But how will I be able to teach and communicate with my students?
You will teach in a 100% English immersion classroom. Students are paying for a full immersion experience every day by a native or fluent speaking English teacher to speak, listen, read and write in a new language. Instead of flying to an English speaking country and living abroad for several years to have English surrounding the student, they take language classes from you. You will not typically be required to know a foreign language. Taking an accredited TEFL certification class will provide you with the teaching skills you need to communicate and provide effective instruction to your students, even though you may not speak their language.
How will I learn to teach English?
An internationally accredited 120-hour TEFL certification will provide you with the skills in methodology, lesson planning and classroom management that you need to succeed as a professional English teacher abroad. You will also earn a qualification that thousands of schools and language institutes around the world require when they hire new english teachers.
I'm Already a Certified Teacher: Do I Still Need a TEFL Certification to Teach English Abroad?
A TEFL certification course that meets international standards will incorporate several key elements:
- At least 100 hours of academic coursework;
- 6-20 hours of live practice teaching with actual ESL students (not role-playing with other teachers-in-training!);
- A curriculum that is accredited by a recognized, independent accrediting body;
- Instruction provided by experienced university-level instructors.
TEFL classes are either full time for 4 weeks (20 days of classes) typically 9 am to 5 pm, homework at night or part time (11 weeks) in an online TEFL class.
You also want a TEFL certification course that provides lifetime job search guidance to provide you with the resources, guidance and expertise you need to find and interview for jobs teaching English abroad.
Too many aspiring English teachers have take a second-rate TEFL courses or classes from organizations that did not provide quality job placement assistance so they are left with a piece of paper stating that they are TEFL certified, but they are unable to find the quality job opportunities that they should be qualified for.
Learn more about Teaching English Abroad
Request a free brochure or call 773-634-9900 to speak with an expert advisor about all aspects of TEFL certification and teaching English abroad, including the hiring process, salaries, visas, TEFL class options, job placement assistance and more.
More Resources:
- TEFL Resource Library (Ebooks, Videos, FAQs & More!)
- Alumni Blogs & Articles Index
- Teaching Abroad FAQs & Articles
- Teaching English Abroad - Country Profiles
- 5 Key Tips to Help You Pick the Right TEFL Certification Course (and Not Get Ripped Off)
- Is a TEFL Certification Required to Teach English Abroad?
About the author -John Bentley is Co-Founder & Senior Writer for International TEFL Academy (ITA), world leader in TEFL certification for teaching English abroad. A native Californian who grew up in Cairo, Egypt, John wrote for the Egypt-Israel Edition of the famous Let’s Go! guidebook series during his student days at Harvard. He also holds an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern & is a recognized expert in the field of TEFL. As an author, his articles have appeared across the field's top websites, including GoAbroad.com, StudyAbroad.com, InterExchange, GoOverseas.com,
AdventureTeaching.com, & many others. John has also spoken about teaching abroad at numerous conferences, including Lessons from Abroad symposiums in Portland & San Diego.
