Tefl.NET Forums

I spoke to a friend recently who was hired to teach in France a few years ago. She had her masters in education and a bachelor's in history. She had taught as a Social Studies teacher previously. She had no knowledge of the French language but caught on quickly, and she said her school paid for her food and housing. She recommended it to be since it's so hard to currently find jobs in NYS as an English teacher.

I will be initially certified in NYS this May for Secondary Education. My bachelor's will be in English Literature. I have taken 4 years of French. How qualified am I to teach English, and do I need to be certified in TEFL or have other such qualifications before I try to apply anywhere overseas? I have tutoring, student teaching, and substitute teaching experience with students K-12 who have various learning needs.

Any advice? Thank you.

Teaching English as a foreign language is very different to any other kind of teaching. I have trained experienced teachers of other subjects to be TEFL teachers on short courses, and they gained a lot from it. I highly recommend that you do a 4 week TEFL with observed teaching practice, e.g. a CELTA, and schools might insist on it before giving you a job

It depends where you want to go, in some countries they take people with any university degree from an English speaking country and some demand an additional TEFL qualification. In fact in some countries they are so desperate they will take on any native speaker.