ESL Jobs Forum

[ESL_Newbie]

I was just wondering if someone can help me out here. I'm looking at doing a CELTA course in Toronto and it seems pretty intense, but I do want to teach English in another country, so no problem there. I was just wondering if this is enough to teach in Europe or at least in my own country?

That said, what is the difference between doing a CELTA course and say taking a course with Oxford Seminars (which looks like nothing compared to what the CELTA offers)?

What would you choose?

[Lexicon]

Here's the reality -- no course out there will actually prepare you to teach. They will give you varying levels of background and practical knowledge and put you through some roleplay but currently there is really no course that can equip you to teach ESL to the point that you're not going to trip all over yourself when you first get into the classroom. You learn by failure, that's just how it works.

That said, if you pay for a CELTA, you would at least have the one and only universally recognized certificate. It doesn't mean you'll be a good teacher and it doesn't mean you'll get a job. But, if a certificate is the minimum qualification for a teaching gig anywhere in the world, a CELTA will at least get you in the door and you know it will be accepted.

All other certificates may be accepted and may not be. This doesn't mean they're not good, it just means that when you choose one of the others, you may run into people who do not honor them.

As for Oxford Seminars...just google them, there's got to be something to the massive loads of bad reviews and the very few good reviews.
_________________
The first step to teaching is realizing that you don't know nearly enough yourself.

My Blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com

[Lexicon]

I happened to be digging around my blog and found this teaching guide which made me think of this thread:

http://calleteach.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/demonstratives.pdf

The thing is that stuff like the method described above seems common sensical when you read it. But, in the classroom the first time you have to deal with a concept like that, it can be pretty daunting because you've never had to consider the topic yourself, much less figure out how to explain it.

Things like this are what you'd think you'd get from a certificate course, but likely won't. There's simply too much to deal with. What you get instead is a very rushed very basic version of how to be a teacher and how to run a classroom.
_________________
The first step to teaching is realizing that you don't know nearly enough yourself.

My Blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com