TEFL, TESOL, and CELTA
What’s the Difference Between CELTA and TEFL/TESOL?
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TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
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TESOL: Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
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TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language.
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CELTA: Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (now known as Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
It’s perhaps no surprise that one of the most popular jobs for native English speakers abroad is teaching their mother tongue, but choosing a certification for this career option can make it feel like you’re drowning in a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms: TEFL, TESOL, TOEFL, TESL, CELTA… How are you to know the difference and, more importantly, how are you to know which one is right for you and your career?
The question was, which one to choose?
When it comes to choosing between TEFL/TESOL and CELTA, the first thing to know, right off the bat, is what these acronyms stand for:
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TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language
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TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
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TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language
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CELTA: Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (now known as Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
While at their roots, each of these acronyms means something slightly different, in practice, the first three are often used interchangeably to refer to any certification program that trains an English speaker to teach their language to others.
Acquiring a TEFL/TESOL certificate is your first step to career freedom, opening the door to traveling and teaching in practically any country in the world. But before you jump head first into verbs, vocabulary, and visualizing yourself kicking back on a Thai beach after a day’s teaching, there’s an important decision to be made: Exactly how many hours of TEFL/TESOL course study should you go for?
TEFL and TESOL courses come in all shapes and sizes. 120 hours is the standard length of most courses, generally because this is the traditional amount of contact time if you sit the internationally-recognized CELTA course. All TESOL/TEFL course are international recognised.
So why dedicate more of your precious hours towards your qualification?
In one word: experience.
If your TEFL/TESOL course is longer than 120 hours, it’s likely that some (or all) of those extra hours will be put towards your ‘Practicum,’ which consists of hours spent observing, assisting, and teaching in the classroom. It might seem like a no-brainer that you need to have a chance to put into action the lessons you’ve learned, but many online TEFL/TESOL courses don’t even (sometimes) offer a practicum but most schools would prefer it from an English Teacher, who likes to apply for a Teaching position.
A longer TEFL/TESOL course can also include all sorts of extra goodies. You might gain a more thorough and comprehensive training in areas beyond the traditional nuts and bolts of TEFL tuition, such as teaching in a business or young learner context or preparing students for English language exams.
You’ll also find that these courses, many of which are accredited by independent examinations bodies, look better on your resume than the standard 120-hour TEFL/TESOL every other teacher is applying with on their resume. You never know, they might well be the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd when it comes to the crunch: the all-important job application.
Difference between TESOL and TEFL?
TEFL refers to Teaching English as a Foreign Language: programs in countries where English is not the primary language and is not a lingua franca. TESOL, which stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, is a general name for the field of teaching that includes both TESOL and TEFL.
Here more abbreviations:
CEFR –Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
CELTA – Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (Cambridge ESOL Qualifizierung),
CertTESOL – Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Trinity College Qualifizierung),
CETYL – Certificate in English Language Teaching to Young Learners,
CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning –
DELTA – Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults (Cambridge ESOL
DipTESOL – Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Trinity College Qualifizierung),
EAP – English for Academic Purposes,
EFL – English as a Foreign Language,
ELT – English Language Training (America),
ESL – English as a Second Language,
ESOL – English for Speakers of Other Languages,
ESP – English for Special Purposes,
IELTS – International English Language Testing System,
TEFL – Teaching English as a Foreign Language,
TESL – Teaching English as a Second Language (usually for immigrant/long term learners),
TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages,
TKT – Teaching Knowledge Test (Cambridge-Examen),
TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language,
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