[philcolman]

I am planning to go abroad to work as an English teacher but before I go I would like to get some basic TEFL training. I have looked at some online TEFL courses and it seems that the most serious and comprehensive one is from this school : OnlineTEFLcourse.net - Comprehensive online TEFL course for only $199 I would like to hear from anyone who has taken this course, what are your views etc. Thanks for your help.

[Eric]

In my opinion, this site looks like a scam! I would be very wary of sending this site your $200!

There is very little documentation as to what you get. It doesn't even tell you what format the materials will be in. I say this because after you sign up, you get this message:

Thank you for registering for our online TEFL course.

Please click on the button below to proceed to the payment page.

After payment has been completed, all of your online TEFL course materials will be sent to you by email within 24 hours.

Also, this does not appear to be an online course.

How much tutoring will they offer you and for how long? It just states that if you have questions, send an email. How long is that valid for?

What do they do to help you find a job?

Does this "course" offer any certification? It appears not to.

My guess is that whatever you receive after reading the materials (if you receive anything at all) will not be accredited by any of the major TEFL/CELTA organiztions.

My guess is that most countries will not recognize this course as a valid course and will probably not help you get a job in any country that requires a teacher to have some accreditation.

Finally, would you send your $200 to a site that looks like it was put together overnight?

Would you send your $200 to a site that doesn't provide you a sample of what you will receive?

Would you send your $200 to a site that will probably just email you some public domain materials that you could probably find for free at the local library?

Would you send your $200 to a site that doesn't offer anything in return like a certification or a diploma or something that would prove that you took the course other than a receipt?

There are plenty of real online TEFL course option so take a look around before you buy.

Ask yourself... how will this course really help you learn how to teach and find a job in the country of your choice?

Eric

[tonymorris]

Dear Philcolman,

I'm actually doing the onlineteflcourse.net course at the moment and I haven't had any problems with them.

Its always good to be careful and check up when you are buying anything on the internet though.

As regards TEFL certification, you have to remember that it isn't really an academic thing - it is a business. It isn't like a college degree, there is no government oversight or regulation of the TEFL industry. ALL of the schools and companies which offer TEFL courses, whether weekend residential, online, longer term, whatever, are just businesses. There is no central accreditation body for TEFL courses, so basically no online tefl course you sign up for has any form of government accreditation. In this sense, most companies which offer online courses, or weekend coursesor whatever, are in the same boat.

You can go for the Cambridge CELTA, but that is a lot of money, maybe a couple of thousand dollars, which I didn't really want to spend. Anyway, if you are heading abroad to teach English the chances are that wherever you go to work they will care more about your general standard of education than about any TEFL certificate you might have. I am a college graduate, I am planning to go to work in China, I have had loads of job offers and none of them has ever asked me whether or not I have a TEFL certificate, they only care about my degree.

Of course, it depends on where you are going and where you want to work. If you want to teach in a university somewhere like Japan, then the requirements are much higher, I guess they would want to see at least an M.A. and some kind of heavyweight linguistics training. Similarly, if you are wanting to teach in the schools system in America or any other western country, then most TEFL certificates are completely irrelevant - you will need at least a degree in English teaching.

Like I said, none of my prospective employers have seemed too interested in whether or not I have any TEFL certification so long as I have a degree. My degree wasn't in English so I didn't do this course for the certification, more just to get a background in teaching techniques, especially grammar, and in that I haven't been disappointed, the grammar course is actually very good, about 100 chapters long, explaining things very clearly. It certainly wasn't cobbled together in a hurry or ripped off from public domain stuff, it looks like a really professional job.

I looked around quite a lot before I chose this course and it seems to me that the internet is full of companies offering online TEFL courses, and I guess that they are all mostly the same : i-to-i.com , intesoltraining.com, teflcorp.com, cactustefl.com, they are all businesses, not schools. Just remember that so you won't be disappointed whichever one you choose. I chose onlineteflcourse.net because it was cheaper than the others and so far I haven't been disappointed. The online tutor arrangement works well, you just email them your work and they mark it and email it back with their comments and the next assignment, that keeps going until you finish the course (it does actually say that on their website) and at the end of it you get a certificate to say you completed the course and to show what grade you got, although, like I said I'm actually not too bothered about the certificate.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

[Eric]

I had my suspicions that philcolman, the thread creator, was not sincerely seeking information about this online course but was really just advertising the course to get more people to his/her website.

I also did some searching on the web and noticed that this same post appears in many other forums on the web:

• http://online.degree.net/online-degree-chat/t-online-tefl-course-3222.html
• http://www.aacircle.com.au/forums/f49/online-tefl-course-20332/
• http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&p=5325
• http://forums.galbijim.com/viewtopic.php?p=18029
• http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:GDTPaB1H7TMJ:www.seasonworkers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp%3FTID%3D5738+%22I+am+planning+to+g o+abroad+to+work+as+an+English+teacher+but+before+ I+go+I+would+like+to+get+some+basic+TEFL+training% 22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=ca&client=firefox-a

But of course, when researching a course, you want to ask around and get as much info as you can. So I let it slide

But looking at tonymorris's account, I noticed that he/she registered at eslHQ and posted immediately. But this still could be normal behavior.

So far so good.

But what is not so good is that the IP address of philcolman and tonymorris is the same. This means that either out of some very strange coincidence philcolman and tonymorris live within a few city blocks of each other or they are the same person. I'm going to guess the latter.

If I am wrong, I apologize. But I do not think I am wrong about this.

So, why am I bringing this to attention?

1. Because philcolman was not asking a sincere question. He/she was simply trying to promote his/her website. This reflects badly on eslHQ and leads to false information about a course for eslHQ's members.

2. To alert users who are actually looking for an online course (ie. spending a lot of money) that the information that tonymorris posted should be disregarded because it is most likely the same person asking about the course.

3. Finally, this is a common spamming technique. Spam includes posting in forums under the guise of a legitimate user seeking information about a product or website and posting a link to said product or website.

Just FYI...

Eric

[mesmark]

How funny! It never ceases to amaze me what people will do (or rather how low they will stoop) for a buck.

Fair enough, you want to promote your site, but once you've been called out, to try and come back and defend your scam is pathetic. Just move on. It's just like with my kids. I'm angier that the guy continues to try to deceive people.

Solid advice Eric, about choosing an online program.

[Eric]

Thanks, Mark.

[HUE]

Thanks Eric for doing the research on this. It's important that scams like this are called out. I'm sure more than one person would have given the site a second thought.

I'm always constantly amazed at the lengths people go to run scams. At the end of the day, it takes just as much energy to deceive as it does to actually create something useful, helpful, and worthwhile.

Thanks again!

[mesmark]

Quote HUE

I'm always constantly amazed at the lengths people go to run scams. At the end of the day, it takes just as much energy to deceive as it does to actually create something useful, helpful, and worthwhile.

I agree. It's the same as trying to look busy at work vs. actually working.

Working is much easier than trying to look busy.

[HUE]

Quote mesmark

I agree. It's the same as trying to look busy at work vs. actually working.

Working is much easier than trying to look busy.

Can you come down to my office in Tokyo and tell my coworkers that? Please?!