As native English speakers, our language skills are not only valued but highly sought-after all over the world. Whilst knowledge of English opens up the world of movies, TV, Hollywood, literature, and more, it has a much larger role to play in the wider world. There is an abundance of companies, schools, and private individuals who need and want to learn English for one reason or another, be it a promotion at work, studying abroad in an English-speaking country, or even simply to travel outside of their own country. English has become somewhat of a linguafranca or the global language and as a result, many people are willing to pay, and pay well, to learn it.
As someone who has learned several foreign languages already, I know first-hand how much work and dedication goes into learning a foreign language. It’s for that exact reason that I know that merely being a native speaker of the language isn’t enough to teach English to speakers of another language (at least it isn’t in my opinion). I have taught English as a second language several times before privately, but it wasn’t until I started my course that I realised how important a solid pedagogical framework is for TEFL. I was lucky that I had learned other languages in the past, and this aided me in the teaching of English, as I was able to teach it in the same way I was taught German, Spanish, and Italian. Most native English speakers, given that the majority of us are monolingual, don’t have this luxury.
As an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, you need to be able to teach not only the language and its grammatical structures but also the language’s proper use and any linguistic nuances that may belong to English (i.e. accents, slang, levels of formality). Not to even mention the widely varying cultures of English-speaking countries. In order to do so, a solid teaching methodology or foundation is extremely useful … and that’s where the TEFL comes in.
There is a plethora of TEFL courses available online, all differing in type, content, length, price, and location. Personally, I opted for the 120-Hour Premier Online TEFL Course offered by TEFL.org and I chose it for several reasons:
#1: It was an online course. This allowed me to work the course around my job, wider commitments, and my general life.
#2: It was long, but not too long. Since the course was 120 hours, it allowed be to gain a very deep understanding of English grammar, syntax, and use, as well as the wider TEFL methodology and pedagogy. I was able to not only master the English language but also gain a valuable understanding of HOW to actually teach it.
#3: Variety. There were 5 compulsory modules in the course. An English grammar module, a general methodology module, and then 3 focussed on teaching English in three differing ways: in-person classes, video/telephone teaching, and finally teaching large classes. As a result, I was able to take the overarching TEFL teaching pedagogy and learn how to apply it to differing classroom (or perhaps better yet, teaching) situations.
Having a TEFL certification (or CELTA, TESOL, or any other) is super useful as it adds credibility to your skills, just like any other certification. It opens the doors to so many more opportunities, often with higher pay too. One such example is Korea, which offers extremely incentivising packages to its TEFL teachers including flight reimbursement, a salary of around £1,200-£1,600/month, accommodation, and reasonable work hours … pretty good deal right?
I officially passed my course two weeks ago, and I am eager to start offering ESL classes here at JCTranslations once again, and perhaps even move back abroad and teach! Who knows!?
Until next time | hasta la próxima | alla prossima | bis zum nächsten Mal 👋🏻
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