How to Choose the Online TEFL Certification that Suits You Most

Surveys show that most TEFL certification programs have many similarities.

Flexibility and convenience are their greatest characteristics. They always cover similar subjects that are able to help you find a teaching job promptly in the thriving global TEFL industry.

Of course, differences between courses are inevitable, such as the cost of courses and the amount of study time.

To ensure that your online TEFL provider is recognized by the international world as well as your employers, you need to choose the best fit and the most guaranteed one to study.

Now we are going to give you some useful advice to pick the right one for you.

1. Find a trusted course provider.

The key to ensuring that you take a good-quality course and later you are qualified to teach English as a foreign language is to choose an internationally recognized TEFL course.

Since there is no TEFL accrediting agency, which means that different courses may be accredited TEFL certificate for free by different organizations with different standards.

Therefore, reading former reviews, checking industry experience, and reviewing teaching credentials are vital steps to pick an ideal course online.

2. Check the online status of your course provider.

Next, check and see if the course provider is legal. Actually, many of the TEFL online courses exist but some of them just there to earn good money.

A reliable course is a course that has been confirmed by a trusted authority. Besides, check your course provider's online profile carefully.

Questions like “Whether their website is legitimate?” “Do most of them have good reviews?” “Have they been recognized by any organizations, such as a university?” are able to assist you to find a right course provider as well.

3. Ensure that TEFL certification is at least 100 hours.

It is possible for you to find a TEFL online course that assures you to get a qualification within a weekend. As a matter of fact, 100 hours of TEFL certification has been regarded as a minimum by a large proportion of employers.

It usually takes about three months to finish all the courses, but you can learn at your own speed.

Taking a TEFL course with 100 hours of study is the greatest method to gain a job opportunity when you finish, though it sounds like a big investment

4. Don't go for the cheapest TEFL certification.

There is no doubt that you can purchase almost any amount of money as you wish to buy an online TEFL course. Remember, cheap is always not good, and amazingly cheap courses mean unreliable quality. It costs money to have high-quality courses and hire instructors who meet certification standards. Hence, spending $1000- $1300 can buy you a high-quality TEFL course.

5. Do research on your course instructors

Contact your course provider to figure out who your TEFL instructor is when information is unavailable online. Next, do some researches on them to find out if they are TEFL experts.

You might expect to gain information about their experience, qualifications, involvement with publications, or their social media accounts.

These are how you can learn about the expertise you will gain from a TEFL course.

6. Read through the course curriculum.

What your TEFL courses would provide you a strong foundation of the expertise you need to be a TEFL teacher.

A high-quality online TEFL certification should have an online course, or if you ask, they will send you a schedule immediately. Doing research is the prerequisite before doing anything.

Your course should cover the following topics as a mentor: preparation (including curriculum planning, learning goals, and teaching documents), teaching methods as well as classroom management (like studying style).

7. Decide if you want to practice.

Many TEFL courses offer real instructional experience (called instructional practice) in a classroom setting, while others do not.

Before you begin to work as a teacher, attending TEFL classes with practice assists you to boost your confidence and give you lots of useful experience

Since a number of practicums last 20 hours long, so they won't put you far ahead of other new teachers who don't.

To be honest, this is very well, but get a job as a TEFL instructor dose not means you should do that definitely.

People who already have practical teaching experience don't need to practice.

8. Consider creating specialized modules.

Most TEFL courses are able to prepare you how to teach when learners are from different countries or at different ages. However, if you desire to teach in a particular destination or domain, you may need to pick a TEFL certification that provides extension modules.

Take the University of Toronto's online TEFL certification as an example, which offers courses such as test preparation, teaching Business English, or teaching English to Chinese speakers.

Employers seldom ask for specialized TEFL certification. Yet, if you have decided which fields and people to teach, doing a relevant extension module can improve your skills and make you stand out in the interview.

9. Ask the TEFL course provider about past students.

A great method to evaluate the quality of a TEFL course is to ask course providers to provide information about how many of their graduates are employed and what kind of work they do.

They even dare to let you get in touch with the former students who are likely to tell how and what they have learned during the class before.

With the nine tips above, I believe you already know how to choose the right online course for you. Of course, it's entirely up to you. Don't be intimidated by the plethora of courses available online. Trust that you will always find the right one.