Probably
the majority of trainees learning to teach English as a foreign or
second language
really like to have at their command all of the resources they know
will make them successful as teachers, and enjoy taking as much time as
they feel is needed to learn their teaching skills so well that they
can walk into any classroom confidently. For these teachers, our
six-week TEFL Certificate Course is perfect, especially it they are
concerned about not over-stressing themselves while at the same time
learning all that is to be learned.
There is indeed a lot to learn, and the total number of course books is
six, most of which will be mastered by each trainee.
Particularly
interested in our six-week course will naturally be anyone who has
previously suffered a heart attack, or who may be susceptible to one in
an overly-intensive course such as the Cambridge CELTA, from which the
trainee graduate below dropped out to join our own course. Here is what
he has to tell us in his own words (not only about the course he
dropped out of, but about some others you will want to avoid):
Text-And-Talk comes out on top!
If you are thinking of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL)* in Thailand then you will need a TEFL certificate or similar qualification. The disadvantages of not having one are as follows: the choice of jobs open to you is severely limited; your salary will be lower; you will almost certainly not be an effective teacher and, therefore, you will not feel fulfilled.
So, to do the best for yourself and your keen and hard-working Thai pupils, get qualified!
Unfortunately it’s not quite that simple, hence this article about my own experience of ESOL training courses this year.
In Thailand, there are many such training courses on offer, but they fall into two main categories – the genuine and those to be avoided!
Let me deal with the latter type, which I call ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses, first. A close friend of mine, who had never taught before in his life, recently signed up for one of these but dropped out after the so-called teacher training.
If you see advertising material with headings such as ‘Free TEFL course’ or ‘Get Paid to Train’, be suspicious.
This is how the scam works. You pay up-front to enroll. You receive two weeks’ so-called teacher training, most of which is based on viewing a stack of poor quality DVDs – the ones I’ve seen myself are not even synchronized properly. You’re then taken to a school and offered a job starting immediately, even though you may never have taught a real lesson in your whole life. You teach for two months during which time your ‘instructor’ turns up to your lessons occasionally to assess your performance. The salary you earn is offset against the enrolment fee. Thus the course is ‘free’!
You’ll have a job, it’s true, but you won’t be an effective, fulfilled teacher and your salary will be lower than it could be. Avoid this type of course and find yourself a genuine one.
Genuine courses can be subdivided into the really intensive 4-week courses and the more leisurely and, therefore, less stressful 6-week courses. Any genuine training course involves a certain amount of stress and you should be aware of this before embarking on one, but for some the stress level on a 4-week course can be too high.
In May this year, I took a 4-week TESOL course but had to give up two days into the last week. Having had a heart attack about a year earlier, I feared that I would suffer another if I continued. The workload was just too much. Every weekday, Monday to Friday, I would leave home at 7 a.m. and not return until 7 p.m. after a truly exhausting schedule. Then, after a short break, there was at least 3 hours’ homework to be done!
And there was little respite on Saturdays and Sundays. The whole of the weekend seemed to be taken up with project work. Whilst the training was good, the level of stress was unbearable.
Later this year, determined to get qualified, I enrolled on a ‘TEFL for Target Learner Groups’ course at Text-And-Talk Academy.
Founded back in the 1990s by an American, James Parmelee, Text-And-Talk has branches in Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai. The fee was very reasonable.
The course lasts for 6 weeks and comprises face-to-face training based on the Academy text books (not DVDs), and six in-house teaching practices with Thai pupils.
Training takes place Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an hour’s break for lunch. The amount of homework set is very reasonable and the long weekends are virtually free for relaxation.
The teaching practices take place in the late afternoon or early evening after the training sessions are over. Each trainee is given a teaching schedule for weeks three and four and is required to teach three 50-minute lessons per week to a class of either Thai children or adults. These lessons afford invaluable practice for the trainee teacher.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the course. The most stressful part of it was the lesson planning and teaching during the third and fourth weeks, but even then my stress level never became unbearably high.
On ‘Graduation Day’, when the certificates were presented, I felt a genuine sense of achievement and relief that I had eventually found the right course at Text-And-Talk Academy.
*
The variety of acronyms associated
with English teaching can be confusing.
I hope the following helps:
TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)
(TEFL and TESL both come under the TESOL umbrella)
CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults)
These are all essentially the
same.
The
differences are small compared with the similarities.
Geoffrey Hobbs 3rd October, 2006 (2549)
(Geoffrey Hobbs is a former mathematics teacher from London aged 55 now living in ‘retirement’ here in Thailand)
So there you have it: Do you go for four weeks or six weeks? If you are in a hurry or really short of funds, the four-week course may be the right one for you. Also, if you do your training in Bangkok, this will enable you to immediately maximize your earnings forever by taking the four-week Advanced Skills Diploma Course as well.
On the other hand, if you have the time and are not pressed for funds, you may well find the six-week course more to your liking.
Fees for both the four-week and the six-week Certificate Course are the same, as is the quality of training. We wish you well in your choice of course length. See Fees and Course Summary.
Full course fee payments are made online by credit card. (Just click on "ENROLL NOW!" below.)
First, however, you should choose a class
start-up date and training location:
| BANGKOK | Bangkok Location Map |
| PATTAYA | Pattaya Location Map |
| KOH SAMUI | Koh Samui Location Map |
| CHIANGMAI | Chiangmai Location Map |
| KHON KAEN | Khon Kaen Location Map |
