What Tefl Course Should I Take

Looking for more information on our TEFL courses? Check out these videos that cover many of the most commonly asked questions regarding Teaching English as a Foreign Language. For examples from our exclusive tutoring videos please visit our teaching videos page.  [Read more]

As learning the English language continues to rise in popularity all over the world so too does the number of course providers offering TEFL certification. Unfortunately for potential trainees there is little regulation governing TEFL course providers which makes it hard to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The good news is there is something you can do to check the quality of a course. If the course is accredited by an independent body then it is fair to assume that it is of a reasonable standard. Essentially, an accrediting body is an independent third party who conducts a thorough review of the course provider's academic and professional standards, and if satisfied they provide their accreditation. When researching potential courses you should look out...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word nonage. This word refers to the period of youth of a person as well as the lack of maturity of a person. Synonyms for nonage are minority and infancy. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. The unit discusses what characteristics a good teacher has, and also what characterizes a good learner. It highlights the roles a teacher should take at different times in class depending on the activity...  [Read more]

  Rachel is from Australia where she had been working as a school teacher. She decided to take the four-week in-class course in Buenos Aires to further her education and opportunities to teach English to speakers of other languages. In her TEFL review, she speaks about her experience at the training center in Buenos Aires. Since she is a primary school teacher back home, she enjoyed working with local children during the course. At the same time, she also enjoyed teaching adult learners and highly benefited from the teacher trainer feedback sessions. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching....  [Read more]

  Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This unit was the basics of writing a CV or resume, cover letter, and where to look for jobs. There was also a lot of information on what kinds of things you should ask when looking at jobs and interviewing, as well as being culturally appropriate for the jobs you may take. There are several parts of the world that differ from the western world in what is considered normal, and it is important to remember...  [Read more]

  Marija from Serbia, having completed a degree in English, wanted to take her TEFL course with ITTT to increase her employment opportunities. In this TEFL review, Marija tells us how she found the course to be very well organized and really appreciated the way the course showed her how to take the elements of teaching theory covered in the course and put them into practice. Marija recommends the course to anyone without teaching experience to enhance their knowledge of English language teaching and to gain confidence in the classroom. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This...  [Read more]

Did you know that there are multiple levels of TEFL certification, including TEFL level 4, TEFL level 5, and TEFL level 6? Just when you thought picking an appropriate TEFL course would be easy, you discover that there are several levels available! It is crucial to know what each of these TEFL levels means before choosing your TEFL course. This will help you in determining what level is ideal to reach your desired goal and what courses you need to take in order to get the teaching job you are looking for. To begin, keep in mind that TEFL levels are based on the UK qualifications framework. This includes levels 0 through to 8. Check out the graphic below to get a better understanding of what kind of qualification each level corresponds to: A level 3 TEFL certificate corresponds to the AS...  [Read more]

  This video is the first video of our series on conditionals and reported speech. The conditionals are commonly referred to as "if" sentence structure speaking about if this happens then that happens. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Course book and Lesson Material. The coursebook is a universal book: it does not and cannot take into consideration the specific needs of your learners. This is the idea that all learners at a given level are...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our video series on "Evaluation and Testing of Students". In this video, we look at some of the most common business English exams people take around the world. Many EFL teachers around the world need to prepare their students for these international proficiency tests. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Course development. This unit contains the level testing by asking and answering. This step helps set the parameters for...  [Read more]

  In this episode, Linda takes on the pronunciation of the word "bicoastal". Enjoy the episode! Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This unit initially asked the question whether we should plan lessons at all. Then it went on to explain how planning a lesson beforehand will benefit especially inexperienced teachers. If they draw up a proper plan they will know what they want their students to achieve, will be able to see afterwards what they...  [Read more]

  And now we have our nasal sounds. There are three nasal sounds and basically the pattern of air that's moving out of our vocal tract has to do with two big instances and that is a closure in the vocal tract. Except aside from the plosives and affricates, what we have is air escaping through our nasal cavity. These sounds include ?m?, ?n? and ?ng?. We're moving from the front of the mouth to the back of the mouth. First with the M sound or the ?m?, we're closing both lips and the air is escaping through the nasal passage ?m?. Next we have our N sound or our ?n? sound. There, the closure is inside the mouth but our tongue is closing up near our alveolar ridge and the air is escaping through the nose. Again that's ?n?. Finally we have our NG sound and the closure there is happening...  [Read more]

  This video focuses on the difference between "born" and "borne". Because of their similar spelling, the two words are often confused in the English language. The word "born" is an adjective and means "having started life". Let's take a look at an example sentence. "I was born in Germany but my sister was born in France". The word ?borne?, on the other hand, is the past participle of " to bear", meaning "carried", "transported" or "take responsibility for". A good example for the word is: "All costs shall be borne by the buyer". This should clear up any confusion. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English...  [Read more]

This article will look at the range of materials that are useful and readily available for teaching the English Language to a group on non-native English speakers. There are a whole host of materials available, however a teacher needs to be very careful in the choice of what and what not to use. It is extremely important that materials chosen are those which can capture the imagination of students and stimulate their interest. If the material is mundane and unexciting this will likely rub off on the students. Therefore, before a course starts, the teacher would be best advised to design a skeleton course which includes the topics and levels that he aims to cover, however, the detail of how this should be addressed should be left until he has met the students and...  [Read more]

This article will look at the range of materials that are useful and readily available for teaching the English Language to a group on non-native English speakers.There are a whole host of materials available, however a teacher needs to be very careful in the choice of what and what not to use. It is extremely important that materials chosen are those which can capture the imagination of students and stimulate their interest. If the material is mundane and unexciting this will likely rub off on the students. Therefore, before a course starts, the teacher would be best advised to design a skeleton course which includes the topics and levels that he aims to cover, however, the detail of how this should be addressed should be left until he has met the students and determined...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to focus on the ESA methodology of teaching. In our teaching methodologies section, we briefly had a look at what ESA was about, but in this presentation, we're going to look in greater detail about that particular methodology. This particular methodology is accredited to Jeremy Harmer from his "Practice of English language Teaching" book. It's a three-stage methodology and what we're going to do is to look at the purpose of each one of these stages and some typical activities that take place during those stages. So, the first stage is known as the engage and its sole purpose, as the name implies, is to get the students talking and thinking in English. There is no reason whatsoever, when these students come to your class, that they should have said a...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. In this video, we take a look at the past perfect tense and suitable teaching ideas for this tense. We'll ask our students to describe what a person in a picture had just done before the photo was taken. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. First in this section, we covered modals. Modals express the speakers feeling or attitude towards a particular verb. They include the words could,...  [Read more]

  Just to finish off this particular section on lesson planning, we're going to go through a couple of procedures that should take place during the study phase periods, particularly when we're doing the activities. It is quite important that before we actually go into a study activity that we go through a process of showing how that activity is going to work and one acronym that is often used for this is D-E-GO. The D part of this stands for a demonstration of the activity. Now, it's very important that you don't try to explain how the activity is going to work but rather you actually demonstrate the process. An example of the demonstration of the process of the activity could be something as simple as taking the first question and using it and writing it on the board. This will...  [Read more]

What can be said about incredible new york City that hasn’t already been said? Immerse yourself in New York City for five minutes, and you’ll see why it’s like no other place on earth. Only here will you find all of America’s attributes - the diversity, the culture, and the style - intensified in such an intriguing way. And only here will you experience those sublime moments that New York City is famous for. If you're a first-time visitor, come and see the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo, Staten Island Ferry, Brooklyn Bridge and all our other world-famous attractions. If you've been here before, there's always another neighborhood to explore, another restaurant to try, another Broadway show or museum to...  [Read more]

So you've decided you want to teach English as a foreign language. The following website may be useful as you take your first steps towards booking a course: http://www.englishclub.com/index To be able to teach English as a foreign language, there are certain skills required that you may or may not already have. The website gives a taste for what is involved in learning teaching skills to enable you to go out and find yourself a job in the TEFL world. To be a good teacher depends partly on the skills you have but also on your personality and your teaching style which you will discover during your course and will learn how to use them to your best advantage in the classroom. You will also need to be able to adapt to the classroom dynamics that you may find...  [Read more]

Choosing a TEFL certification course can be a difficult decision as there is no standardized duration of training or a fixed syllabus for providers to adhere to. This seemingly free-for-all situation means there are a multitude of companies offering a wide range of courses of varying quality. The good news is there are several long established TEFL course providers out there who do offer high quality courses that provide all the skills and knowledge you need to start a new career as an EFL teacher. The overall length of the course is a good place to start. There are many providers who offer short format online courses of 40 hours or even less, as well as in-class courses that can be completed in one weekend visit. Whilst these courses will give you an introduction to EFL teaching, they...  [Read more]

Earn your teaching certificate in beautiful Prague Our training center in the Czech Republic provides the ideal location to earn your TEFL certification in magnificent Prague. This modern capital city offers an incredible opportunity to work and live surrounded by rich heritage and culture. We are a select, professional school run by highly experienced and qualified trainers. We combine the personal attention of a small course with the facilities, support and insider knowledge of one of the most established and respected language schools in Prague. Our trainees will have the chance to meet teachers in the staffroom and pick their brains about TEFL teaching and life in Prague or other countries. As a language school with more than 20 years of experience, we can provide trainees with useful...  [Read more]

We can start with two sayings: 1) These is no such thing as a free lunch And 2) You get what you pay for With these two things in mind let us explore what free TEFL certificates are available and the problems that may be associated with them. This is becoming more common with online courses in all subjects across the curriculum. You are able to take a course for free (or at a minimal cost) but there is no certificate issued with the course. You are then offered certificate options from a PDF emailed version to full hard copy certificate with postage. When you add the certification cost you find it is similar to buying a regular course which has the certificate and regular postage already paid for in the price. There are some legitimate free TEFL courses available as well as many not so...  [Read more]

Once you have completed your chosen TEFL certification course, it is time to start sending out applications for the teaching jobs that catch your eye, whether they are within your own country, overseas, or online. Unfortunately, some people underestimate the importance of their CV/resume and how it is absolutely crucial in getting you an interview ahead of all the other applicants for the same job. First impressions really do count, which is why it is vital that the documents you send out should be properly thought out. So what exactly should be included in a TEFL resume? The first thing to realize here is that in most countries around the world there are less restrictions on personal information than in the USA. In many cases, international employers will expect to find out more from your...  [Read more]

The idea of classroom management is something that every future teacher must plan and contemplate thoroughly before starting his/her teaching career. While each teacher will approach classroom management in their own way, there are some major areas that must be covered. First, a teacher must make the students understand the expectations and consequences concerning the class. In order to ensure that classroom learning is conducive to both the physical and emotional growth of the student, rules that explain what behavior is expected need to be reviewed. After rules and procedures are established, it is important that the teacher admires good performance and provides negative consequences for unacceptable behavior. Simple physical signs like a ?thumbs up? or a verbal...  [Read more]

  Before looking at the methods or approaches themselves, there are some terms that we need to define. These are the approach, the method or the technique. Basically, these are hierarchical. The approach is an overriding set of principles that a method can actually make use of, whereas the technique are the things that we actually do in the classroom to approach that method. So, these three words are going to appear during the presentation. Again, for each of either the approaches all the methodologies we're going to ask four questions. So be it an approach or a method for each of those things: Where did it come from? What's its background? What does it involve when we're talking about actually in the classroom, in other words techniques? What is positive about it? What appears to...  [Read more]

  Hello. This presentation is going to cover this section on lesson planning and what we're going to do is to have a look as to why we go about planning a lesson, what do we actually put in it? We'll create an empty lesson plan pro-forma and then having done that what we'll do is to fill in that lesson plan for a particular teaching point. So, our starting position is going to be: "Why do we plan lessons at all?" There are a number of reasons why we need to plan a lesson. The first and foremost perhaps is that it's going to create a logical sequence for our lessons. If we didn't have a lesson plan, it is quite possible that we could go all over the place and it would become confusing for the students. By having this plan, what we've created is a structure that we can work from. So,...  [Read more]

Edged by the magnificent Himalayan ranges in the north and bounded by a breath-taking coastline made up of three seas, india has a stunning assortment of landscapes and culture, with captivating historical sites and intriguing royal cities, pristine beaches and mystical mountain tops, dynamic people and exciting festivities. The experiences are endless as the diversity of climate and culture make a visit to India eye-opening and rewarding. Whether you're in the dusty heat of the south or the snowy cold in the north, you'll travel roads filled with bicycles, auto-rickshaws, sputtering motorbikes, tinsel-draped trucks, camel carts and an occasional cow or two. Take a trip to one of the many wonderfully crowded markets and observe the community of beggars, hawkers, tourists, holy men,...  [Read more]

As there is no standard content or fixed length required for a TEFL certification course, individual providers are free to design their own courses and set whatever fees they see fit. The best advice is not to choose a course simply because it is the cheapest one available. Yes, you can find TEFL courses on discount websites for as little US$49 but will they be accepted by employers in the region that you want to work in? And will they properly prepare you for life in a real classroom? If you want to ensure that the answer to these questions is YES then you should look a little deeper than just the price. In-class TEFL courses usually involve 4-weeks of intensive training that comprehensively covers the most important aspects of English language teaching. During the course you will...  [Read more]

There is no simple answer to this question because there are so many different TEFL providers offering a wide range of different TEFL courses. However, at ITTT, we are happy to state upfront what is and isn't included in our TEFL course prices. Essentially, the course price you see advertised on our website covers everything you need to complete your training and receive your TEFL certificate. Unlike many other TEFL course providers, we will never ask for additional payments to cover additional things such as study resources, exam fees, or certificate fees. Our online TEFL certificate courses include high-quality course materials that you can download and print out for you to keep. Even though we do provide you with a recommended reading list during your TEFL course, you do not have to...  [Read more]

Egypt’s capital, Cairo, is one of the largest and most culturally diverse cities in the Arab world and is a fascinating place to take a TEFL course. It is one of the most international cities in Egypt and has a long history as the location of this ancient nation’s historic capitals. Cairo boasts a huge number of ancient and modern monuments and can be seen as a “living museum” where visitors get to experience Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic and Islamic monuments dotted across the city. These archaeological sites attract visitors from all over the world and Cairo is a first-class tourist destination. Cairo is not only home to these many historic attractions; it is also home to a number of famous shopping malls, opera houses, theatres and more. The city also hosts the Cairo...  [Read more]