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Francis Hult spotted this on the EducationGuardian.co.uk site and thought you should see it.

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Note from Francis Hult:

"How many people have thought of upping sticks, leaving the UK and swanning off to another part of the world to experience a different life? And how many people have decided that investing in a Tefl course is the way to do this?"
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What is it really like to teach Tefl? Jenny Johnson shares her thoughts
Wednesday December 06 2006
The Guardian


How many people have thought of upping sticks, leaving the UK and swanning off to another part of the world to experience a different life? And how many people have decided that investing in a Tefl course is the way to do this?

More than you think actually. Cambridge Esol - awarder of the Celta initial training course qualification - reports between 7,000 and 10,000 course participants annually, while Trinity College London says there are between 3,500 and 4,500 following their Cert Tesol course each year.

Many - if not most - of these intrepid course graduates do follow through with their plans, either going abroad shortly or immediately after their course, or actually choosing to follow the course in the location of their choice so they can be in the right place for any job opportunities that arise.

Common sense dictates that it is extremely important to do the homework about the job opportunities in your preferred destination, and about working conditions and what can be expected in general for a new Tefl teacher.

There are a couple of publications which give help and advice in these areas: the ELT Guide is a companion publication to the Tefl trade paper, the EL Gazette, and Susan Griffiths' Teaching English Abroad is a very thorough and comprehensive guide to what it is like out there for Tefl teachers. Tefl graduates are usually driven by one or both of two main motivators: travel and teaching. If travel is the prime motivator, it soon becomes clear that a little cash is also necessary to finance this passion, and that's where a Tefl job comes in.

If the teaching is the prime motivator, the satisfaction comes from the opportunity Tefl gives you to work with people and improve their knowledge of something. In this case: English.

English language students are usually motivated and interested, and fascinating because of all the different walks of life, beliefs and cultures they represent. They are usually well-to-do: they have to be because it's not cheap to follow a language course. They are generally educated to graduate level, so conversation and discussion can be very stimulating, both in class and outside it. Expectations are high due to the financial investment students make, so hard work and thorough preparation is demanded by most students.

Low points often centre around the fact that most language schools are private organisations that have to make money. As one of the teachers you may not feel that the people who own and run the school necessarily appreciate the lengths you go to every day to devise entertaining, amusing, interesting, creative, productive lessons for your students.

Teaching timetables ideally span the peak times, think "night school", ie between 4pm and 10pm in most contexts. Language learning is much like any other leisure activity and for most students needs to take place outside normal working hours. In some cases however, schools also expect you to be available to work early morning, lunchtime and late evening lessons, which can test the "show must go on" levels of professionalism the job requires.

The first six months in a Tefl job will seem quite manic, with lots still to learn and an endless list of lessons to plan for different levels and age groups. It takes a while to fully appreciate different students' levels and needs, and to build up a file of popular warm ups, five-minute fillers, ice breakers, language games and other favourite activities.

Most schools use internationally known coursebooks these days. These have been thought through with finely engineered precision and take hours out of planning and preparation, but it's still good to have something up your sleeve for last-minute lessons and unexpected situations. Your stock of favourite tried and tested activities may have involved a lot of cutting and pasting, so be sure to laminate too so you can use them again and again. Your new colleagues are a valuable source of inspiration, and will generally help out when time is against you and the photocopier runs out of toner.

Some will argue that lesson planning will always take a long time, and that you never stop learning and finding ways to improve. This is true, but after a while you do see parallels between your classes and also how to exploit an activity at different levels and with different groups, so you start to be able to double up and re-do activities, which saves a lot of time.

And it's what you do in the time out of school that will constantly remind you of why you took the decision to do a Tefl course, uproot and land so far from home. Whether it's a sacred early morning caffe on the piazza, or a carafe of some local vino with other teachers in the evening after a hard day's teaching, you'll congratulate yourself on making the move, and start to enjoy the new rhythm of things.

A change is as good as a rest and a new life can be very good indeed.

· Jenny Johnson is the head of Tefl at Cactus Worldwide

· For more information on choosing a quality course, contact Cactus Tefl. Email info at cactusTefl.com, visit the website, or telephone 0845 130 4775 or +44 1273 725200 from outside the UK

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