TEFL Educator's
TEFL/TESOL Course FAQs

In an ideal world, everyone would take a residential in-classroom four-to-six-week TEFL training course in the country where they want to teach. But not everyone can afford to take the time off work and the heavy expense of such programs. An online course is right for you if you are on a budget and if you can not stop working to take a full time course.

Online courses are also useful as you can access them 24/7 and you can study at your own pace, spending more time on issues that you think are important and less on those that you easily master.  Many people take these courses while they are teaching abroad to help them improve their skills.

An online TEFL Certification course is right for you if you want to learn some good basic skills for teaching English and the ability to deliver knowledge and skills for which your students have paid. An online course is right for you if you wish to show potential employers that you are interested in doing TEFL correctly and are willing to spend a little time and money picking up the skills to help their students.

Online courses are an excellent way to get your feet wet and explore whether you might like to head overseas to Teach English and see a bit of the world.

You might want to take a look at this short article: Is an Online TEFL Worth It?

You should not take an online course to qualify for any teaching position that specifically states that it requires a full-time in-classroom course.  The great majority of jobs do NOT require an in-classroom course.

What most employers who require an in-classroom course want to know is that you have had some teaching practice.

If you take our optional and free teaching practice at the same time with your TEFL/TESOL course, most employers will consider the course as meeting the requirements for an in-classroom course.  If you take the teaching practicum with us, your certificate will state in bold type on the front, that you have done so.

It is certainly possible to finish the 120-hour course in less than a month.  Many students finish the course in just 2-3 weeks, but it is highly variable. Some finish it in less than a week, others take several months. It depends a lot on your study habits and life and work responsibilities.  When you sign up for your course, we send a few tips on how to get the course moving and where and how to best focus your energy.  If you let us know you are short for time when you sign up, we can provide even more guidance on how to speed things along.

TEFL is not rocket science but there is a very specific methodology that is well proven to benefit language learners and we like to be sure you have a good grasp on that way of doing things. You'll be glad you took the course and so will your students!

We mail your certificate to you via regular airmail within 3-5 business days of your completion of the course. That means it can reach you probably within three to four weeks anywhere in the world.

If you wish to have your certificate express mailed to you or live in a country where mail is unreliable there are extra fees depending on the cost of the service you require.

As soon as you complete the course we email to you a scan of your certificate. That is what you really need to start your job search and you will have it almost immediately.

The certificate is a professionally-crafted document
printed on certificate stock.
Several features assure the security of your certificate,
including but not limited to:
1. a watermark underneath all printing
2. a verification code tied to the specific graduate, and
3. other security features not publicly specified

We believe good quality training does not have to be expensive and should be accessible to people who want to learn and/or to improve their teaching skills.

Our TEFL/TESOL certificate courses are low priced as we do not have expensive web designers on staff (you can quickly see our simple design), nor do we hire expensive marketing people to fill your inbox daily with SPAM offerings.

We also don’t hire marketing staff to try to sell you on the idea of of teaching and living abroad and exploring the world. It is a magnificent lifestyle, but it is not the right thing for everyone and only you know if it is what fits your life best. Teaching is real work, not a 24-hour party as some TEFL marketers would tell you. But it is enjoyable and rewarding work that does let you see the world as you do it.

Notice also that we don’t charge you extra fees for materials or even for mailing your certificate to you. The only “extra” you can buy is express/courier mail service and registered mail service, which we recommend for China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and a few other countries where postal service may be unreliable.

Non-native speakers of English are encouraged to take our courses.
You are welcome here!

The great majority of teachers of English around the world are non-native speakers and often do the heavy lifting working with true beginners. 

If you are ready to improve your skills, we are ready to help.

Best of Phoenix Language Schools Award 2019

The core modules of our TEFL/TESOL courses can be seen right here on the website. You can judge for yourself if you feel that it cuts to the heart of the matter and tells you what you need to know. Read our webpages, listen to the free podcasts and watch the videos and judge for yourself.  These are available even before joining a course.

We are proud to say that our writers and tutors are experienced EFL teachers with a minimum of a Masters degree in Education, Post Graduate Certificates in Education (PGCE) with a TEFL specialty and we have all worked abroad as early as 1992 as EFL teachers and teacher-trainers with experience in at least two to five countries for a minimum of twelve years in each, two of us with 20+ years experience.

We are published authors as well, so we have all been at this for a while. Do you notice that other Online TEFL Certification courses usually make no mention of their course developers' qualifications and experience?  Check us out HERE - opens in a new window.

You won’t usually find the level of training, education and experience of our course trainers and tutors anywhere else.

Finally, don’t forget our 100% money-back no-questions-asked guarantee. If you are not happy with the course, simply ask for a refund. It’s that easy.

Ours is a REAL guarantee. Truly the best in the industry.

If you are at any point during the first 60 days of your course unhappy with the program you have purchased, simply send us an email and ask for a full refund. That’s it. That’s all you need to do.

Read the details in full HERE.

When you sign up for a course, you will receive complete written instructions for the course almost immediately.

We strive to keep the course simple in design, so you will have no problems studying the course and preparing yourself for a good teaching position overseas.

We use a criterion-referenced evaluation system. That means what we are looking for is that you can demonstrate good usage of PPP or ESA teaching methodology and write an appropriate lesson plan for each of your projects. That is what our course is all about, how to do those two things and do them well.  Many other things also, of course, but that is the essence of the course - how to teach effectively.

Depending on the specific course you take, we have a learning management system (LMS) that walks you through your course in small, easy-to-learn modules.  The LMS will guide you through the process and prepare you for your examination and lesson project(s)

Though this is a self-study course, we encourage questions and are willing to help students who have any difficulty. There is no extra charge for tutoring.

Read the next FAQ here for a further explanation of how it all works and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask.

The examination is an open book exam, so you have the ability to look through the course material and develop sound answers. It is in the same way that skilled teachers look through their resources to build a good lesson. They don’t just show up at school and try to talk their way through a lesson.

You may even use the examination as a study guide as you go through the course.

The projects are assigned lesson plans in specific topic areas. To pass the course you must submit well-written lessons in the requested areas. We offer a ten-point checklist for you to use to be sure you have all the bases covered.

We allow you an opportunity to rework your submitted examination and projects if they are not up to standard initially. We simply let you know what the issue is, tell you how to fix it (or where to find the solution) and ask you to resubmit that portion of your work.

Our examinations and projects are NOT easy, but not particularly difficult either.

We will expect you to submit material that your future employers will be happy to see.  We don’t think you would want anything less.

Good lesson plans, written by you, can be the basis of your portfolio when applying for a job or even the basis for your demonstration lesson if you should be asked to give one.

As part of your course with TEFL Boot Camp, you will be given a copy of “Teaching English Abroad: What you Must Know for an Effective EFL Job Search”.

This eBook will detail for you some of the most common mistakes made by people applying to work overseas. There are significant differences in how you should present your resume/CV, for example.

There are big cultural and legal differences in what information you should provide to a potential employer. Things that if overlooked will often land your resume/CV in the trash bin.

Some online courses offer job placement assistance, but generally you pay for it with a much higher cost course. There is no free lunch.

Tens of thousands of people are working abroad teaching English. The great majority landed their own job and it is not a particularly difficult task.

Check out our  TEFL JOBS pages. We show you how to do an international TEFL resume/CV, how to avoid TEFL Job Scams and provide country guides for the most popular teaching destinations.

TEFL Educator’s certificate programs also provide you with the eBook, Seven Secrets of Success Abroad which will help you better manage cultural differences and understand your foreign employer.

Yes, and there is nothing extra to pay.

Most people find the design of our courses easy to follow and understand, but if you need help, we are there and ready via email, chat or even Skype.

Yes. It is a FREE option and we encourage you to take it. It will increase the value of your certificate and we note your teaching practicum right on the front of your certificate.  Read about it HERE.