Weekend TEFL courses- better than nothing or bringing us all down?
My feeling is that some people are doing weekend courses where previously they would have done a four week one, which can’t be good. Then again,the majority of people who do weekend courses now would probably just do no training if they didn’t exist, and then take the same teaching or ALT job in China, Korea, Japan etc that they are going to do anyway but just do it even more badly. That wouldn’t be exactly what we were looking to achieve either.
So, if you were TEFL President, would you ban them or not?
Post prompted by another triumph of marketing over standards (of any sort, let alone academic standards) by our friends at i-to-i TEFL. And more on i-to-i “don’t be fooled by our superficial resemblance to an ethical travel company fool you, because even we aren’t cheeky enough to use ‘ethical’ to describe what we do” TEFL on TEFLtastic here.
January 1st, 2010 at 11:34 am
Ban ‘em.
See, this is the sort of thing I was talking about in my guest post way back when… and my thoughts that teaching associations like TESOL, IATEFL need to do more to keep up the issue of “professionalism” in the industry.
If the courses are / are advertised as “tasters” – come see what it’s like okeydokey, that”s important but if they’re being passed off as “qualifications” …
dunno, but the bigger question is who exactly are all these punters who wake up one morning thinking that doing weekend course will equip them to teach a language? Are people sincerely that naive?
January 1st, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Some are that naive – and those are the very ones we really need to steer away from TEFL….
As TEFL President I would allow such courses but forbid them from issuing any kind of certificate. But maybe that would be unenforcable, so scratch that.
TEFL certs, even the CELTA etc were only ‘initiation’ level qualifications originally, and they became ‘fully qualified’ somewhere along the way.
What TEFL desperately needs is some kind of professional body to enforce standards or at least denounce those flouting agreed standards. The BC are not doing this despite getting wads of cash for their accreditation schemes.
I think the weekend tasters are ok as tasters – if you like it sign up and do the cert. If it all seems a bit too much or not your thing – don’t. £1000+ for a 4-5 week intensive is a big investment, so there’s a place for tasters in my opinion.
January 1st, 2010 at 7:08 pm
So much depends on the teacher. As a “taster” course, I see nothing wrong with i-to-i. In fact, one of the best teachers I hired only had this as a qualification. But she came to teaching from a business background and she was willing to put in the hours to plan lessons. Conversely, I’m sure you could find examples of teachers who went through a month-long CELTA and thought that teacher development stopped there.
Ultimately, though, it depends on who’s doing the hiring. If you’re a small language school, desperate for a native English speaker with a pulse, you might not look too closely at certificates. You could say that those providing hokey qualifications are only supplying a need.
January 1st, 2010 at 11:29 pm
I started teaching after I did an ‘Introduction to TEFL’ evening class for a few weeks, didn’t do a CELTA until I was a year in. I think that’s pretty common. Had I been required to be fully certified I doubt I would have bothered. I’m in favour of higher standards, but I realise that it’s a hypocritical stance given my own background.
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:07 am
I think the problem is, as usual, in the marketing. This is being sold as an accredited certificate, not as an Intro or Taster.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:09 pm
I’ll tell you my i-to-i story if you email me ; P
January 4th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Email sent, along with interview questions (finally!)
January 4th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I read recently on daves shitheads cafe that the CELTA is now considered as an advanced certificate by some newbies
January 6th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Complete waste of time and money. Better to just buy a book (remember those?) and find out if you’re into it or not.
And what can you learn about teaching on a mere weekend course? Not much at all , and nothing that you won’t learn from a couple of hours reading “Teach Yourself TEFL”.
I mean, would you trust a nurse who only had done a week’s course on First Aid? Or a “doctor” who had only finished his first year at medical college? Would you trust a”translator” who only had half an A level in the language?
In short, forget it. You’re only kidding yourself,and putting money in some shyster’s pocket.
January 7th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
yeah but the most dangerous thing a weekend tefler can do is press the wrong button on the photocopier
February 19th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
i-to-i TEFL course is a complete rip off steer clear of them!