Getting what you pay for regarding TESOL Certification

July 2, 2014 6:58 PM

Would successful completion of this course be sufficient to find a job teaching English as a second language or is it more akin to a degree from an infamous shady on-line university?
posted by she's not there to Education (6 answers total)

What kind of school do you want to teach at? Where? How competitive is the job market?

I taught English in Japan about ten years ago at a good school without a TESOL but before the school bubble burst there. The school I taught at had several weeks full time in-house training that involved actual practice teaching. This was highly beneficial.

I think the most regonized/respected ones are the CELTA courses, especially those that have an in-person element so you've had practice teaching. Online might be ok if you've taught before in other scenarios. If I were going to teach again or wanted to teach in Europe I'd go for a good CELTA course; I taught in Japan as it was a way to test out teaching without investing in the course until I knew I wanted to continue doing it.

Have you been over and asked this at Dave's ESL Cafe? The folks there might have more recent into.
posted by jrobin276 at 7:50 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

You can find jobs teaching English abroad that don't require any teaching certification. That said, it's always good to have some training on your CV, and in the TESOL world, the most well-known basic certificates that employers look for are the CELTA and the Trinity Cert. The course you've linked to is neither of these, so I would spend your money elsewhere.
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 7:53 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Definitely depends on the country. Here in Mexico, no I wouldn't bother with that.
posted by pynchonesque at 7:55 PM on July 2, 2014

What's your goal? If you want to actually learn something about teaching English*, don't bother. CELTA or a certificate from an actual university are the bare minimum most places; I would seriously question any place that would hire you with a $69 Groupon course. (And it probably won't matter for places that just want native speakers to trot out.) To teach in the US, a master's degree is the most common requirement for professional/academic positions.


*Like I'm always saying around here, knowing how to speak English and knowing how to teach and knowing how to explain how English works are all different things.
posted by wintersweet at 10:55 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Here in Korea, you don't need any certification (just an undergraduate degree) to teach at a private school (hagwon), but having a cert and teaching experience you can refer to in a job interview certainly helps you find work. Me mail me if you want any details.
posted by charlemangy at 10:57 PM on July 2, 2014

No, that thing is equivalent to not having an ESL teaching qualification at all. In fact, it's arguably worse, as it demonstrates that you weren't smart enough not to fork out for it in the first place.

CELTA is the bare minimum for any employer who cares about more than just having a warm body at the front of the class.
posted by Salamander at 12:48 AM on July 3, 2014 [2 favorites]