Are you certified? Finding your way through the TEFL course maze - 1st June 2005

Did I really need a teaching certificate? I already have a MA degree and five 
years worth of oversea teaching experience. My total teaching background 
extends tens years long. Finding employment abroad is as easy as spotting a 
dreadlocked farang on Khaosan Road. Whenever I post an on-line resume offers 
immediately start rolling in. I had all these opportunities, yet I still 
hadn’t got certified.

What could a TEFL teaching certificate offer me that my 
qualifications didn’t already provide? I was curious, so in a sick and 
demented way I started clicking on links to trigger teacher-training 
advertisements. My employment contract in Korea was coming to an end anyway. I 
had nothing to lose by exploring the new rejuvenating options.

The large variety of programs offering certification overwhelmed me. 
Unfamiliar initializations and acronyms unraveled at such a rapid rate that I 
became dizzy: ESL, EFL, RSA, CELTA, UCLES, ACTDEC, PELT, TESOL, TESL, TEFL. I 
thought I was reading a stock market report by mistake. To make matters worse, 
a few teacher training agencies played with their hyphens as if they had 
accidentally discovered a new erogenous zone: RSA-CELTA, TEFL-CELTA, TEFL-
TESOL, TESOL-PELT, and so forth into infinity.

Deeper prodding into the 
pungent folds of certification made my investigation even more confusing. 
There were hundreds – perhaps thousands – of franchises, sub-franchises, and 
licensed operators listed internationally. Even if I decided on a specific 
type of certificate, I would still need to narrow my choice down to a single 
country, then to further peel away at the layers of cities, and then to splay 
apart the competing agencies within that selected city.

How could I possibly 
make the best pick?Teacher forums on http://www.ajarn.com and 
http://www.eslcafe.com didn’t help matters much either, because everybody
had a different opinion. Some posters claimed that CELTA was the Rolls Royce® of certificates, while other posters suggested that it was more like an unjustly expensive boot camp, and there was a bloke named Bruce who had an entirely different philosophy on the matter all together. I wanted clear facts rather than garbled street versions. Most troubling of all, there wasn’t even any consensus on what constituted a “valid” training program or a “qualified” teacher in the first place.

Clearly, this decision would involve more research than two whiskies worth of time. So, I poured myself a third drink and started typing key words into search engines.

For some time, RSA/CELTA held a near monopoly over the formal training of 
English teachers. However, it would not take long before investors realized 
that English had become big business. Entrepreneurs spotted weaknesses in the 
RSA/CELTA program. For one, RSA/CELTA emphasized the teaching of adult 
students, but a huge chunk of the emerging market were younger pupils and 
children. The need for skilled English teachers was much greater than 
RSA/CELTA could keep up with alone.

The demand for quality English instructors 
was greater than the supply. In result, a nasty strain of “cowboy” teachers 
easily multiplied in this vulnerable void like volleys of tiny crotch crabs 
(taking quick bloody bites before blazing to the next victim with a fresh 
paycheck). Before long entrepreneurs questioned the manner of RSA/CELTA 
training, and raised the valid issue of allowing a single entity to seal its 
near monopoly over the industry.

The ESL industry has subdivided and morphed into many different shapes since 
the 1990s. The rapidly mutating ESL industry reminds me of that old horror 
flick, The Blob, in which a giant discombobulated mass squeezes through the 
projectionist’s room in a movie theater, and like a glistening plate of gooey 
Playdough®, the shapeless being from outer space eats the screaming viewers 
alive. Alright, I admit, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but my 
point is that this ESL business has gotten so big and powerful in a short 
period of time that a simple choice is overwhelming.All I wanted to do was get certified. All I needed was to improve my teaching skills, learn creative ideas, and get new feedback from experienced colleagues. I craved only to lubricate my mundane teaching life, so that I 
could thrust forward into new directions.

Now, I had accidentally entered 
Pandora’s other box, and she evidently wasn’t happy about it. My simple 
routine life was complicated once again. I had confusing choices and 
disordered plans. Somehow I thrived in the chaos that followed. I had new 
goals and a sense of direction. 

****

My decision to finally get certified came down to one thing: teacher 
development. I really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about grades, degrees, or gold 
stars in the corner of my papers. I wasn’t just smearing frosty pink icing on 
my resume. Certification was part of an ongoing process. It wouldn’t end with 
graduation. I have reached the age where I must admit that I have fallen into 
teaching as my profession.

I never planned on it. Teaching was something I did 
for income while hunting for a real job. Teaching just sort of happened. I got 
a MA degree in an unmarketable field and, after learning that dumpster diving 
wasn’t my cup of tea, I was forced into reassessing my options. I could either 
be a low-paid social worker in urban America or I could travel to exotic 
countries by teaching English. It was an easy choice. As a instructor I 
adopted the “learn as you go” method and for a short period of time it worked. 

Over the years, however, I became more aware of my limitations as a teacher. 
But, luckily, I had also learned that I was doing a few things right.
My strengths are that I am a very student-centered, flexible, creative, and 
approachable teacher. I can adapt to any student regardless of age, ethnic 
background, or level of English. Give me a dirt floor and a plastic ball and I 
could invent a lesson on the spur of the moment. However, this is not enough. 

My teaching skills were limited because I never deeply studied phonics, lesson 
planning, or grammar. I did not understand how the mechanics of English 
worked, therefore how could I explain grammatical rules to students? I could 
drive the car, but not maintain its engine. Sure, I knew how to use reference 
books to introduce material into the classroom, but I could have done it much 
better.When I finished my contract in Korea I flew to Thailand to take a closer look 
at 3-4 certification programs. Internet advertisements were so overwhelmingly 
numerous that I couldn’t pick one. I was reluctant to shell out $1,000 to an 
agency that I had only seen on-line.

I wanted to see a program in action 
before I started signing expensive business contracts. I cautiously created 
the following five criteria:
1) Location: The place must be enticing enough to live there for 4-8 weeks.2) Price: The program must be fairly priced, in an affordable place to study.3) Accreditation: The school must have formal rights to issue valid 
certificates.4) Trainer Credentials: The teacher must have an advanced degree and extensive 
experience with the ESL industry – including actual classroom time with 
students from the chosen target group.5) Content: The class material must develop my weakest points as a teacher, 
and allow observed teaching practice sessions while I test it out. This ESL 
material must include phonics, grammar, lesson planning, and new methodology.

I went shopping for the Rolls Royce® first – the CELTA. However, I was 
discouraged rather quickly from enrolling. The program seemed too rigid, and I 
wasn’t entirely convinced that they offered any cutting edge methodology that 
justified my paying an extra $250. CELTA admission required submitting in 
advance a variety of writing samples, lesson plans, and grammar tests 
(depending on franchise).

I didn’t have the time or patience for this pre-
testing. CELTA training programs are haunted with stories about imposed quotas 
to fail students or sadistic trainers publicly berating trainees to the point 
of nervous breakdown. I wasn’t sure I wanted to chance it. The CELTA trainers 
in Thailand seemed skilled and attentive, and I have no doubt that they 
provide a decent education. At the same time, I realized that in the practical 
world of English teaching I would need to teach children every now and then. 
CELTA placed its emphasis only on adult education. CELTA didn’t offer training 
that would apply to a diversity of student age groups and educational levels. 
Therefore, I was reluctant to invest my money in their course. I continued 
looking.

I decided to scope out TEFL certificates. The main problem was that TEFL 
agencies saturated Thailand like seasonal flooding during the monsoon.  
Internationally, there were so many TEFL certificate-producing agencies, 
franchises, and licensed operators that I didn’t know where to begin. The 
origins of the TEFL certificate can be elusive. You have to peel away at 
layers of interconnected agencies to find the original source of 
accreditation, and at times this process feels like your spinning around an 
endless vortex without a solid foundation to grab onto for balance.

Would a 
TEFL certificate one day become an over-franchised, mass-produced, generic 
product like a standard hamburger at a typical fast food chain? TEFL programs 
are so numerous that I wondered if the certificate might be endangered of 
becoming watered down and meaningless. Still, I had to explore this 
opportunity. I was running out of time and had to make a decision quick.

I was reluctant to enroll at Bangkok. The TEFL course took 4 weeks, and I 
lacked the patience to endure congested traffic and air pollution for this 
long. Having recently survived a cold Korean winter, in a crowded city, I 
needed a change of pace. I wanted to, at least, take this course at a 
desirable location – such as a hot tropical beach loaded with palm trees. I 
imagined strolling on a sandy beach at sunset after a busy day of study, or 
snorkeling while waves crashed ashore. My requisite as to location presented 
no problem. 
I narrowed my choice down to four locations, but I still needed to pick one. 
My final decision would be the qualification of the person actually in charge 
of training. 
While working at a teacher training college in Hungary, I learned that a 
degree in this field doesn’t always mean that somebody can teach it well. It 
is not unusual for a trainer to be a recent graduate or a novice to the actual 
classroom. Some teachers just lack the social skills to actively involve 
students in the learning process. I respect professionalism, but a stuffy 
grammarian can be quite boring to experience over a 4 week period. I can still 
recall a 10th grade English teacher that habitually forbid his students to 
speak in class, while routinely graphing sentence trees on a chalkboard 
without ever providing context. His methods were mechanical and very teacher-
centered. He recycled the same lessons every year. Maybe he wondered why he 
never connected with students one day, and found new ways to develop as a 
teacher. I will never know, but I was certain that I didn’t want to pay for a 
repeat performance. I wanted to make the right choice in advance.In an amazing streak of luck the trainer in Ko Samui – Phil Jenkins – was 
somebody that I had worked with before. Phil was a teacher I could learn from. 
We both taught at the Rajabhat (university) in Ayutthaya. Phil first moved to 
Thailand over 15 years ago to participate in the first wave of English 
teachers. He learned to speak and write Thai fluently, married a local woman, 
and raised two very cute and talkative little girls. I knew he was well 
qualified: Phil has a MA degree in Applied Linguistics, he has worked for the 
Ministry of Education in Thailand, and he has been involved with teacher 
training for eight years. Phil was the faculty member at Rajabhat Ayutthaya 
who other teachers went to with questions. He taught all the grammar and 
phonic classes. Phil knew sound and syntax like my tongue knew my alveolar 
ridge and the back of my teeth.
I lost track of Phil when I left Thailand three years ago. In fact, I lost 
touch with nearly all of my former colleagues. It was my former students that 
continued to correspond with me. They told me rumors that Phil found a nice 
job on Phuket. One of my last memories of him was our visit to a rural jungle 
food restaurant where we ate cobra, crocodile, and other mysterious forms of 
meat (I’ll e-mail this story to anyone interested). I still remember how 
courageously Phil lifted a glass of dark-green cobra blood to his lips. It was 
mixed with Mekong whiskey and the snake’s gall bladder, which floated against 
the rim like a bobbing balloon. He gulped the vile concoction down as 
fearlessly as any Thai man. I followed suit, chugging the cobra blood in one 
swallow after popping its gall bladder with a toothpick. The horrid taste gave 
me a real curious buzz that I won’t soon forget. You remember sharing an 
activity like that with someone. You have to trust those whom you share cobra 
with. This man could teach me about students in Thailand. He had the solid 
academic background, he was well-connected locally, and he wasn’t a stuffy 
executive in a three piece suit. The deal was cinched. I made my decision to 
take the TEFLworld course on Ko Samui.
****In Ko Samui I had the powerful feeling that I was a part of something that was 
growing. TEFLworld’s training took place at the recently opened Panyadee 
elementary school, which follows the British National Curriculum and is 
officially accredited by the Ministry of Education (allowing it to formally 
issue internationally recognized certificates with registered numbering). 
Panyadee is a bilingual school that provides education to children from 
Thailand, France, Demark, Belgium, and Germany. Its campus is located in a 
mountainous coconut grove near Chaewang Noi beach. Each day something new was 
added to the quiet landscape – the planting of grass, the construction of a 
patio, the creation of a shady awning, and the installment of more air 
conditioning. The school is growing one step at a time.
When I first arrived at the British School of Samui, where Phil also serves as 
the headmaster, a group of children were planting seeds in a garden. The 
teacher was delivering an active, hands-on, TPR session on the stages of plant 
growth. The children formed a circle as he explained germination to them – 
then the kids helped with watering. The lecture was appropriate since the 
school itself was in that stage. This TEFL certificate program founded by Phil 
Jenkins and Stuart Baker (of the locally renowned Minerva language agency). 
The teaching staff all graduated from Phil’s previous TEFL courses (with other 
agencies). He selected the cream of the crop to get the school started. 
Faculty continued developing into stronger teachers, while the children 
polished English skills. I knew I made the right choice for me. I felt the 
opportunity for personal growth, so I jumped right in.
The program itself is hard work. There is a great deal of preparation 
involved. We started off light by reading some of the modules required by the 
course. We discussed the characteristics of our favorite teachers and 
delivered presentations to get acquainted with the use of the whiteboard. Then 
the hard-core English material kicked in: phonemes, diphthongs, syllable 
stress, word classes, sentence trees, sentence moods, lexical sets, fricative 
soundings, places of articulation, Total Physical Response pedagogy, and the 
use of pitch and epenthesis in Thai pronunciation. Language acquisition is a 
incredibly complicated process. I felt like I was dissecting a butterfly in 
science class. We peeled away layers of English to peek at what functioned 
underneath. We broke out the microscopes and watched verb tenses wriggle and 
squirm beneath our lens. And then we put this new understanding to use with 
lesson planning.
The next stage was to travel near the Ko Samui Airport for our first teaching 
practices. This field trip was the first entry into the world of live 
classroom English for some trainees. It was how they lost their teaching 
virginity. Fifty Bangkok Air employees studied at this language seminar, whom 
we broke into two smaller groups. The employees needed to develop practical 
English skills to communicate with tourists. This teaching style involved the 
audio-linguistic approach combined with communicative language teaching 
techniques. We practiced a specific pattern of dialogues, drills, and 
interactive exercises. Students worked in groups and pairs. We wanted them to 
get comfortable with basic airport-oriented conversations.The seminar was a nice piece of networking, really. The main facilitator, 
Scott Michael Smith, had taught with both Phil and me in Ayutthaya. Scott was 
developing as a teacher by getting a MA in tourism at Assumption University. 
To my surprise, Scott still taught at the same Rajabhat and was now living in 
my former home beside the Chao Phraya River. I lost touch with him like I did 
with Phil, but accidentally stumbled onto Scott while exploring river canals 
in a long-tail boat. I had just returned from Indonesia during Songkhran. 
Scott happened to have a nice supply of wine, so he invited me to visit him 
for a gourmet dinner. I explained my plans to earn a TEFL certificate under 
Phil’s training. As luck had it, Scott was already scheduled to facilitate a 
seminar for Bangkok Air in Ko Samui at the same time. We seized the 
opportunity to work together once again. Scott’s most positive trait as a 
teacher is his sense of motivation, and he brought this creative energy to our 
TEFL course.
Our networking led to a four-way winning strategy: Bangkok Air had better 
trained workers, employees developed marketable job skills, teacher-trainees 
delivered their first lesson plans, and Phil found a possible resource for 
future TEFL courses. Bangkok Air was very pleased with the outcome of the 
seminar. They invited us to produce training manuals and design textbooks for 
future English seminars. Bangkok Air – with Scott’s coaxing – rewarded us with 
an exquisite gourmet dinner of tiger prawns, snow fish, and tender steak in a 
curry sauce (drinks included). While digesting this beach-side meal I realized 
why I really love Thailand. In Thailand, I have a sense of opportunity and raw 
potential. I can find new projects to work on, get published, or expand my 
range of teaching. It is amazing that I could simply drop back into Thailand, 
stumble into former colleagues, and get immediately turned onto new 
opportunities.
In contrast, this spirit is lacking in Korea. There isn’t much room for 
promotion at a hagwon job. The long-term rewards in Korea seem to be limited 
to higher salaries or university jobs. Korea’s expatriate community isn’t as 
tightly networked because most teachers depart after only one year. It is 
difficult to discover new outlets for your creative energy. In Thailand 
expatriates help each other out. Teachers network to produce seminars, hand 
over private lessons, or find each other better jobs. In Thailand I always 
have that sense of possibility.
The next stage of teaching practices took place directly at the British 
School. These children have advanced speaking skills, but need more practice 
with writing and spelling. Future TEFLworld courses will also include a 
government school for impoverished children, who have had little access to 
native speakers. Phil helped trainees develop child-appropriate lesson plans. 
Teaching children is a style in its own. Children have short attention spans 
and an unlimited supply of energy. You have to keep them active with a lot of 
communicative activity. There needs to be a great deal of visual stimulus and 
physical response. If a lesson isn’t planned right the class may implode, and 
a room full of bored sugar-ingesting children is never a pretty sight. I 
already had a solid background with teaching children, so I was very 
comfortable with them. However, it was an eye-opener for new trainees. They 
got swarmed. Children fought over props, grassed out their mates, and fought 
for the teacher’s attention. But, by the next lesson, the rookies could adjust 
their teaching style for children. They were figuring out the teaching 
process.
The most valuable tool for training, perhaps, is the use of teaching 
practices. Trainees delivered lessons to both adults and children while a 
certified professional observed them and provided feedback afterwards. 
TEFLworld provided us with six practice sessions each. However, there were 
many opportunities to do extra lessons if one was inclined. I delivered a 
total of ten observed teaching practices. It was the feedback from these 
sessions that set me in the direction of self-improvement. I learned how to 
redirect my energy and was able to experiment with new methods. The TEFL 
course was also a great way for future teachers to learn if they prefer adults 
or children as students. The rookies got exposure to English and established 
an initial foundation to build upon. I was able to take it one step further 
with more advanced material. Everybody was able to improve on their skills, 
and tap into their individual teaching style, no matter what level they came 
into at the start of the course.The 4 week TEFLworld program moves very quickly. Before you know it the class 
is over. In the fourth week we took the final exams and finished. Official 
certificates were handed out and our prideful celebration began. We fired up a 
barbeque at school on our last day (no, cobra and crocodile were not on the 
menu). We drank Thai beer and reminisced (students were on holiday). Our 
different levels of teaching experience turned into a bonus. I became a 
mentor, which is also a type of teacher, and the rookies reminded me of my 
early classroom experiences. I even learned from watching them at times. There 
was a type of bond that formed along the way. We had shared the lengthy 
process of getting certified together. Phil pointed them in the direction of 
their first teaching job, and one was even offered work at Rajabhat Ayutthaya. 
A new teaching network had formed. Who knows what will become of it? The smoke 
rose from the grill and beer flowed freely. I couldn’t help but get a sappy 
sense of accomplishment. We did it. We graduated. We got certified.
As beer multiplied my head resonated with inner singing. I held a spanking new 
TEFL certificate in my hand. It had official accreditations from the Ministry 
of Education, and a registered number for future verification. The TEFL 
certificate would be listed on my resume directly above my MA degree. After 
all these years I had finally done it. However, I reminded myself of my 
original questions: Did I really need this teaching certificate? Did it add 
any value that my previous qualification didn’t already offer? A smile lifted 
to both corners of my face. I had learned many surprising things about my 
teaching style. Even subtle details could be helpful later. For example, Phil 
pointed out that I favor the right side of the room. Another observer noted 
how I cluttered the whiteboard with too much information. I also received 
great feedback about lesson planning. The days of scrawling a brief outline on 
a notepad were over. I had specific strategies to produce in class. I could 
custom-design lessons for specific language levels. More importantly, I got my 
spark back. I tapped into new resources of energy. I had become rejuvenated.The overriding issue, however, was none of the above outcomes. The most 
important litmus test, the one that would finally prove the value of this TEFL 
course, were the following questions: Did my weakest skills improve 
significantly? Did I develop as a teacher? The answer to both questions is 
unequivocally, YES. Not only did I learn more about phonics, but I also 
created fantastic lesson plans based on sounds – and I tested this new 
material in an actual class. I developed a curiosity for grammar and 
understood why Asian languages have such problems with it. I experimented with 
new methodologies and learned dozens of new classroom activities. I had a new 
bag of tricks. I had a tremendous sense of accomplishment. One small thing was 
still missing, however. But, it was something that I could easily fix.
I cracked open a new flask of scotch and raced toward the closed school. There 
was one act that would confirm the fruits of academic labor. In seconds, I 
stood in the middle of the children’s garden. Their seeds had sprouted. Some 
of the plants had already grown to the point of harvesting vegetables. I 
roamed the garden until I found a shady patch of green beans. They climbed up 
tiny strings to create water falls of green. Like a strand of syntax the 
garden started from a basic foundation, and spread into more complicated 
forms. I harvested English words and phonemes, much like the produce of this 
garden. Both were tended to with great care and understanding. Both could be 
shared. I had a taste for English. I picked a few beans and promptly ate them. 
They tasted like opportunity.
So, are you Certified?Well, baby, you know I am!

Accommodation

Please note that accommodation is not included in course fee for this location. High quality accommodation is provided free of charge at the TEFLworld Koh Samui school only.

If you would like us to help you find suitable accommodation please let us know when you enroll.