Which teaching English Course?

hippyantique Image
10/02/2009 - 14:12

Ciao,I am confused,I am starting a Trinity college Tesol course in January,but unsure if this is the right course to Teach English in Abruzzo..Should I be doing a celta course instead?Advice welcomeRachel   

Comment

I might be wrong but I thought Tesol was teaching English as a second language ie to people in the UK whose first language is not English. I did a Tefal course years ago (teaching English as a foreign language) and picked up employment in Rome as soon as I arrived. Celta has now appeared and seems to be an equivalent of Tefal-you'd  better check

 Celta is the most widely accepted and recognised certificate - certainly if you want to get into serious teaching.   I did mine with international House in Piccadilly and armed with it could walk straight into all jobs.   It does depend where you are planning to teach - in the north there is more competition so the more and better qualifications you have the easier it will be

As Ram states the 1 month CELTA is more widely recognised by schools/universities/language centres worldwide. That said the TESOL is basically the same programme with a different accreditation body. Either certificate is fine as they demonstrate you've been through observed teaching practice etc.I am not sure where (language school, university, school) you are thinking of working but typically language centres will accept TESOL/CELTA, international schools look for their ESL teachers to have a PGCE + TESOL/CELTA and Universities look for higher level qualifications i.e. DELTA, MA in Applied LinguisticsAntinello

Just spoken to my wife who is an EFL teacher with DELTA, PGCE and she strongly recommends CELTA as it is more widely recognised and there is a misconception that as FBower points out that it is for teaching English to immigrants, which is unfair as it is broadly similar to CELTA - but that is how it is.  So, if you are serious about a career in EFL then CELTA/DELTA is the way to go. 

I have the CELTA and it would be appear to be the more highly regarded / recognised qualification.  You can certainly get a job teaching English without any Italian but it is harder going.  If you were teaching a multi-lingual group in the UK no one would expect you to speak anything other than English in the classroom but here it definitely helps if you can speak some basic Italian - especially with beginners / children. In due course I will take my DELTA too.