ESLinsider's advanced course (TEKA) is a multi-media course that's designed to make teaching English (especially to kids in Asia) more fun and easier!
What's ESLinsider's online TEFL course like?
Wondering what's involved in an online TEFL course? I can't speak for other courses, but here I'll show you what TEKA is like. This course includes a lot of visuals like video and images because you need them to learn.
And I try to make it as fun as possible for you.
How does this online TEFL course make teaching easier and more fun?
The advanced course takes you from where you are now and right into the classrooms in Asia to train you via a virtual online learning experience.
You'll learn by "watching" other teachers and by interacting with online content that is fun and memorable.
This course uses a lot of instructional videos. Seeing something being done versus just reading about it is much better for retention purposes. And there are studies out there that prove this.
And why do you want to take a course?
I hope that the main reason is to learn because if otherwise I think you may be wasting your time.
Let's take a look at some of the course content.
There are 18 levels (topics) in this course
- Introduction (30 teachers share their experiences on video in Asia)
- "Engrish" entrance exam
- Teaching methods (7 different methods of teaching explored)
- The teacher as a public speaker (How to captivate your students)
- Learning styles (Learning styles and if they are accurate)
- Lesson planning (Learn 2 different preparation methods + easy planning)
- Presenting language (Learn how to introduce language to your students)
- Teaching reading
- Teaching speaking
- Teaching writing
- Teaching listening
- Teaching pronunciation & phonics (Learn pronunciation tips that can be applied to all levels)
- Midterm
- Grammar
- Using games & activities (for enhanced learning & engagement)
- Teaching with songs (How to use music to teach)
- Dealing with problems in the classroom (Solutions to common problems)
- Classroom management (How to handle the most difficult students w/ little known tricks)
- Classroom management tips
- Writing your resume (Outshine the competition even without experience)
- Finding jobs (Where to look, how to avoid scams and crappy employers)
- Culture shock
- Online teaching
- Final exam
- TEFL certification
Here is an outline.
Inside each level you will find a combination of videos, images, short text passages, Q&A, multiple choice, forums and writing assignments.
Is your "Engrish" good enough to teach abroad?
Haha.
What's the difference between "English" and "Engrish"?
Here is an example from the advanced course's entrance exam.
Teaching and learning should be fun!
How will you know if you are lesson planning correctly?
Feedback.
Lesson planning is the preparation that you do before you start teaching a class. If you don't know what you are doing then teaching can be tough.
In the course you will learn how to lesson plan, but more importantly you will create lessons based on a pages from a student book like below and then get feedback on them so you can make them better.
The advanced course includes 4+ assignments that include feedback that is given within 24 hours.
If your grade is not high enough then you will have to make corrections to it and resubmit it.
In other courses you likely have to wait much longer.
Here's an example:
"Grading time is advertised as 'usually 5 working days'." - godless-life
5 days.
Within 1 day.
These assignments are based off of student books like the picture below, however, if you are currently teaching you can send pics of your student books and we can work with those instead.
But I heard that lesson planning isn't required in some schools?
Every school is different. You may not have to submit lesson plans to your boss, but the idea behind a lesson plan is to know what you are going to do before you go into the classroom because if don't you are unlikely to have a good lesson.
An example...
These is a screenshot that just shows a bit of the interactive messaging in the course.
And there are a few threads that I put in PDF's that you can see if you create an account.
It's a multi-media online course
Here is a sample of some of the content used in the course.
So for example, after you watch the video you will then answer the questions on the following page.
Interact with it
These questions can be Q&A, true or false, fill in the blank, etc.
It's fun!
This is a review game used in the course.
Videos, so you can learn by watching other teachers
This course uses a lot of video. Video is more memorable and these videos mimic being in the actual classroom. These videos were filmed in public and private schools primarily in South Korea.
If you are planning on teaching there or somewhere else in East Asia these videos will provide great context to the environment that you will be teaching in. Some of the videos include footage of adult classes, but most of the videos are of young learners aged from about 6-14 years old.
Above is a how-to video that follows the "PPP" method of lesson planning. It was shot in a kindergarten in Busan, Korea. This video breaks down the lesson into 5 parts and uses a lot of activities to keep the students interested, active and learning.
People have short attention spans and children have even shorter ones!
Teaching young learners is the largest part of the market in Asia for teaching jobs. You can teach virtually all ages, yet most jobs are for teaching children.
Most TEFL/TESOL courses focus more on teaching adults. Most of the content in this course can be applied to both adults and children, but there is more of a focus on teaching children.
It's very convenient and flexible for you
Many other online TEFL courses have limited access to content which is only 2-3 months with a few popular providers. What's wrong with that?
Well, it's not that convenient for you and it's not that good for learning either. First you might have to rush and second by the time you actually get abroad and start teaching your access will be terminated so you won't be able to review content when you need it.
ESLinsider's Advanced course includes lifetime access because that's more convenient for you and it's better for learning.
Quality checks
You will need to maintain an 80% or higher through the course. If you don't then you will not be able to proceed to the next topic. But I don't try to make this course hard for the
Is this TEFL course hard?
I don't think so. In most places I try to make it easy and enjoyable for you.
Some of the assignments do take some effort though. There are currently 6 of them, but I don't make it hard for the sake of it.
You can see some of these TEFL courses were hard (or boring) because people were searching for the answers in Google.
How long does TEKA take?
It depends on you, but I've seen people complete it within a few weeks, but most take longer. I'd say for the (currently) 6 assignments you should typically expect to take a day for each. Basically you will submit the assignment then I'll check over it, give you feedback on it and if it's not sufficent you will have to resubmit it.
Then you have parts of the course that are more streamlined and you can move through these at your own pace.
So that's a close look at what the courses are like. You can see the course outline for yourself after you register and log in.
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