Acing Your TEFL Course

Six Top Tips from a Teacher’s Perspective On How to Pass the TEFL Certification

I’ve been an English teacher for four years…now does that make me an expert? Absolutely not. Did it make me incredibly confident that I could pass the TEFL Certification online course with ease? Of course. Was it as simple as I thought as I browsed the syllabus? Not even close. Even as a teacher with experience, getting TEFL Certified proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated…but not in the ways you’d think. If you’re reading this and thinking – “Wait, I’ve never even taught before, how am I supposed to pass it?” Don’t worry – I’m here to give you the top tips on how to ace your TEFL online certification.

Time Management

• The absolute hardest part of the course is finding the time to actually do it…especially if you are working full time while trying to get certified. 
• The best thing you can do is carve out a set time each week to do the following:
  1. Read the chapter (don’t just skim it).
  2. Post your discussion boards and complete the quizzes (these are short tasks that are better to get out of the way early).
  3. Plan your written task! On these assignments you can’t just wing it! Well, maybe you can, but it won’t result in the best product (or the best grade). Give yourself time over the course of a few days to make your written tasks the best they can be.

Watch the Instructor Videos.

• I learned this lesson the hard way…assignment after assignment I was getting small markdowns from my professor. The teacher side of me was loving the direct feedback, but let’s just say the perfectionist in me was not having it. What was I missing? I was doing all the reading each week and thought I was knocking each task out of the park. It wasn’t until Week 8 that I finally watched the video from my professor outlining his requirements and tips for the written tasks that I figured out the answers I had been seeking were at my disposal the entire time. (Cue facepalm) Not everyone is a great online learner, me especially – so watching video lectures from the professor is an excellent tool to help your concept development throughout the course.

Be Prepared to Plan….Literally.

• After the first few weeks of the course, going over basic teaching strategies, classroom management, and cultural backgrounds, the course dives right into lesson planning. Teachers out there are probably thinking this will be cake..let me be the first to tell you – it isn’t. I’ve worked at two schools in my career and was never required to plan as in depth for lessons as in the TEFL course. Be ready to create multiple lessons planned by the minute, with a teacher script, all while hitting your target language points. Not as easy as it looks. But, like anything, totally manageable with patience and practice! 

Brush Up on Your Grammar Skills

• I’m a language arts teacher, native speaker, I got a 98% in my college grammar course – how hard could it be to teach English? The answer is very. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the English language pretty much makes no sense. Pro Tip: Review some basic elements of grammar before or in the early stages of your course. Registering for the course even gives you access to grammar lessons. It will come in handy later on!

Buy In!

• This seems obvious…if you’re forking up the cash to pay for this class you’re definitely not going to slack. However, as with any higher-education course, balancing full time work, class, homework, family, free-time, the list goes on and on…is stressful! It can become easy to coast and let this course slip down the list of priorities. DON’T LET IT! Buy in, give it your all, and it will pay off for you, but most importantly, YOUR STUDENTS! You want to be the best you can be for them, and they deserve it! Do yourselves, and them, a favor…invest yourself completely!

Practicum – Get it in Early!

• Waiting until you are done with your coursework to begin your practicum isn’t the way to go. If you can manage the time, try to begin your practicum early – starting with observations. You can build up to 14 hours of observation to count towards your practicum. So, even if you aren’t yet comfortable with instructing, you can watch and learn from experienced EFL or ESL teachers.

So whether you’re an educator with experience like me, or an adventurer taking the plunge to get certified, these tips should help you achieve your online TEFL Certificate with ease!