TEFL Institute Reviews and Teach Abroad Programs
TEFL Institute is the worldwide leader in professional TEFL certification and the training of international English teachers. Based in Chicago, IL, with course locations in 20 cities around the globe, we offer the finest in 4-week intensive onsite TEFL training courses and online TEFL training courses providing the 120 hour certification required to teach English in thousands of schools and language institutes around the world.
TEFL Institute graduates are employed across the world teaching English in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Employment as a professional English teacher is available in over 80 nations worldwide. TEFL Institute works with the largest and most prestigious English teaching programs and schools worldwide both public and private. Our relationships extend to the Chile Ministry of Education/United Nations Open Doors Program, and public schools in China, South Korea and Japan. Our associations extend to the finest chains of private language schools throughout the world. We offer lifetime job placement assistance to our graduates free of charge as part of our student services.
Teaching Programs
Ratings and Reviews
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Korea is a country that never sleeps. It's one of the busiest countries in the world. High school students study endlessly to enter into the college of their own choice. Their parents work long hours. The bars and restaurants open until the wee hours of the morning. There's never a dull moment with Korea--for better or worse.
The TEFL Institute allowed me to prepare for these scenarios with my school and the culture there. I am very thankful that I've been able to come into Korea prepared as I have with them.
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This program was a great experience but you had to be ready to go with the flow. When we showed up we barely had addresses where our class was but once we found it and got settled it was awesome. The class was intense since I did the summer camp program, we were in school all day for 2 weeks but it was worth it to be able to be teaching just a few days later! They helped with everything getting set up at the summer camps and we were all guaranteed jobs which was great and helped build confidence as a teacher. Plus our teacher was hilarious, I would definitely recommend this!
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During the summer of 2010, I traveled to Madrid, Spain for the TEFL program. I spent the first month with about 20 other students taking the "Teaching English" course 5 hours each day. We had a great intimate group and learned a lot from each others various past experiences teaching, living abroad, etc. We provided resumes to the various camps and were divided based on our abilities & experiences. After this month, we went all together to do practicum and worked directly with a large group of students at a camp in Leon for roughly two weeks. After Leon, our group went our separate ways to the camps we worked in for the rest of summer.
My specific camp was in Catalunya and the camp directors required English teachers that spoke Spanish. I traveled with four other American girls to the camp. Upon my arrival, we were greeted by the head camp director. We were given our assignments the next day and worked for the camp daily for the entire month of July. I am very pleased with my experiences through TEFL and I would recommend it to anyone willing to step outside their comfort zone. Some days were more difficult than others BUT overall, I enjoyed meeting new people, learning a new culture, and practicing my Spanish. At times, it was difficult because the Spanish culture is very relaxed and sometimes seemed unorganized but I found to love Spain for that in the end. I'd encourage you to go abroad and experience this wonderful opportunity!!
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I did this online 120 hour course when I was in Colombia as an English Assistant in 2009 - and three years later I believe it was one of the best investment I made. The program was concise, the material was easily available and clear and it was convenient to do the program and apply it to what I did in class immediately. My supervisor constantly worked with me and the fact that I had to read the other works from my classmates opened my eyes to different perspectives and ideas on how to teach.
The only issue I have is that people will question if the quality of the program would be less since the training was online -even though you do have to do practical work.
This program is worth doing and it has provided the opportunity for me to travel and do something I love. I am glad that I took the chance to do this program.
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The Online TEFL Certification from the TEFL Institute was an important milestone for me as I started my teaching career in Thailand. Without the TEFL certification, I sincerely wonder if I would have been as well prepared (or comfortable) in the classroom. Our week-long orientation in Thailand with other ESL teachers (some TEFL certified, some not) showcased the skills we had learned over the 3 month TEFL course.
The TEFL Institute breaks up all participants into a small group of approximately 15-20 students. Our group had was led by a professional, intelligent instructor who reviewed, graded, and provided input for each one our our submitted assignments. We averaged 1-2 assignments per week. The topics ranged from classroom setup & discipline, lesson plan development (listening, reading, writing, speaking) for learners of different ability, the best locations for effective ESL tools and games, how to create a grading rubric and assessment form, and many other others.
It was always nice to receive candid feedback from the instructor in addition to the comments received from other students in our small group. We were required to make at least 2 comments/suggestions per assignment on other students submitted assignments. Sometimes it was a challenge to meet the deadline for an assignment, but the structure of the course helped greatly when I was lesson planning for real in Thailand. That is one of the greatest unspoken assets of this course....you will be a pro at lesson planning from day 1 when you are teaching abroad. Even if you are nervous standing in front of 30-50 students with a confused look on their face, you'll know what to do and how to do it. To me, that was priceless.
I found the TEFL Institute's TEFL Certification course to be a worthwhile investment that can provide a lifetime of benefits for ESL teachers and I firmly believe you will too!
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This course far exceeded my expectations. I really enjoyed getting to know my classmates and learning from them. The teacher was very kind and always provided helpful feedback. I really felt confident about teaching after fulfilling the coursework and the practicum observations.
I've told several friends about the course and three have already enrolled! I'm so excited to move overseas and experience this opportunity of a lifetime!!
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I did my class on line, and this was my first on line class. The whole on line thing was a bit new for me, as I graduated college in 1996. While I did miss the interactions of a real class, I did like the ability to study and do my writing assignments on my own time. I thought the book was very good, but did not always take into account cultural differences. While it is true there are way to many differences to take into account, there were times I thought the book was written with only one cultural mindset in mind.
I also have to admit that I did not like not being able to speak with the teacher directly. I did not agree with her grading on more than one occasion, and did not like trying to exchange this disagreement via email, given her slow response time.
All in all, I felt the class was worth what I paid for it, and while there were cheaper classes out there, I did not feel they were worth the discount. Given that many schools look at how many hours your class time was, and compare that to Cambridge ESL classes, the cheaper classes would not have been worth the price difference.
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TEFL Chicago was great with helping me get started with my adventure to Spainn. They made sure that all my questions were answered, even during the course when I had some doubts or questions. I took the online course and while I had observations hours, I do think it would have been beneficial to have supervised classroom hours as well, like the classes at the center have. The material was very well done and I learned a lot, and our teacher was prompt and thorough as well. At the time I had wished for more resources to get in touch with people who were going through the same process as I was, but now there is the facebook group which makes everything much easier. I do think some of the information about going to Spain should be changed a bit, as some of it was midleading, especially the amount of money we should expect to make and the reality of the visa situation.
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This course provides you with all of the preparation you don't realize that you need when considering a teaching position abroad. From lesson plans to targeting various learning types, your curriculum covers it all. Upon completion, I felt very prepared to run my own class.























TEFL Institute's online course put me on the path to success in teaching ESL in China. One day I just woke up and decided I wanted some change. I already had the passion to travel but needed something to take away from the monotonous days of passing through museums and strolling through boring pagoda gardens. Learning the everyday culture of the people was key and the only way in was daily contact with the people. It was then I knew that becoming an English teacher abroad would not only allow me the opportunity I needed to gain knowledge as a professional, but to grow as a person as well. I heard about TEFL Institute's program through a friend and decided to give them a call. An advisor kept a reasonable and comfortable amount of contact through my decision and enrollment process. Never did the advisor pressure me into choosing their program over another or push me into a quick decision, but rather they assured me that by choosing TEFL Institute I would be offered a great network of professional contacts worldwide and help with application processes to schools and universities; not only while enrolled in the program, but also every time I was in need of their services thereafter---something that most of those "other online programs" refuse to offer. This course was intensive but never was it overbearing. The course is offered through Blackboard, something that I had used in during college which made things very simple. When I wasn't sure of the assignments I could refer to the submissions of other students or ask questions freely to my fellow classmates. Responses came within minutes if not seconds. The textbook offered seemed to have been authored to help students taking the course and followed the modules in numerical order. It helped me complete assignments with confidence while moving through the modules as a class, but also while looking for references when I was teaching in the classroom. I fully recommend purchasing the textbook if your budget allows. TEFL Institute even offers a more affordable online edition which can be downloaded to your computer and printed at your leisure if you wish to do so. The teachers selected to teach the online class in my opinion are a bit over qualified for the position. A minimum of a MA degree and like 5-10 years teaching experience....abroad; a true field expert if you ask me. It seems as if they had the answers to every question when it came to life abroad or questions regarding assignments, sometimes I asked myself, "is their anything this woman doesn't know?". My teacher was always available for questions and even gave the students the best times and ways to reach her. Assignments were graded in a quick and efficient manner allowing the student to see their progress as the modules moved on. I may portray this course as a walk in the park, but believe me when I say it's intensive. In just 9 weeks I went from an online sales consultant to an ESL teacher in a foreign country. That doesn't come without putting in some hard work and long hours. You will touch on subjects ranging grammar skills to lesson planning to classroom management. The practicum is chosen from a group of assignments which are completed in a local ESL classroom in your area chosen by the student. You have the opportunity to participate (depending on the school and your qualifications) or sitting in on a class and writing a review from a given list of topics. This part of the course allows you to take everything you have learned in the online classroom environment and see it being put to use which is vital to understanding the mass amount of information learned in the short 9 weeks. All the subjects which TEFL Institute taught in this course I have used in the field, and without this prior knowledge I would have failed completely at teaching. The course prepared me for what I was about to encounter and with this I credit TEFL Institute for my success while teaching abroad.