TEFL Requirements

So, you've decided that teaching English as a second language might be the career of choice for you, personally. What is the next step? There are two very importanct factors to consider before you go much further. The first is to identify the qualifications that you already hold and decide how relevant they will be to your TEFL training. The second is to really be sure that you, as a person, will find the career satisfying and rewarding (on a personal and not necessarily a financial level). You need to be the sort of person who can bring enthusiasm for what you are doing to the table every day and, in turn, enthuse your students with the same interest. As a teacher you need to be able to communicate, in other ways than language, with your students; it is necessary to be able to interact with each other in a meaningful way. You need to have the confidence to work in a classroom, with a group or with an individual, and deliver your lesson in a way that will maintain their interest and involvement. Your organisational skills will be needed as you plan your lessons to develop skills in an appropriate way, keep records of progress and mark written work in a manner that will be constructive and useful to the students. Obviously, depending on the specific establishment (primary school, secondary, higher education, language schools, business studies, industrial workplaces etc.) that you choose to work in, then other relevant skills will be essential.

It might be that you are a graduate student and feel that a TEFL qualification and subsequent experience might give you an advantage in your eventual career of choice. It can provide you with greater skills of communication in your own language, English, and also provide you with opportunities to live and work in places world-wide that you might not otherwise be able to visit. The year, or years, spent teaching abroad will expose you to other cultures, the experience and understanding of which could be invaluable in your future career. These opportunities can be found as far afield as Japan, Asia and the Latin American countries of South America. Strangely enough, proficiency in the language of the country to which you intend to travel isn't always a requirement as lessons would be in English. However, a knowledge of another language might help you to feel more comfortable yourself in your day to day life in another country.