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Which course?
Hello again,
The most frequently asked question from those wishing to embark on an ELT career is: which course should I take? Such is the question raised recently by somebody wanting to know if he should take a TEFL or a TESOL course .
The simple answer is...
...that it really doesn’t matter. What is important is that the certifying body is well recognised in the profession and that the teaching institution can offer you high-quality training, value for money and is convenient for you.
So what is the difference? It really is just a question of a rose by any other name. Cambridge University, which, I suspect, has the major market share in teacher training courses, defines the acronyms thus:
'TEFL' or 'TESOL' are terms often used to describe qualifications for English Language teachers. CELTA, the best known and most widely taken initial TESOL/TEFL qualification of its kind in the world, was previously known as CTEFLA and the 'RSA certificate'.
So why the two acronyms? TEFL was the earlier term, standing for ‘teaching English as a foreign language.’ It was used by the RSA when it launched its early teacher training qualifications. Some people felt that this description somehow made English sound a bit arbitrary as a language choice: just one among many possible foreign languages. TESOL, standing for ‘teaching English to speakers of other languages’ seemed to give English a higher status. But, as you can see, there is no important semantic distinction. This is not the situation with TESL, which refers to teaching English as a second language. here the difference is important in that it implies learners will be living in an English-speaking country and will need to understand about that country’s systems, institutions and culture as well as language.
to answer the original question: you will probably find a good range of reputable courses calling themselves either TEFL or TESOL, although the trend is to refer to all as TESOL courses now. Before choosing your course, check that the certifying body has standing within the profession. Then make sure the training will be of the quality you need. A four-week intensive course is the minimum you should expect for an initial qualification. Ask for testimonials form past students, ask about pass rates, job-finding success. Compare prices to ensure you will have good value and then choose the course that best suits your circumstances.
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Drew Ward Says:
July 1, 2009 05:01 PM
Hi again Brenda,
Sadly I fear that none of the primary certificate programs out there are really worth their salt. Considering what is actually taught, all of them are grossly overpriced. They are often focused more on confidence building and lesson plan writing than they are on actually training the teacher in effective ways of teaching the language.
Primarily, they all lack teaching the most important tool for an ESL instructor -- a self-awareness of the language itself. English is a very straightforward logical language yet if the teacher is never trained to himself understand what is really happening in the structures and meanings of the language, then they can never expect to be able to effectively train students to recognize and use these patterns themselves.
Sadly most native speakers who are teachers cannot effectively explain when to use given aspects or tenses -- whether something should be in the simple past or present perfect or past perfect, or simple versus progressive, etc. They themselves don't understand the purposes and effects of these structures and can thus never be expected to be able to teach them to students.
I'm afraid our training system really requires a complete overhaul from the ground up rather than a furthering of the current system which is more about making money for Cambridge, ETS, and the IH chain.