Best certification course for TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)?

If you have the time, the best is a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics. Takes about 2 years to obtain, but opens up the most doors for you and leads to higher pay.

I've been exploring this myself for the last month or two. I'm an academic librarian, my husband is retired, and we're wanting to wander the world for a while. Teaching ESL would help defray expenses. I've been searching the web and also the professional literature of education.

Live training is ALWAYS peferable to online training for anything, IMO, especially if you have no prior teaching experience. That said, there is a MA program out of U Indiana Bloomington that allows ESL emphasis; this program can be done entirely online. There may be others - check with your local community college, college or university. You may find that there is an ESL credentialing program in your backyard. I've seen it offered in 5 courses - 10-15 semester hours, or a little more than one semester full time.

The CELTA ESL/TOEFL credential seems to be universally reognized. The CELTA credential can be earned in as little as a month, and there are 10 training sites in the USA.

I'm looking at doing the CELTA in 4 weeks in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It's cheaper (about $2K US) than the US programs I've looked at, and it's not too expensive to stay in Playa (I was there for 2 weeks last summer for $35/night & could have stayed a lot cheaper if I had known more). Then again, if you're going to do an intensive, grueling 4 week training program, why not do it on the shores of the Caribbean? I can walk to Dr. Taco after class and gorge on 3 shrimp tacos and drink a cold beer for $5 where the friendly Mexican people are tolerant of the ignorant gringos that no hablan ningun palabra de espanol.

I just noticed that you said "well paying position." Alas, don't do this for the money! Nobody ever gets rich teaching English - make a living, yes. With ESL, you can get the travel benefit, and you can't put a price on that.

That said, getting the master's degree (or a BA in English) with the ESL endorsement as a part of it will open the most doors for you. From what I have read on a number of ESL websites, a degree is more desirable, although there are still a lot of places where it is not required.

Best of luck to you, and maybe I'll run into you at an ESL school in some exotic locale.

There is not one program that is accredited & recognized worldwide. It would make it alot easier if there was though, huh?

For sure, live format is best.other than the obvious reasons, there's another one... let me see if I can explain this easily.

Since there are so many places & programs that teach TEFL, it's often hard for employers to know what you've learned. Therefore, many programs will now give you not just a certificate, but also a recomendation letter (mine includes what books we used in our course and the like) and an evaluation. They will judge you on different aspects of your skills, like lesson planning, classroom interaction, board work... many things that can only be judged and graded based on a practicum.

Armed with a "TESOL certificate", my letter of recommendation and my evaluation, I obtained a job teaching English at a high school in Latvia. (And I don't even have a complete college degree yet.) I have had many years of teaching privately, so I have a lot of experience, too, but even still I really appreciated the practicum and hands-on style of my course.

In terms of working in Europe... if you're not an EU citizen, it will be harder but it's certainly not impossible. The farther east you go the easier it is. I would suggest starting off working in a school, like a high school, even. That will give you credibility and a way to get a visa into the country. If you want to, from there you can teach privately, and you can make contacts to teach in a business if you like.

FYI... here's the website for where I did my TESOL: http://www.ywampa.org/pages/TESOL

Ontesol can provide the suited courses, the two an get right of entry to-point a hundred-hour certificates for $285 and a complicated 250-hour degree for $975. Ontesol grow to be progressed by utilising Coventry homestead international in 2003 and its courses have been known by utilising TESL Canada and ACTDEC uk