Hi, this is Floyd's wife, Tabea. I searched through the forum regarding TESOL courses, but I am still not sure what I should do, and would appreciate an advice. I am currently teaching ESL at the local Job Centre, but without any certificates or anything (I have an MA, but in social sciences). I found out that I like teaching, and a TESOL certification would be helpful whereever we find ourselves next. My options: - Local CERTA course ("regular", not DL) - costs EUR 1200-1300 - Various online certificates, between $195 (looks very cheesy - http://www.english-international.com/director.html) and EUR 660 (includes recorded practical teaching sessions http://www.olionline.com/fees.php ) - none of them has any accreditation (or am I wrong?) - Mixed mode with a British University (such as www.le.ac.uk) - either CERTA, Trinity or TEFL - I could afford flying over there for few weeks, but this is expensive! I guess that what I am looking for is impossible, but I'd ask anyway: is there any online/mixed, affordable, and reliable course? If not, what would you recommend? Tuition fees are a major issue for us, as we're a bit tight up at the moment.
Hi Tabea, Although I couldn't recommend a particular cert. course for you, I wanted to give you some excellent sites for further research on this: http://www.tesol.org http://www.eslcafe.com The first is the site of the international professional association TESOL, of course, and the second is Dave Sperling's ESL Cafe. He usually has several links on his site to different degree and cert. programs. Usually the links are sponspored by the institutions themselves, but they will all be legit -- Dave doesn't mess around with bogus advertisers; he always checks them out. Dr. Bear's book on Educational degrees by DL has a lot of good programs listed, too, although I don't remember if any are for certificate level (a fellow faculty member here has borrowed my copy). IIRC, the UK and Australia offer more DL options in TESOL than the U.S., particularly at the doctoral level. Hope this is helpful! Cheers, Adrienne
Shameless plug, but it's appropriate. I just put up on my website (www.tomnixon.net ) an article for ESL Magazine on this very topic. I wrote it 3 years ago, but I think it can still give you a sense of the field. Feel free to e-mail me after you read it (or before, for that matter). Tom Nixon
Excellent article! Tom, that's an excellent article. With your permission, I'd like to reference it in a workshop I'm giving this fall at our uni here about doing postgrad degrees and qualifications by DL. If nothing else, I'll certainly list it as a good resource on my handout! Cheers, Adrienne
Thank you for your help. From Dave's Cafe I found this one: http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?TRACKID=&CID=117&DID=488 Which is certainly very much accredited! It doesn't solve my personal problem (money money money, as ABBA said), but it's probably by far, the best online certificate out there.
Hi Tabea, While this is certainly an excellent certificate to get (I have a few colleagues that have obtained it), please keep in mind that it is not a TEFL certificate, as in qualification for TEFL jobs (like the Trinity course, CERTA, etc). Rather, it's an add-on, professional development program. Cheers, Adrienne
I too have been looking at various TESOL/TEFL distance learning programs out there. I found this one: http://www.intesoltesoltraining.com/tesol-tefl-course/TESOL-courses-level2.html They are accredited by ODLQC and validated by the College of Teachers. Don't know how much reputable/legitimate that is.
Greetings, Try Washington State University at http://distance.wsu.edu/degrees/edprog.asp . WSU offers Professional Certificate of Education in Teaching ESOL. Good Luck.
Shenandoah University is also an option. It is RA (IIRC) and I met someone teaching at a Canadian University that was doing their MSc in Education (TESOL). Migwec Jeff
I've written about Shenandoah elsewhere. It's a good program with good people. This link will get you a little closer to them. Tom Nixon
