Teaching English as a Foreign Language is something a lot of gappers consider. If you’ve never heard of, or thought about it before, here’s a crash course
First of all, what is it? Simple: it’s an opportunity to travel abroad and teach foreign students to speak English. Speaking our native tongue is a valuable skill, helping in business, tourism, travel, and so on, so there’s demand for teachers everywhere, from wealthy Japanese colleges to village schools in Tibet. A TEFL qualification will get you in a classroom, teaching your mother language.
Before we go any further, let’s sort out some of the different phrases you might hear bouncing around the gap ether…
TEFL – Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (mmm, snappy)
ELT – English Language Teaching
All of the above refer to the courses you take to become qualified; they’re not qualifications themselves. You don’t ‘get a TEFL’, in other words, you get ‘a TEFL qualification’. Which leads us on to…
TEFL qualifications
There are many different types of qualification (as usual), and different schools/colleges/employers ask for different things. There’s a general view, though, that there are two internationally recognised standards: Trinity College’s Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CertTESOL); and Cambridge’s Certificate of Teaching English Language to Adults (CELTA). It’s always worth checking out other options, of course, as they might suit you better, but these are good places to start your research, they’ll give you a good idea of what’s involved. Go here:
Trinity CertTESOL: www.trinitycollege.co.uk
Cambridge CELTA: www.cambridgeesol.org/teaching/celta.htm
Teaching the teachers
Courses come in all shapes and sizes:
- Introductory/taster courses, usually free, give you an idea of what’s involved.
- Intensive weekend courses give you a basic qualification and introduction to teaching. You can go straight from this to teaching if you can find a position, but you might be better equipped if you take a full course.
- Full courses (around four weeks full time, longer part time or distance), including six hours’ assessed teaching practice and written assessments. You’ll look at language skills, teaching skills, and how to prepare for your lessons. Courses are taught at centres all over the world (you don’t have to go to Cambridge).
Good, bad, ugly
So, why do people do it? The plus side is obvious: you get the satisfaction of seeing people pick up a new language that you have taught them (imagine the difference you could make to someone’s life doing that), you meet loads of new people, and you get to travel to a new part of the world and experience the culture from the inside – not just from the backpacker’s perspective. All good!
There are downsides though. Some people say that their course didn’t prepare them well enough to teach classes (although this does depend on the course), and that they didn’t get much support from their employers. Also, teaching is hard work: you need to plan lessons, be able to react quickly, keep people interested, know your subject, and be prepared to work lots of hours.
In the worst cases, you read of people arriving and getting no support at all from employers, who are just interested in filling the teaching slots because they bring money in (students often take evening classes and so on, which they pay handsomely for). It’s important to research anywhere you apply to, in other words, and see if other teachers have got on well there.
What now?
Teaching English can be great way of seeing the world, having adventures and making a difference. If you fancy packing your chalk and heading off in search of a blackboard, check out our useful contacts, get an idea of prices, be honest with yourself about whether you could hack standing up in front of 50 strangers (good to know in advance, it saves running out whimpering later), and if it all sounds good – get out there! Spread the word.
Useful contacts
www.guardian.co.uk - online paper has a dedicated TEFL section with info, blogs etc.
www.cactustefl.com - impartial advice site that provides a good intro to TEFL and will help you find a course
www.tefl.com - international site, good for info and job searches
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