Are Weekend TEFL Courses of value?

Taking a short TEFL course is a good idea if you want to try something new but do not want to spend a lot of money on something you are not sure about and may not want to continue. Generally a weekend course will be enough to give you a good idea of what to expect and some ideas of how to plan your lessons, assess your student(s) and where to source teaching material.

There are many reasons why people choose to complete a TEFL Course, many students see it as a way to finance them whilst they go backpacking or travelling during a gap year or two. Certainly it is a good way of earning some money whilst overseas - there are plenty of opportunities to teach English just about anywhere in the world - without it costing to much to attain. You will find that it also opens up a wealth of opportunities to you, even after using it for a year, and if you never teach again. Once you have decided that you still want to teach and take a TEFL course decide whether or not it should be a weekend course or the more intense CELTA or TRINITY TEFL courses which are several weeks in length.

The vast majority of people who take weekend TEFL courses find work. It’s a useful course to have done and even school teachers who have taught for many years will say afterwards that they found it worthwhile and an eye opener and felt it has inspired them to teach in a different way. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of weekend TEFL courses held up and down the country. Generally taking place in hotels, they consist of a tutor and between four and twenty students depending on how large the company is and how efficient their marketing is.

Note: just because the company is small or has a small group, it does not mean that they are any worse than a large organisation. Small companies will have fewer offices, sales people and directors, they don't need large numbers of people on the course to pay for all the administration and sales. Your choice will boil down to whether you are more comfortable in small or large groups.

The Course Structure

Weekend TEFL courses will not really advance your language skills, it’s the practical side of teaching you are focussing on. Although you will do a practise teaching session for the certificate, you won’t actually get any real teaching practise as there are no 'real', live students to practice on! You will just practice on each other. Don’t forget either that most of the students there are new to teaching and will be just as terrified as you. Weekend TEFL courses tend to attract a wide range of ages, personalities and backgrounds too. I was on a course with a 17 year old and a pensioner on walking sticks!

Courses are generally about 20 hours in length and can be quite tiring as you have to take notes and think all the time. If you are not familiar with teaching you may find the teaching practice aspect quite daunting too. However, a good teacher will help you complete the teaching practice without any problems. Although it is daunting to stand up & teach in front of the group it is good practise, as you will have to do this in the real world, most people feel as though they have really made progress once when they have done this part well.

Most of the courses will follow the same plan over the weekend; to teach you enough of what to expect, how to teach, the situations you might come across and finally, how to find work. Courses take place up and down the country every weekend. Some are followed, usually at extra cost, with a written part to the course which tends to be a reinforcement of the actual course. Some companies offer a third module which goes more thoroughly into the grammar side of English working more deeply on the makeup and complexities of the English language. For the extra cost, which is generally cheaper if you book parts one, two and three parts together, it’s probably well worth the extra money. Expect to pay around £230 for a weekend course and around £400 for all three parts of the course.

Good course providers give you a folder of printed matter to take home to reinforce what you learned on the course. Information such as assessing students, common problems with language and what props to use, are useful to go over again after the course. A good course will help you to lesson plan accurately, produce a lesson of suitable content and with interesting material. Do this well and you will deliver your lesson with aplomb and sit down wishing you could do it all over again.

I have introduced many people to Kristall's weekend TEFL courses, I did my course through Kristall, and often get people calling me on the Monday after the course to thank me and tell me how wonderful the course director, Brian Almond is. Kristall is a small organisation but the courses are great, packed with information and encouragement. Many of Kristalls students go on to find work both in the UK and overseas.

 

 

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