TEFL Forum - Help & Advice

Should a teacher ever break a school’s rules? If so, when?  A few years ago, I faced a situation where if I didn’t break the regulations, I would have been haunted by the consequences.  I worked at a high school for boys in the Middle East as an English teacher.  One of my students had been raped by one of his peers.  After serving a six-month sentence in prison, the rapist was bizarrely returned to the victim’s school. 

Split level classes can feel like teaching two or more classes at the same time; they certainly tend to demand more energy and monitoring – some might describe it more as patrolling!  Your higher-level students may get bored and can then be disruptive while your lower level students lose motivation and become disengaged.  Here are five tips to help you cope and keep the students engaged:

Every teacher wants to create the appropriate dynamic in the classroom – one way of helping to achieve this is by ensuring you know your students’ names.  Not only does this give the students a morale boost when they hear you calling them by their names, but they'll respect you for making the effort to get to know them.  It also makes it easier for you to write student reports and monitor each student's progress.  Here are five easy ways to help remember who is who in your classroom:

If you are an experienced teacher, what tips would you give someone new to the ‘chalk-face’?  Here I’ve listed five tips that have helped me over my 20-year teaching career.  Have a look – do you agree or disagree? What would you add?

You’re stuck.

You’ve been learning a new language for about a year; you’ve taken classes, done the home work, and traveled in the country of your target language. You show up on time, you grind out grammar structures, and your language exchange partner is now one of your closest friends; yet you’re not getting any better.

It would seem you have hit a language plateau.

On the morning of the 25th anniversary of completing my introduction to TEFL course, I got one of those new email things from someone who’d been on the course with me and with whom I’d kept in occasional touch.

Congratulations!  You’ve been teaching for a quarter of a century!

A nice enough message but in context rather perplexing and I wrote back ‘You too!?!’ only to be corrected: ‘No, I’ve taught one year twenty five times.

How can we tell if a TEFL job ad is legitimate or not?  Unfortunately it is getting increasingly difficult with some fraudsters creating multi-page school websites and paying for company-named email addresses.  You will even be able to speak to someone on the phone number provided on the website.  The golden rule is that you should never pay any fees to the school – you might pay fees at the embassy for a visa or pay a travel agent for an airplane ticket, but never ever pay the school money.  Here are a few warning signs:

If you are considering studying a BA in English, then why not consider a degree which incorporates a TEFL certificate? This will provide you with a vocational qualification, teaching experience and potentially a means of earning a salary while you are a student. Here teflhub interviews Dr Roberts from Cardiff Metropolitan University and Dr Chick from the University of South Wales to find out more.

It is feasible to teach four short-term contracts with employers from different countries in just one year.  This will allow you to get paid to visit and work in a range of cultures and earn money in the process without having to spend a penny on flights.  The one main disadvantage that seems to be mentioned by teachers who do this is that just as you are settling in to a place and getting to know your students and colleagues, you have to repack your suitcase and head off to your next contract/adventure.  Here teflhub suggests where you might find short-term contracts as well as a few organisations who recruit.

Would you like to work in Spain? The country has been a favourite destination for TEFL teachers for years – drawn by the rich history, beautiful scenery, remarkable architecture, delicious cuisine, the famous wines, and of course by the friendly people. One means for TEFL teachers to find work is by visiting job fairs, so teflhub interviewed Stuart from Spainwise to find out more about their upcoming jobs fair in Bilbao. 

We may not have access to a computer lab or have internet access so we might have to use a more traditional means of preparing for our lessons:  books.  There are numerous high-quality TEFL resources out there so we thought we would introduce you to some of the publications we’ve found particularly useful.  

There are a range of courses out there, so which one is the right one for you?  Should you take the weekend course, one of the online courses, a week-long course or a 4– 5-week course?  Should I take a CELTA, TESOL or other TEFL course? teflhub looks at the options to help you make the right choice.

After a couple of years a teacher may start researching the next step in professional development, so which course should a teacher take?  A master’s degree is a more academic qualification covering theoretical aspects of teaching English (although a few do have a practical component)  while a Diploma/Delta is considered of more practical value as it involves more teaching practice – but both are Ofqual (UK) level 7 qualifications. Here teflhub looks at which course will best suit you.

What the institutions say vs the realities of working internationally and the experience gained.

Students and graduates with international experience obtain higher starting salaries, develop the global skills employers require and achieve better career progression. This week we spoke to Mike F.: an OC ambassador and former teacher in China. He has just returned from 6 months teaching and working at the forefront of the education system in Nicaragua, South America. Here our Ambassador, Mike, advises on the realities of a life teaching abroad and the perceived benefits to a CV or Resume vs. the realities of the impact on a teacher’s future. 

We all experience anxiety to some degree.  A little anxiety is normal and actually helps you sharpen and focus your mind on a project or task, but once anxiety starts keeping you awake and dominating your thoughts it’s time to combat it.  Here are five ways to conquer anxiety.

Have you ever considered volunteering as a TEFL teacher?  teflhub is running a series of articles and interviews to help you decide if you’d like to take the next step in what must be an incredibly rewarding experience. The second article is an interview with the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) which is an NGO based in Sri Lanka.  Marco Polo described the country as ‘the jewel in the crown’ of all the places he had visited – that’s quite a recommendation. 

Have you ever looked at a calendar and wondered about the origins of the names we use for our days and months? Studying the etymology of the English language offers a fascinating insight into the range of cultures which have influenced Britain and Ireland throughout history.  

Have you ever considered volunteering as a TEFL teacher?  There are numerous organisations around the world offering you the opportunity to volunteer as a TEFL teacher in remarkable places with remarkable people.  teflhub is going to run a series of articles and interviews to help you decide if you’d like to take the next step in what must be an incredibly rewarding experience. The first article is from a volunteer with Care4Calais who taught English at the Calais refugee camp. 

TEFL teaching is a wonderful job, but sometimes we need a change from general English teaching.  There are numerous different paths a TEFL teacher can take within the TEFL world.  Here we interview a British teacher, Clive, who works at a university in the UK in the EAP department .

TEFL teaching is a wonderful job, but sometimes we need a change from general English teaching.  There are numerous different paths a TEFL teacher can take within the TEFL world.  Here we interview an Australian teacher who has worked all over the world as an IELTS examiner.

TEFL teaching is a wonderful job, but sometimes we need a change.  teflhub is going to look at different occupations that TEFL teachers might consider.  Here we interview an English former TEFL teacher, Simon, who now works as an editor based in Dublin after a three year spell in Germany, but with a global reach as an editor through his website, www.simonsolomon.ink .

Unless otherwise clearly stated in the job advertisement, your resume or CV should always be accompanied by a covering letter whether it’s in the form of a letter or an email. Spending a little time customising your covering letter will help it stand out positively from the majority of generic applications the employer will receive. Below are a few simple ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’ from employers that will allow you to complete a complementary covering letter.

TEFL teaching is a wonderful job, but sometimes we need a change.  teflhub is going to look at different occupations that TEFL teachers might consider.  Here we interview an American former TEFL teacher, Kevin, who now works as a translator in Japan.

Due to the global distribution of TEFL jobs many interviews are conducted by telephone or skype.  Many people believe that telephone interviews are easier than face-to-face interviews. Whatever the truth of the matter we have to consider how we’re going to impress over a telephone line. Employers suggest that we should prepare just as we would for any other interview, but we should also take additional steps outlined below.

Preparing for an interview can be daunting, but we can get a confidence boost by being suitably prepared.  Spend the same amount of time preparing for your interview as you would a regular lesson and you can walk into that interview confident in the knowledge that you have done everything possible to impress the interviewer(s).

An employer can receive hundreds of CVs for a teaching position. How will your CV survive the whittling-down process? Here are some helpful tips from employers:

It is probably fair to say that whether you voted Remain or Leave you are feeling anxious about the future.  After trying to follow the line of thought on both sides of the argument you wouldn’t be alone in struggling to untangle all the arguments and make sense of the forecasts.  But what are the real consequences of Brexit for British TEFL teachers working here and abroad?  One thing that everyone can agree on is that nobody knows what the outcome will be; it hasn’t happened before and so we are relying on predictions.  Here teflhub looks at the likely effect of Brexit on TEFL jobs and salaries in the UK and around the world.

By Delv

It’s probably fair to say that most of us can see where we could have made life easier for ourselves if we’d approached our TEFL careers differently. These days a Masters degree in TEFL will usually include a module on reflection. I’m afraid I was one of the dubious crowd who was not sure of the virtue in studying reflection at the expense of a list of other teacher-related modules which I believed would be more useful. However, as soon as we started the module it became apparent how useful reflecting on our respective TEFL careers was: identifying areas which could have been planned better as well as identifying our strengths. I realized I could have saved myself a lot of work, time, and money had I taken a step back and considered my future plans more thoroughly. So, here’s my list of things I would do differently (and things I got right) if I wound back the clock to January 1st 2000: