730 TEFL - On line Courses

My husband is a building surveyor and when we locate, likely to Marche in 18/24 months time, he hope to work part-time for himself using his qualifications and experience etc.

However as 'insurance' he is considering doing a TEFL course and is looking at doing an online course possibly with i to i. Has anyone any experience of undertaking a TEFL course totally online, is it value for money or would an alternative be better.

His main reason for considering a TEFL course, is to perhaps offer English lessons in exchange for Italian lessons to anyone in the area once we locate.

Any views would be good though regardingthe on line courses.

Many thanks.........again

Jan :)

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/05/2005 - 03:26

Hi

I used to be an RSA/Cambridge TEFL trainer and a couple of years ago was a tutor on an online course. They are good for getting a basic grounding in grammar and different aspects of TEFL teaching, the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) and so on, but the one thing they can never give you is the one thing that is most valuable - teaching practice. For that you need a CELTA or DELTA course- they are four weeks long, very hard work, but you have supervised teaching practice and will learn a lot.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/05/2005 - 11:12

Hi Jan,

I agree with Fiona - I completed my CELTA last August - since then I got some experience teaching asylum seekers in the UK. CELTA was one of the most demanding things that I think I've ever had to do - a month of sheer hell - but successfully negotiated - it cost £1000.00 - and even so, some people in my group of 25 failed(about 4) and no refund.

We completed on the purchase of a property in Le Marche just last month so now its all hands to the pumps. A word of caution - finding suitable employment of any sort in Italy may not be quite as easy as it sounds - language schools in Milano, Venezia,or Roma won't be much good in Le Marche, but there are some in Pesaro, Ancona, Macerata and Ascoli Piceno etc.,

Anyway good luck with it all. Carpe Diem!! - but keep your eye on the ball.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/06/2005 - 09:38

I have to say this is jut an opinion.
If his mother tongue is English why would he undertake a course? I would think is a waste of time. My boyfriend and i considered moving back to Italy a few months ago and i emailed an English School in Torino (shenker school) and they told me that they don't even require the Teacher to be able to speak Italian.

So, no problem there!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/06/2005 - 13:22

[QUOTE=latoca]I have to say this is jut an opinion.
If his mother tongue is English why would he undertake a course? I would think is a waste of time.
So, no problem there![/QUOTE]

Sorry Latoca but I totally disagree - having English as your mother tongue is one thing but actually having to explain grammatical concepts is another altogether. In many ways explaining grammar can actually be more difficult in a mother tongue than in a learned language. Also if you're totally comfortable standing in front of a class for an hour presenting a lesson on the future perfect verb, keeping everyone's attention, can handle error correction and can actually explain why you say something in a certain way without saying "just because you do" then don't bother with the course.

Most schools don't require you to speak Italian because you are there to teach English and a good TEFL teacher should be capable of teaching a class without having to speak in their mother tongue (although it does help at times!)

I would suggest that a school that isn't bothered about a good TEFL qualification is possibly not a great school and that would be reflected in the way that the teacher is treated.

To go back to your original question I have never done an online TEFL course but I agree with Fiona in that it would definitely lack the element of teaching practice.

In a previous thread someone mentioned that they had seen jobs with around 25 hours teaching a week and thought this would be alright after having had a 50 hour per week job. 25 hours is only teaching contact time - for every one of those hours you'll have to prepare. When you start out you can be doing 1-2 hours preparation for every hour you teach so that easily becomes 50+ hours per week. Obviously as you get more experience and have started to build up your own resources and lesson plans this time can be reduced.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/06/2005 - 16:20

Here's the best tip I ever received about TEFL.

If a student asks you a question (typically about grammar) to which you do not know the answer, simply set the question as homework for the rest of the students. It even works with one-on-one lessons! It gives you time to find out the answer, and the students actually learn more if they are not spoon-fed everything.

Regarding preparation time of one to two hours per one-hour lesson, that ends about 2 days into your first post TEFL course job. If you need more than 10-15 minutes then you should find an alternative job because your per hour pay will be so miserable. A heap of enthusiasm and good will go a lot further than detailed planning.