did the Trinity cert rather than CELTA) to fall back on. You can't learn to be a great teacher in 4 weeks, but it does give you a solid foundation to build on.

The Trinity College certificate is also worth investigating - it's not as well known as CELTA but it's generally given equal status.

I totally agree with this and would also add that you need good, effective training to be able to survive in the classroom; just being a native speaker isn't enough, particularly if you've been educated without any grammatical knowledge of your own language.

nimbo

benjus wrote: »

This is another good site that's been around for years: http://www.eslcafe.com/

There are essentially two questions you have to answer:
1. What is the minimum qualification I need in order to get a reasonable job in my chosen location? As mentioned above, you may not need anything.
2. How much training do I need in order to be able to teach English effectively?

The second question is the trickier one - for me it was more of a moral question. I was teaching in a poor country, so I had to remember that my students were investing what was for them a significant amount of money to improve their prospects for a better life. Trying to "wing it" seemed immoral to me, so I was glad I at least had the knowledge from the 4 week intensive course (I did the Trinity cert rather than CELTA) to fall back on. You can't learn to be a great teacher in 4 weeks, but it does give you a solid foundation to build on.

The Trinity College certificate is also worth investigating - it's not as well known as CELTA but it's generally given equal status.

i really have to agree with this, it may be possible to get work after doing an internet course, but i don't think that any thing replaces the experiance of standing in fromt of a class romm full of people who don't understand a word that you are saying!!!!

happened during my training, but had this been a class that the students were paying for i would have been fired, and in some places that say they'll pay for your air fare i could have ended up in a wee bit of trouble...

also well worth doing lots of research as some places that hire you don't get you proper visas etc, and i had a friend who did the course who ended up in Japan, in a room full of men who just stared at her.... she couldn't get her head round why they'd asked for her photo when she'd applied for the job!!!! the money was great so she stayed for a few months though....

brokeinwales

Hmm ... thanks everybody - it's good to get some info from people with real experience of this. My grammatical knowledge of English is pretty good (covered a lot of ground during my degree). I'll definitly check out the sites you mentioned.

I am starting to wonder whether I could ask to go on a four day week at work in order to do the part time course (anyone tried anything like that at work? How did it go?!). Wouldn't be great financially - but seems like a better option than wasting money on something that won't get me very far. Although I'm interested in working abroad short term, ultimately I really want to teach in the UK - so I think maybe I have to find a way to do one of the more respected certificates.

The other thing I was wondering was about costs - do most colleges offering the CELTA course offer the option to pay in installments (only stumpong up £1000 plus all at once could be a bit tight for me)?

lbell_3

brokeinwales wrote: »

Hmm ... thanks everybody - it's good to get some info from people with real experience of this. My grammatical knowledge of English is pretty good (covered a lot of ground during my degree). I'll definitly check out the sites you mentioned.

I am starting to wonder whether I could ask to go on a four day week at work in order to do the part time course (anyone tried anything like that at work? How did it go?!). Wouldn't be great financially - but seems like a better option than wasting money on something that won't get me very far. Although I'm interested in working abroad short term, ultimately I really want to teach in the UK - so I think maybe I have to find a way to do one of the more respected certificates.

The other thing I was wondering was about costs - do most colleges offering the CELTA course offer the option to pay in installments (only stumpong up £1000 plus all at once could be a bit tight for me)?

There's no real harm in asking for a 4 day week at work. It really depends on who your employer is and what resources they have as to what they'll say! You could also consider asking for a career break in order to do the course, but that would of course be unpaid.

It can be cheaper to actually do the course abroad, and I imagine a great adventure in itself too. I would have loved to have done a CELTA course but like you was very concerned about the fees. I spent a year in South Korea teaching, just with my degree and a weekend course.

Another point though, it is very competitive in this country and there are far less opportunities than if you were to teach abroad.