jvc

Can anyone advise on online TEFL courses svp? Has anyone done one? I cannot make it back to the UK for the course so looking at online, although not sure online ones are quite as recognised? Also can anyone recommend courses they have done?

EuroTrash

Why do you want to do a TEFL course - because you're hoping that having a qualification will get you a job, or because you want to improve your TEFL skills? It's not quite the same thing. It depends a bit what your 'aims and objectives' are, as to which course will best deliver what you want.

jvc

Because I want to do it Have looked into the courses, just want to speak to people who have done it too!

EuroTrash

Decent online courses are good for clarifying grammar points so that you have things clear in your own head and know how to explain them to students. But IMHO courses that include teaching practice win hands down in terms of actually preparing you, especially if you don't already have teaching experience, because there's no real substitute for being put in a real classroom situation with real students in front of you. And no online course can provide that.
In terms of being recognised, there are a select few highly-regarded qualifications that will impress potential employers, beyond that some employers just want their staff to have a qualification so they can put a tick against your name and any qualification will do, and beyond that some employers don't insist on a qualification at all.

jvc

Yes, TEFL courses are never a replacement for in house courses and I think most people are aware of that. I also know that TEFL courses which are all online are not as well regarded with employers as much as in house courses. However, any course that can be added to your CV and/or improve your education and/or exercise your brain cannot be a bad thing! thousands do it, and many of my friends have benefited from it, which is no bad thing!

EuroTrash

Totally agree, you learn some interesting stuff. Even if you think you're hot at English grammar, if you've never done a TEFL course it's very hard to answer off the cuff when a student asks specific questions along the lines of why do you say xyz and not zyx? It's no good saying 'because you do', you need to have the rules off pat so you can explain why. And the French are horribly good at knowing all the grammar terms because they learn them at school, so it's always a nasty moment when they want to discuss how to use parts of speech and verb tenses and moods that you've forgotten what are.

dmu

They know their French grammar perfectly at the end of Primaire! I used to do coaching in English for Collégiens/Lycéens (when my own two were there) and had to explain the why's and the wherefore's in grammatical terms which they immediately understood.
Your average adult may have forgotten all that, but when learning foreign languages, it all comes back....

EuroTrash

Oddly, I was taught Latin grammar and French grammar at school, but not a lot of English grammar. So if I don't stop and think about it very hard I find myself busy calling things pluperfects and past historics, and they've learned the English terms so they expect me to call them past perfects and preterites. I think they soon start to suspect that they're better at grammar than I am, but fortunately I'm only there to converse and facilitate, not to teach them as such.

dennerlymum

Hi

if you want the course to help you find work then the face to face ones are generally more recognised but if you already have teaching experience and just want proof of knowledge then I have employed people who have done the i to i course - they seem very skilled and were happy with the course

le plumber

Thats good info as I actually know somebody who wanted to do that course with i to i but because of many poor online reviews of the course they didn't go through with it. I'll let them know! The people you employed did the course online?

By the way, (don't want to go too off topic), can anybody tell me just why we don't learn grammar at school in the UK?

Novocastrian

No, not really. We certainly used to.

dennerlymum

Yes the people I knew did the online course

le plumber

OK thanks for that

Scots in Treignac

I don't think we ever did.

The answer probably was that by learning Latin one got a grasp of enough grammar to survive the complexities of ay Latin based language.

The two years I struggled with Latin must have done some good as I could follow the different names given to the tenses that my wife came across on her TEFL course. By the way, a lot of it was online although there were face to face sessions. Try the W.E.A.

Alternatively see what the OU has to offer.

howiet01

I have heard of language schools employing people with the TEFL online but be prepared at the interview to give examples i.e. how would you teach the difference between present perfect and past simple.
I know you said you can't get back to UK but what about Paris or Lyon for a CELTA? This really helped me when applying for jobs.