What TEFL Training Courses Don’t Teach You #2

TEFL certification courses don’t teach you how to succeed

Those of us with a business education will remember the research that says that only about 20% of people who are fired from their jobs are fired due to a lack of skills in their occupation.

The flip side of that equation says then: 80% of people fired from their jobs are fired for other reasons – usually poor work habits and social skills issues.

So, yes, I hope you study your TEFL training carefully and develop the skills to become a teacher that provides great benefit to your students. But, there are a few more things involved along the way.

A favorite topic of mine is intercultural skills and learning to adapt and thrive in a foreign culture. Add intercultural miscommunication to that 80% of people fired for other than job skills and I think that all of a sudden you will find that 80% becoming 90% or even more – for people living abroad. And that would reflect my experience and what I have seen working in five different foreign countries.

What to do? How to learn more on these type issues that your TEFL Training doesn’t cover? Take a look just below on this page and click on the FREE eBook that says Seven Secrets of Success Abroad. I wrote that book and it covers the essentials and will give you a good overview of the things you REALLY need to know.

TED’s Tips™ #1: Get that eBook lower on the page and read it. Intercultural skills can mean the difference between success and a great life abroad or crashing and burning and returning home in defeat, convinced that the wider world is out to get you.

TED’s Tips™ #2: Spend some time on the Internet learning about cultural differences and how to deal with them. It will be time well spent.

What’s up in China? Learn what kind of jobs are on offer if you would like to Teach English in China

How to Teach English Overseas and Secrets to Success Abroad
TEFL eBooks is offering a free download of their new publication Seven Secrets of Success Abroad - and along with it comes a bi-weekly installment and revision of their eBook called How to Teach English Overseas.

Great reviews for the Secrets of Success eBook – in spite of the hokey name – and the How to Teach English eBook is being updated and rewritten and sent out in installments as it is ready.

Here they are – click on the eBooks to get your FREE copies! Great information and the price is right, from our friends at TEFLeBooks.

Please let me know what you think of the ebooks – use the comments section below.

What TEFL Training Courses DON’T Teach You #1

Be Prepared for TEFL Freedom

One of the most frequently asked questions I get when I am placing people in schools in China is this: Will the school have already prepared lessons and lesson plans for us?

Well, after I stop chuckling . . . my usual answer is, “No.”

But really the answer depends on where you are going to teach. In China with only a BA/BS and a TEFL certification you can land a university teaching position. With only a TEFL Certification OR only a degree language school positions are available.

Here is my real life response to someone who is taking a position at a university (more about language schools next time) who asked specifically:

I was wondering if I should bring teaching materials with me, and how much flexibility will I have to use my own materials?

My response:

I’ve taught in four countries and frankly ALWAYS preferred my own materials to the often irrelevant and unfocused materials that were usually offered (if any were offered at all!). Some schools do have some decent materials, but most don’t.

How much flexibility? Probably a LOT and hope for a LOT. Usually schools that have a well-defined and pre-designed program are rigidly holding on to what are often terrible materials and a curriculum that doesn’t work well for their students.

Colleges and universities, especially the ones with small EFL programs, usually just expect that you know what to do and give you the freedom to do it. I have rarely encountered even a decent syllabus after working at eight different colleges and universities in those four countries. Very large English departments though are more likely to be better structured and organized.

I don’t mean my criticism of schools to be negative – it is in fact very positive – as the freedom tends to allow you to build exactly what is needed for your students. Nothing is worse than being forced to teach a very structured program that doesn’t help your students at all.

Now, sometimes a school will give you a book, the book somebody used last year. Sometimes you will be expected to use it as the campus bookstore ordered it and sold it to all the students already. So you use it a bit and add in your own materials and gradually fade out of the book. You will need to use their book a bit, so the students don’t complain about being sold the book – practical considerations! Next semester you get to pick the book.

How the world really works

I had a teacher contact me once, looking for a job because he was about to quit the job he had just taken. His comments were: The school is very unprofessional – they told me to just develop my own program.

What?

Yeah, in my mind the PERFECT teaching position! And he was going to quit!

Be happy for the freedom you will have in a position that offers it.

Certainly in most Asian countries and especially at smaller schools you will be offered a lot of freedom and the school will expect you to know what to do. Especially as they are often paying you more and sometimes much more than the non-native speaker local teachers.

TED’s Tips™ #1: LOVE the opportunity to release your creative skills in the classroom. So few teachers in the world have that opportunity.

TED’s Tips™ #2: Teaching is a profession. Treat it like one. Roll up your sleeves and get to work.

What’s up in China? Learn what kind of jobs are on offer if would like to Teach English in China

How to Teach English Overseas and Secrets to Success Abroad
TEFL eBooks is offering a free download of their new publication Seven Secrets of Success Abroad - and along with it comes a bi-weekly installment and revision of their eBook called How to Teach English Overseas.

Great reviews for the Secrets of Success eBook – in spite of the hokey name – and the How to Teach English eBook is being updated and rewritten and sent out in installments as it is ready.

Here they are – click on the eBooks to get your FREE copies! Great information and the price is right, from our friends at TEFLeBooks.

Evaluating a TEFL Course: Part 4

Visa Issues when taking a TEFL Certification Course

Before you head overseas, you need to find out what type of visa you will need to enter the country you are going to and how to obtain it.

Sometimes you don’t need to do anything in advance, a “visa-on–arrival” is issued and you are on your way.

Ask these questions about your visa while you are in training – KNOW before you go:

Most of these questions are relatively self-explanatory

1. Do I need to obtain a visa prior to arriving in country?

2. If I do not obtain a visa prior to entry, how long can I legally stay in the country?

3. If I must obtain a visa, how much does it cost?

4. Is the visa difficult or expensive to obtain, or take a long time to get?

5. Can I extend the visa to stay in the country for a longer period of time?

6. Does the school help me obtain a visa? Or is it just simple and easy?

7. Will the initial visa cover me for the duration of the training course?

8. If I seek work in the country will this visa be convertible to an employment-type visa?

9. If I can not convert the visa, what do I need to do when I find employment to be sure I am working legally?

10. If I need to do a “visa run” to obtain a working visa, what are the typical costs involved? Do employers usually pay for or reimburse those costs?

11. How long does the typical process take to convert to legal working
papers and what is required?

TED’s Tips™ #1: Know the visa process and issues before you go to any country. Get, stay and keep yourself legal at all times. Your visa status and your legal presence in a country is your personal responsibility. Not that of the school, your employer or anyone else.

TED’s Tips™ #2: Be sure you understand the costs in time and money of getting a proper employment visa once you finish training and start working. In some countries it can be time consuming and costly. In others, simply the stamp of a clerk sorts it all out. Know for sure before you go.

What’s up in China? Learn what kind of jobs are on offer if would like to Teach English in China

How to Teach English Overseas and Secrets to Success Abroad
TEFL eBooks is offering a free download of their new publication Seven Secrets of Success Abroad - and along with it comes a bi-weekly installment and revision of their eBook called How to Teach English Overseas.

Great reviews for the Secrets of Success eBook – in spite of the hokey name – and the How to Teach English eBook is being updated and rewritten and sent out in installments as it is ready.

Here they are – click on the eBooks to get your FREE copies! Great information and the price is right, from our friends at TEFLeBooks.

Evaluating a TEFL Course: Part 3

Evaluating your Primary TEFL Course Trainer

Some schools will have only one primary teacher for your course, though other experienced teachers will help with the observed teaching practice, and other schools will have several teachers, who will teach you different components of the course.

Either way is fine, but you should probably ask or know the answers to following questions about your primary instructor.

Why?

Because the author of this website once had one of his teacher-trainee students hired fresh out of the TEFL certification course to provide teacher training at a competing school. Would you want that teacher, who had never really ever taught a class on his own?

If you can, ask your teacher-trainer directly, via email or telephone, these questions:

1. What are your qualifications [education, certification, etc]?

Though TEFL Cert and CELTA are courses designed to be given to high school graduates, it would be nice if your instructor has a relevant degree and really understands how teaching and learning works.

Preferably a teacher-trainer should have a MATESOL or at least an M.Ed. and some sort of TEFL certification – PGCE, a DELTA or something similar.

2. How much and what kind of experience do you have?

A minimum of six to eight years in a least two countries, preferably teaching kids and adults in a variety of settings would be preferred.

This way they can help you more and will have a deeper and wider understanding of the problems teachers face. Ask specifically about number of years and number of countries.

3. Does your experience include a variety of students in a variety of
school settings? Tutoring? Ask specifically if you are not told.

Have they ever taught in the type of setting(s) you expect to teach in? If so, they can give you much better direction and advice.

4. Do you enjoy teaching? Why or why not?

Believe it or not, there are teacher-trainers who do NOT enjoy teaching. They teach as a way to travel and see the world and to live overseas.

Don’t take a course from one of these people, or you too will end up with a bad attitude in the classroom. It is better to learn to ENJOY your work. After all, it is a positive change in your life that you are considering.

5. What do you enjoy about teaching?

Listen closely for if they REALLY like teaching or not

TED’s Tips™ #1: It is the author’s very strong opinion that your teacher-trainer should have at least six or eight year’s experience in at least two countries, in at least two or three different settings (language school, public school, university, tutoring), with kids AND adults, and some sort of formal education in Education or a DELTA, ideally a master’s degree.

You want you to get the BEST, but sadly teacher-trainers with those credentials are rare.

TED’s Tips™ #2: DON’T buy slick marketing, beautiful websites, impressive looking and sounding curriculum. Buy the BEST teacher-trainer you can find. Bottom line: it is that teacher-trainer who is going to make YOU a good teacher.

What’s up in China? Learn what kind of jobs are on offer if you would like to Teach English in China

How to Teach English Overseas and Secrets to Success Abroad
TEFL eBooks is offering a free download of their new publication Seven Secrets of Success Abroad - and along with it comes a bi-weekly installment and revision of their eBook called How to Teach English Overseas.

Great reviews for the Secrets of Success eBook – in spite of the hokey name – and the How to Teach English eBook is being updated and rewritten and sent out in installments as it is ready.

Here they are – click on the eBooks to get your FREE copies! Great information and the price is right, from our friends at TEFLeBooks.

Please let me know what you think of the ebooks – use the comments section below.