TEFL Courses

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

When I first started researching going to Japan to teach English, the first thing I was recommended to do by various Internet sources was to get myself TEFL qualified.
It isn't a necessity, but it is a popular qualification and it is required if you wish to teach classes at a school or English teaching institute in Japan.

There are different kinds of TEFL courses, and many institutes in the UK (and around the world of course) that award qualifications.

The courses are usually sorted by length, from around 20 hours to over 150 hours. The standard qualification time most desired by employers is 120 hours or more.
After much research, I chose to take the 120 hour course from tefl.org.uk. The main reasons I chose this course were:

• They had several dedicated teachers around Scotland and a tutor right here in my home town of Aberdeen :)
• The course was not too cheap, and not too expensive. Too cheap and I feared it might not be properly accredited; recommended authorities to look out for are the British Accreditation Council (BAC) and the Open & Distance Learning Quality Council (ODLQC). The course was around £250, which seems like the average cost for institues within the UK.
• There were good reviews generally on sites around the internet (I just Google'd each TEFL course provider with 'reviews'. Some had great-looking sites but less than favourable reviews...It's always good to check what past students have said about the course provider.

With tefl.org.uk, you get 6 months to complete the 120 hour course. It is 100 hours online and 20 hours over a weekend doing the in-person class. It took me around 3-4 months to complete the course, while most of the time doing a full-time job. You also get some extras, for example tefl.org.uk offers free access to their jobs section for life along with some free materials such as course books and videos.
At the end of the course, I did the in-person segment over the weekend with 8 other people (and instructor). The in-person section was really useful, fun and challenging, and gave a sampling of all sorts of pieces from the online part of the course. It mainly covered group work, using games to teach and presenting in front of others.

I now have my TEFL certificate, a good reference from the in-person course tutor and lots of materials to use with students. I feel like I know plenty about English grammar and techniques for teaching it to non-English-speaking students.

I definitely recommend getting TEFL qualified!

- Millie
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