It’s
not always beautiful beaches and big money, but it can be . . .
Quality Varies
Even within Schools
TEFL
cert companies will provide roughly similar course content. Thus the
teachers take on a disproportionate role.
Their personal experiences, and how they explain the course content based
on those experiences, will decide if you enjoy the course and get the most
out of it. Some schools will have a primary teacher for the entire
course, others will have from two to four teachers team teach the course.
How
can you be sure that, once enrolled in a quality school, you will get the
best teacher(s) they have?
There is only one solution. Pick up the phone and ask to speak to the
primary teacher-trainer.
You
may be traveling across the world for the course, so don’t try to save a
few dollars here.
Ask your primary
teacher-trainer the following questions:
How
long have you been a teacher-trainer?
How long were you a TEFL teacher before
you became a teacher-trainer?
What was your teaching experience before
this job? What type of students did you teach?
Do you enjoy teaching? (This is
critical!)
Listen
carefully, does your teacher sound excited about teaching? About this
course? Can you relate to each other? Do you get direct and clear
answers to your questions?
If
you like the answers you get, and find you can connect with the "trainer",
you can honestly look forward to classes with this school.
Ask
these questions too
Ask
these questions about your supervised teaching practice:
How many hours of supervised teaching
will I have?
Where will the practice teaching be
done?
What kind of students will I teach? Ask
about age and/or occupation.
Will I teach the same students each
time?
Will I get to teach the type of students
I am most interested in eventually teaching? Or, can that be arranged?
Go back to
Page Oneof Selecting a TEFL Certification Course
Is my favored TEFL program reputable?
As
a last step, before you quit your job, sell your house and move across the
globe, go to Dave’s ESL Cafe at, of course, eslcafe.com and look at the
teacher training forum to see what the discussion there says. Feel free
to ask questions and gauge the tone of the response. Most companies are
reasonable and helpful.
Some TEFL companies will encourage you to come and sit in on their
classes before making a final decision. In countries where there are many TEFL schools (such as Thailand) arrive a week early and attend the
classes of several schools if you can. Then you can pick first hand what
you might see as being the best teacher(s) and the best course for you.
Check first though - to make sure they have room for you in the course.
Cost
Cost
varies greatly between schools. Schools that offer “international
standard” certificate courses charge from as little as US$795 to US$1800
and up. The large franchise schools will have to charge more for the same
content since as much as 40% of the tuition fees must be sent back to the
mother organization. Smaller non-name-brand organizations thus have a
real price advantage.
Some courses will offer a discount during their slow seasons, it is worth
asking about it. No harm in asking, they can only say no.
Add
to cost the duration of the course, or the amount of time you will not be
working. If a course costs less, but takes longer, your living costs are
greater. However, a longer course is a great advantage if you have been
out of school a while or are not confident about how fast you can absorb
the great of amount of material involved in the course.
Ask
about books and materials. Are they provided? Some courses provide them,
some suggest readings that they don't provide, others may charge you as
much US$300 for reading materials. Ask what is included in the
cost.
Don’t
think about working during your course time. Most students feel very
pressured by the amount of work involved. This is a time to devote to
study, not to your next paycheck.
Housing
The
location of your school will determine, in great part, the cost of
housing. Wonderful vacation areas, great places to vacation and study,
tend to be more expensive. Thailand, in particular, has some of the
lowest cost housing for students, in some of the most wonderful
destinations.
Ask
schools if they provide housing, some do. Ask for an estimate of costs in
the area, knowing that your preferences for quality and comfort can affect
the estimates.
When
you arrive, will your school pick you up and help you find housing, or
deliver you to the housing that has been arranged? Some do, some don’t.
It is a comfort for some to have these services provided, but it may be
best to make your decision on a school based primarily on the quality of
the training.
Total Costs
Add these costs together:
Tuition and Books
Transportation
Housing and Food,
Living costs until your first payday
(Don't forget that most countries pay only once per month - usually at the
end of your first month - and sometimes not until the middle of the next
month!)
Add a little for “fun money”
How can you guess how much this will be
for the country where you will train and work? Again, go to eslcafe.com
and ask. You can get a reasonable estimate for almost any country in the
world.
Bottom Line: Check out the BEST TEFL
School in Asia - and why it is so at:
Text
and Talk has been conducting TEFL courses on Phuket
longer than any other TEFL school. They conduct courses in several
locations in Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and Phuket.
They also have franchises on Samui and in Saigon (Vietnam). Part of
the program provides a unique and special focus on teaching Thai students.
TEFL
International
is a well-know school in Thailand with branches in Ban Phe (near
Rayong on the eastern seaboard of Thailand) and Phuket, and several other
countries.
