TEFL Insitute Online: A bad idea?

[kate1982]

Hi -

I would like to get certified to teach (TEFL) and move to Portugal or Spain late next summer.

I have been in contact with someone at the TEFL Institute in America (Chicago) http://www.teflinstitute.com/index.php, and they seem to want to sell me the online program. It is 100 hours online, followed by 20 hours in-class experience. The course is $1350, and starts every 3 weeks.

It seems to be a really prevalent theme on similar forums that online certification is simply not recognized by employers, so I have attempted to verify whether the TEFL Institute's online diploma mentions that it is an online certification. The person I have spoken to keeps repeating that the ceriticates are identical, but will not show me what one looks like, a fact I find slightly off-putting. (While very helpful with information, the contact person at the school is coming across a little used car salesmanesque, so I'm not entirely sure I trust him.)

If anyone has graduated from the online version of the TEFL Institute, it would be great to hear from you to verify that the certificate does not mention that it is an online program.

Thanks --

Kate

[rosnjust]

i have been told that doing online is bad. you do not get the chance to be with real people and that is what you will be doing in the class room. that is a lot of money for an online program while you can play that and get hands on training.

[Jonniboy]

My feedback from employers at job interviews and centres where I've worked is that online certs are next to useless. My advice is to save up an extra 600 dollars and get the full cert.

[MadridTeacher]

Here's a quote from a blog entry by Janice Haywood of Windsor Idiomas:

"The proliferation of short TEFL courses might be ok for getting you a job when there are lots of classes available. But when there aren’t, no reputable school is going to give a weekend TEFL course a second glance. What we want as a minimum is ALWAYS the full 4 week long TEFL (I’m referring to the full time course here). We have always, and will always want this. Teaching is complex and you are simply not prepared for it properly with a mere weekend’s training."

Full text at: http://www.windsor-idiomas.com/business-by-janice/?p=54

Sounds pretty obvious to me . . . 

The same probably goes for any online courses that don't have at the very least an on-site element to them.

MadridTeacher
http://www.madridteacher.com

[Expat_teacher]

That's an interesting post by Janice.

However, are people really prepared to teach after a 4 week course? Or, is she talking about a 4 week course because that is what the standard is in this cottage industry?

If people are really prepared to teach after a 4 week course, then why do others spend years getting their masters in TESL/TEFL?

[SRedw]

I am going to cut straight to the chase.  A 4-week course is absolutely worthless and does not give anyone enough experience to teach.  It'll get your feet wet, but only a little.  Many academies require one because it looks good to tell students that all of their teachers are TEFL certified, and at the end on the day, students at these academies don't have a clue what a TEFL is.  It's all pure marketing.  You can go to very few countries with a TEFL because other countries are very rigid and require either an MA, MEd or the RSA.  Spain, as well as many other countries in Europe, are very lax about English teaching qualifications.  I chose to do an MA to place me a step above the rest.

Shawn

[MadridTeacher]

A 4-week course is absolutely worthless and does not give anyone enough experience to teach.

Hi Shawn, I respect your opinion regarding this point, but I don't agree with it at all. A lot of the people who come over here to teach haven't the least idea of what to do with a student or group of students. I imagine you've come to take that sort of knowledge for granted, but I don't think it's very cool to send them out to the front lines without a bit of basic training I'm afraid. The first thing that's going happen if they get past the filter of a job interview, is that they're going to trip up in class and their students are going to ask them about their past experience and qualifications.

The professional DOSes and directors at the schools and agencies that I talk to are very interested in hiring serious and formal workers (who will be able to pull off the whole job) and not just in selling a teacher with a TEFL certificate. The not so serious or professional ones who are going to end up hiring these people are going to be as problematic as the teachers who actually do the teaching will be.

The market in Spain has different levels. At a higher level qualifications do count. If you want to end up teaching in Universities or Business schools at 35-50 euros an hour, start working on your CV today and get those qualifications. The MA does put you a step above the rest here as it does back in the U.S. or U.K. but so does what you have done every step of the way from the very beginning.

By the way, don't beat up the entry level companies because they gave us a chance to get our foot in the door when we first got here and they continue to do so for 100s or 1,000s of young (and old) people streaming in every year.

Oh, and sorry in advance if I come off as blunt. That's just me . . . 

Steven
http://www.madridteacher.com

[SRedw]

Oh, and sorry in advance if I come off as blunt. That's just me . . .

Steven,

Don't apologize for being yourself.  Our true personalities always come out in writing.  That's one thing that can never be hidden.

This is a dead issue for me.  I am through with this topic and won't visit this thread ever again.

Shawn

[MadridTeacher]

Hi Shawn,

I am afraid that we are going to disagree on this too, but I'm more concerned with getting the truth across to people who may be going to invest an all too large portion of their time and income in coming to Spain. I don't think that this issue is ever going to be a dead issue to new teachers. I think that this topic together with how to get a work permit is going to be at the top of their list of priorities. Just think of me as Dr. House to your Dr. Wilson. (I'd rather get the right diagnosis myself than the pleasant bedside manners.)

The TEFL certificate (or something similar such as Vaughan's orientation program) IS critically important to anyone who is going to take up teaching. In job interviews in the past I've been asked how I would teach the difference between the conditionals, what the difference between "have to" and "must" was, how I would use a poster on the wall depicting people performing various activities to present the present continuous, what textbooks I had used and how they had worked, and what approach or methodology I had used. Then, when you go into class the first day, you might notice (or maybe not) that you have a student who's not in his right level. Do you know how to distinguish a student's level? I'm constantly asked to evaluate a students level. In the last couple of weeks I've had to level test nearly 60 students in action in class. All this while I'm trying to teach, etc. etc. In a low-end academy (the kind of place you're more likely to find a job if you don't have a certificate), they might even send you out to do level tests in a company. The inexperienced bosses might even think that you'll know how to do them, "you're a teacher aren't you?"

Teaching is not just one-to-one conversations. There are all sorts of situations you might run into. To the teacher who's considering getting a certificate: You'll thank me once you get into the thick of it. It's for your own good.

Steven
http://www.madridteacher.com