 Frequently
Asked Questions
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Commonly
Asked Questions |
1. What is the difference between TESOL and TEFL?
2. There are so many teacher-training courses advertised (particularly
in the "Dave's ESL Cafe"). How do I know which to apply
for?
3. I've heard that these courses, most notably the RSA CELTA and the
Trinity certificate, are really tough. Is it true that they try to
fail a few people on each course?
4. What is the difference between the TEFL International TESOL Certificate,
the Trinity TESOL certificate and the Cambridge/RSA Certificate (CELTA)?
5. Why should I take a TEFL International course instead of an RSA
CELTA or Trinity certificate?
6. What are the requirements for getting on to the Certificate course?
How do I know if I am suitable? What kind of people will be on the
course besides myself? Am I too old? What is the success rate and
how many people fail?
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| 1.
What is the difference between TESOL and TEFL? |
For all intents and purposes the terms mean the same. There is a slight
technical difference since TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of
Other Languages) refers to all learners whose first language is not
English, often ethnic minorities living inside an English speaking
country, whereas TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign language) usually
refers to the teaching of English in non-English speaking countries.
Potentially, therefore, a TESOL course encompasses more than a more
narrowly defined TEFL course.
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2.
There are so many teacher-training courses advertised. How do I
know which to apply for?
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There are many good language schools. Many are professionally managed
and have qualified, competent teachers. Unfortunately, there is no
law to prevent anyone from setting up as a teacher-training center
and there is nothing to prevent you from being "ripped off"
by a company offering so-called recognized certificates or diplomas.
You should be aware that any training course taken purely through
correspondence and with no system of teaching observation and observed
teaching practice is highly suspect: it is like learning to swim without
ever having to go into the water.
Moreover, there are many organizations offering one or two week introductory
courses perhaps with the offer of job placements afterwards. These
certainly give you a "taster" of TESOL/TEFL and some of
these are very professionally conducted courses but what have you
got at the end? If you seriously want to become an ESOL/EFL teacher
and look for different job opportunities, you are going to need a
recognized Certificate qualification validated by an external examination
board.
TEFL International is validated and moderated by the International
Association of TESOL Qualifying Organizations (IATQUO).
TEFL International also voluntarily complies with the standards of
he British Association of TESOL Qualifying Institutions (BATQI).
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3. I've heard that these courses, most
notably the RSA CELTA and the Trinity certificate, are really tough.
Is it true that they try to fail a few people on each course? |
There are many rumors that many RSA and Trinity courses have "quotas"
and pride themselves on failing a few on every course. We have no
way to confirm or deny these stories. We only know that this is not
our idea on how to run a teacher training course. We believe in a
mentoring, nurturing environment. We do everything within our power
to ensure that everyone passes our course, otherwise why accept them
into the course in the first place?
Similarly, TEFL International courses encourage all native English
speakers (or those with near-native abilities) to attend. Our trainers
would never discriminate against North Americans, Australians, British,
or any other Native English Speaker because of different pronunciations
or slightly different grammar. All are equally welcome.
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| 4.
What is the difference between the TEFL International TESOL Certificate,
the Trinity TESOL certificate and the Cambridge/RSA Certificate (CELTA)? |
TEFL International began as a Trinity course, and was one of the largest
and most popular Trinity courses until December of 1999. As a result,
the course content of the Trinity and TEFL International courses are
virtually identical. Most importantly, all three are monitored by
external examiners that visit each course at least once during each
course. These external moderators set these three certificate courses
apart from all others.
However, there are a few areas in which we feel the TEFL International
certificate and the Trinity College London certificate course hold
an advantage. The UCLES/RSA Certificate is specifically designed for
teaching groups of adults (hence the "A" at the end of "CELTA").
On the other hand, the TEFL International and the Trinity College
Certificate provide for the teaching of (a) younger learners as well
as adults;
(b) one-to-one students as well as groups/classes of students.
As a result the TEFL International and Trinity College courses do
tend to be longer than the RSA CELTA. In fact, the syllabus requirements
issued by the boards state that the TEFL International and Trinity
courses will be no less than 130 hours exclusive of teaching practice
whereas the RSA syllabus requires a minimum of only 100 hours inclusive
of teaching practice. Teaching younger learners and one-to-one tutoring
is a potentially significant source of income for English teachers.
Teachers limited to teaching adults are at a serious disadvantage.
In summary, the TEFL International course gives you the following
benefits:
1) One-to-one meetings with learners of English as well as with full
classes;
2) Experience learning an unfamiliar language in order to make you
think about the problems of teaching beginners;
3) Opportunity to create your own teaching material as a form of practical
project which you can take away and use in your future teaching career;
4) Experience with younger learners as well as with adults (in some
of the sessions)
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| 5.
Why should I take a TEFL International course instead of an RSA CELTA
or Trinity certificate? |
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There are several reasons why you should take the TEFL International
TESOL certificate course:
- TEFL International trainers make every effort to get you through
the TESOL certificate course.
- The TEFL International certificate is an international certificate,
while the RSA CELTA and Trinity certificate are British qualifications
with regional limitations. For example, TEFL International students
of phonology study a chart which includes British and American
pronunciations of phonemes.
- TEFL International courses conveniently include course fees
and accommodations into one very affordable package. And by taking
the course in exotic locations, you have a great advantage in
finding jobs in those same exotic locations!
- TEFL International is much more involved in your job search
than most RSA and Trinity centers. Our Alumni network gives you
direct access to hundreds of course alumni-teachers currently
teaching in schools from Thailand to Turkey! Each center is an
area expert, with extensive contacts within the country. We will
work closely with you to find a job in the location of your choice.
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| 6.
What are the requirements for getting in to the Certificate course?
How do I know if I am suitable? What kind of people will be in the
course besides myself? Am I too old? What is the success rate and
how many people fail? |
A lot of questions but all interrelated. We find that courses tend
to be taken up by a "mixed bag" of people. For example,
we get a lot of people in their early twenties who are recent graduates
and want to travel overseas but we also have people in their thirties
and forties who either want a career switch, have been made redundant
or are moving overseas with their spouse. In addition, we have people
either approaching or in retirement and who are looking for something
to do in their free time or who have got property overseas to which
they are going to move. Finally, we sometimes have people from other
English speaking countries in our courses as well as good non-native
speakers from other countries. We had one course where we had a twenty-year-old,
a seventy-five year old and two course members from Hungary!
As far as entrance requirements are concerned, if you are to be a
teacher of English, a high standard of both spoken and written English
is demanded. By this we mean your use of English, not necessarily
your knowledge of grammatical terminology: you will be given an introduction
to language awareness on the course itself.
As the four week course is very intensive, you should be prepared
to work very hard indeed, have no other distractions, and be mentally/emotionally
completely fit and well, including having no current domestic worries.
You should also be presentable in appearance. Finally, you should
be able to teach! Not TESOL, of course, but anything. Do you have
the confidence and personal presence to stand up in front of a group
of students and teach them for, say, 45 minutes? You will not be asked
to teach at interview so you need to self-select on that one!
Courses inevitably have some "casualties" and the purpose
of the interview is to try and diagnose any potential problems in
advance. However, this screening process is not foolproof since the
only way one can judge whether you are going to make a successful
teacher of English or not is to see you teach. Nevertheless, to reassure
you, we are not obliged to have statistical failure rates and we genuinely
want to take on people whom we think are going to pass. Moreover,
when you are on the course itself, we shall be pushing you like mad
to pass!
If you are a person of "more mature years" or a senior citizen,
do not let this in itself put you off from applying. Providing you
are receptive to training you should have no problems. If, however,
you are rigid in your ways of thinking and are unwilling to shake
off past ways of thinking and behavior, you may have a problem. For
instance, we have reluctantly had to fail some experienced teachers
and lecturers! On the other hand, our greatest "star" was
a retired head teacher - an extremely broad-minded one. The last examples
concern people who have taught before. If you have never taught before,
you are "an empty vessel" as far as teaching is concerned
and are not "carrying around any baggage"; you may ironically
be at an advantage.
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