Free Online TEFL Training: TEFL Bootcamp

My longer-term readers might recall that TedKarma has shared some excellent insight for the TEFL Logue, on, among other things, Should I Use A Recruiter?, Teaching in Korea and Saudi Arabia, and Being A Teacher Trainer. There is also another first-class resource available on his site: his TEFL Bootcamp.

In this free online training course, Ted offers sound and readable advice on topics like Boardwork, Lesson Planning, Error Correction, and teaching the different skills, with appropriate links at the end of each section. An added bonus is that you can download his 94-page grammar e-book. It is full of grammar explanations given in the way you would use them in class which is worth a lot more than a clunky four-hundred page textbook going for $100 on Amazon.

As a visual learner with a short attention span for some topics, like, well, grammar, I can say the e-book is well-laid out and organized, not to mention aesthetically pleasing.

I will admit that in the wide range of TEFL material I see online, I do some amount of eye-rolling: not here. TEFL Bootcamp is good, practical advice in manageable chunks.

The course is set up so you can read through it at your own pace and work independently, if you perhaps can’t quit your job to do a full-time, in person TEFL course, or just want to prepare yourself before you start your course. There is also the option of having a personal tutor – I imagine TedKarma himself – for a fee.

I’ll end with a few of my favorite quotes from the training, to give readers a look at the spot-on advice:

“Students expect their teacher to be skilled in grammar and if you aren’t you will probably lack confidence in the classroom. So, get skilled!”

“Relevance is an another important factor in building student motivation. Adults need to talk about adult things, kids need to talk about kid things – to build their interest in the lesson. You will sometimes have to step away from coursebooks to make this work.”

“If edutainment is the agenda for a school, go there prepared with many games and fun activities that use English as their medium. Students can, in fact, pick up a fair amount of language this way – so all is not lost. But, if you respect yourself and the profession, be wary of schools that are looking for a “dancing monkey” and not a teacher. Such schools do exist and your level of job satisfaction will be quite low if you take that type of position.”

TEFL Bootcamp. Check it out