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28, Port Saint Sauveur 31000 Toulouse - France |  |
+ 33 6 30 15 38 10
info@tefltoulouse.com
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Frequently Asked Questions
Will I pass my TEFL course? We don’t see why not, providing you are prepared to work hard and are not absent for any element of the course (even an hour missed can put considerable extra pressure on you to catch up!) Toulouse shoe shop window
But I'm not sure what an adverb is! Don't worry! We teach you all you need to know about grammar to start teaching. We are aware that many mother tongue speakers of English were scarcely taught grammar at school (your Director is one of these), so do not worry! However, it is a good idea to arrive knowing what a verb, noun, adjective, adverb etc is, as well as be able to identify the main verb tenses such as present perfect and past continous. We give you a pre-course task to do to help you with this, so that you can spend more time on the course working on your teaching technique, rather than on learning grammar terminology. Also, take confidence from the fact that you know the English language almost perfectly, even if you can't always explain the rules (which are far from watertight!).
Canal locks, 10 miles from Toulouse How does the "teaching practice" element work? You teach a minimum of 6 hour long lessons, to small groups of mixed age and mixed nationality students, who understand that you are teachers in training, so are not expecting dazzling lessons! They come to the classes virtually for free and are delighted to have a real teacher teaching them! They come from all over the world - Colombia, Spain, Italy, Russia, Iran, Africa, France...the classes are a lot of fun! We believe it is abslolutely essential for the observer /evaluator to be very supportive at all times, and we get you teaching as soon as possible in the first week of the course. We give you plenty of help planning your lessons, and you get indepth feedback after each time you teach. You will have the chance to observe each other, and several experienced teachers.
Cafe des Artistes, October 2009 So how intensive is the course, really? It is intensive. You really do need to be free of any other commitment for the month you are with us. You are essentially learning to be a language teacher, and learning the 'rules' of the English language, in just 4 weeks. Attendance is from 10am til 8pm every day Monday to Friday, and you will need to put one day aside most weekends for studying at home, for the 4 weeks. Avoid any appointments (eg doctor, picking up kids) for the 4 weeks. Anything you do miss needs to be made up for you to receive your certificates. We do not recommend more than an hour's drive to reach us, if you live in France already. Why not read the "Testimonials" page here, and contact some past trainees to get the low-down? They usually say it was very hard but extremely rewarding and worth the investment. Will I be able to get a job teaching English in France after the course? A big resounding YES, has been the experience of all our past trainees who have looked for work in France. One of the reasons for opening in Toulouse is due to the current high demand for teachers in the area, indeed all over France. There are some 25 language schools in and around Toulouse, and many trainees teach privately as well as, or instead of, working at language schools. Start now by thinking about who you would like to teach most - from 4 year olds to pensioners, from groups of engineers to 1 to 1 classes with a boss? Do you want to ultimately go it alone and be your own boss, or prefer the security of working for a school? Several of our ex trainees have even gone on to open their own schools in France! If you want to head further afield after the course, remember that our TEFL certificate is recognised worldwide. How much will I earn as a teacher? Most schools in France pay 13 to 20euros an hour gross to newly qualified teachers. Schools that require the Certificate plus some years experience pay double that hourly rate. Think about starting off working for a language school and then going it alone to cut out the middle man, if you have an entrepreneurial streak! Upwards of 25 hours a week teaching is going to be exhausting. The great thing about TEFL teaching is that you can take on more or less work depending on your personal aims for any given period of your life.
Rooftop terrace in the city centre at sunset Will TEFL TOULOUSE help me find a job teaching EFL wherever I want to go? Yes. We provide a job guidance session, to help you a) get an interview, b)do well during it, and c)show you how to set up as a freelance EFL teacher in France and elsewhere. Your job guidance lasts forever, so just get back in touch if you decide to go to another country to teach. Do remember that an externally accredited TEFL Certificate that you will be armed with says so much about you that employers will not need much convincing!
Good music never dies! Will TEFL TOULOUSE help me find accommodation while I do the course? Yes. We have plenty of host "families" (often single owners). We keep prices low by putting you directly in touch with the landlord - we just help with the language barrier. You can often pay a bit extra and arrive a few days early or leave a few days later. See our Accommodation page. Please arrange accommodation at least a month before you arrive, to be on the safe side. Do I need a VISA to teach English in France? If you are from an European Union country, then no, you don't need a visa - getting a job and a contract is straightforward, as is becoming self employed in France. Our Job Guidance session covers this, and we can of course advise you on how to open a bank account, find long term accommodation etc. I'm American. Can I work in Europe? If you have non EU nationality (eg American) then coming to France to do the course in the first place will be no problem, but we recommend you contact your nearest French consulate for the latest information about how to work legally in France after the course has finished. Americans can often only legally stay in Europe for 3 months, which makes employers unlikely to hire them. Hiring can be complicated too, with the American having to go back to the US clutching a job offer, which they then take along to their embassy. Hopefully they will then be given a visa within weeks, so that they fly back to Europe with it, and actually do the job they were offered! What many Americans do before they leave the US, is to apply to do a French course at a local university such as the Mirail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and with the acceptance from there, they can get a student visa to visit France for a year. With this visa, they can work for up to 20hours a week, which is not much short of full time teaching schedule anyway. Just dont apply for a course that runs at the same time as your TEFL TOULOUSE course, and make sure that the visa you apply for is one that allows you to work. Here is an article written by an American about getting a job in France http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0503/teaching_english_in_france.shtml
Get your kicks, on route D66 - cycling heaven just outside Toulouse
Do I need to be a native speaker of English to do the course? No, and we welcome applications from non-native speakers who are bilingual or virtually so. The latter get a written and oral test (ideally face to face) to make sure they are capable of following the course. Note for all: non native teachers can be excellent at teaching all except the very highest level students, due to their acquired knowledge of English grammar! They can, and often do, keep us native speakers on our toes! Non native speakers should be aware that some schools prefer to hire native speaking teachers, but you can appeal to them by offering to be an excellent teacher of your own language too, using cutting edge TEFL techniques. Established TEFL techniques can of course be used to teach any language. What's the point of course validation? We believe that having experts come to scrutinize us is in your interest. TEFL courses, as with anything you purchase, should be obliged to be what they claim to be, and “do what they say on the box”. External validation ensures that that the highest possible standards are not only reached, but surpassed and maintained. It's what adds the required weight to your TEFL qualification, and gives you peace of mind when you book a course. Who are the main TEFL course validators? Some of the best known external validating bodies for TEFL courses in Europe are Cambridge (CELTA), Trinity, and IATQuO, which is run by a former head of Trinity. In the US, well known validators are SIT. Who validates the TEFL TOULOUSE course? We chose IATQuO to be our validators, because they require the same standard as CELTA or Trinity, but charge less for course validation, making it easier for small centres like ours to exist. See www.iatquo.org for more details of what they require for a centre to achieve their validation. By June 2010, the majority of the current TEFL Certificate courses in France were validated by IATQuO.
Happy trainees Why do similar TEFL courses seem to vary so widely in price? This is largely to do with the cost of the validation process mentioned above. Because validators like Trinity and Cambridge (CELTA) are the best known, they charge the training centre the most, and this extra cost gets passed on to you when you pay the course fee. Some centres can offer low priced CELTA courses but then charge more for accommodation, or run courses with large numbers of trainees. CELTA stands for Certificate in Language Teaching to Adults, here at TEFL TOULOUSE we also specialise in teaching children and teenagers. It is true that CELTA and Trinity are the best known validators and provide guaranteed excellent courses, but we have never heard of anyone not getting a job because their TEFL course was not validated by IATQuO rather than one of those two. Indeed in France, as TEFL is so new, many schools have only required a teacher to have a certificate at all over the past 5 years or so! How do I choose a TEFL course? When choosing a TEFL course, you should find out about the following: the exact location of the centre (ie not just which city or region, but which part of the city), validating body (is it really an external body, and is it credible?), number of teaching practice hours, (go for min 6) maximum number of trainees on the course (max 7 with us. Careful - some low priced courses take huge groups of trainees!) and course length (eg 4 weeks). You should also consider the cost of accommodation (about 400euros with us) and cost of living (beware of big cities like London) and add this to the course fee. It is also recommended that you do a TEFL course in the area you would like to teach in, to get to know the culture / city, to be on the spot to start work after the course, and to avoid another air fare just for the interviews! We think you will find we are very competitively priced. Other things to research before paying for a TEFL course: Trainee to trainer contact hours - go for a course that has 120 minimum. Our trainees have a total of 130 contact hours with the trainers. Find out if Business English and Young Learners modules are included at no extra cost - we include both. The physical address of the training centre, just to be doubly sure its not an internet scam -unfortunately there are a few pirates out there! Our address is 28 Port Saint Sauveur - we are in the city centre overlooking the Canal Du Midi.
Country church near Toulouse
What's this TEFL DIPLOMA I keep hearing about? It's called the DELTA and is the next qualification you could do after obtaining a TEFL Certificate. Normally teachers do a few years teaching before going on to do it, as much of it requires reflection on a current or recent teaching post. TEFL TOULOUSE does not offer the Diploma course, as the huge majority of schools worldwide do not require teachers to have it, so this would not fit in with our objectives. Is it still true you can get a job teaching English without any qualification at all? This is getting more and more unusual, as, (thankfully for students of English around the world!) there are more and more qualified teachers around. Also, logically, any unqualified teacher will almost certainly have to accept being paid less and have worse conditions. What kind of a school would take on unqualified teachers? Would you take one on if you ran a school? Being qualified will hugely help with planning lessons too, giving engaging classes and knowing the grammar and how to teach it. It's really an essential investment for a serious teacher, even if you only plan to teach for a year or so, because you will know you are doing the job properly. Our course also really sharpens your presentation skills, as we focus heavily on how to engage your audience. So whatever you end up doing years later, you will never regret your TEFL course!
Hearty local coffee,,, How about these short courses, or courses by correspondence? Of course you can learn about language and its teaching this way, and if that's what you want then this may be the option for you. But we believe you have to teach classes repeatedly, and get feedback from observers, to become a real teacher and enable your students to really learn from you. Our trainees often talk about the learning curve after being observed, and wonder how one could ever learn to teach without actually teaching and getting feedback. Why not contact some of our past trainees testimonials to confirm this? Could you learn to drive a car by reading a manual? Play a sport by watching it? Our commitment to teaching practice means we do not offer online or short courses. Teaching practice, observation and feedback is our speciality.
Do I need to speak French to do a TEFL course in France? No - our course enables you to teach multilingual groups (eg, back in the UK) as well as monolingual groups, without resorting to speaking the language(s) of the students. In fact, teachers of English shouldn't resort to speaking French in class in our view, and we won't be letting you do this on the course! Of course if you plan to live in France on the longer term, you should learn French once you are here to get on with your daily life, and especially if you want to set up your own teaching business. You're convincing me! But what is the cost of living in France? Its about the same as in the US or UK, perhaps a little cheaper. Toulouse is less expensive than Paris or London, of course. As a rule of thumb, eating is cheaper, drinking (beer - not wine) is generally more expensive than the UK. Eating out at night in France can be much cheaper than most imagine -a fabulous French dinner with wine can be had for under 20euros in Toulouse - and for about 12e at lunchtime. There are great fruit and veg markets here too, which can save a LOT of money! For renting, a room in a shared flat goes for about 300euros a month, your own little studio for about 500e a month. Toulousains love picnic-ing by the river too when the sun's out - and it costs virtually nothing! Public transport is cheap, but taxis can be pricey.
cycling along the canal path What about the recession? How is TEFL in France doing? TEFL is booming in France! Moreover, recessions do not affect the EFL market as one might expect. Whilst it is probably true that a company which is particularly suffering will cut costs by putting their staff English classes on hold, this may end up being counterbalanced by the fact that people who find themselves out of work often wish to gain a new skill and learn English. Perhaps because they feel they may want to try to find work abroad, add a string to their bow for reemployment in their own country, or have just never had time before. The short answer is that more and more people want to be able to speak English, in France. France needs you! Right. What next? What do I need to read, and bring to TEFL TOULOUSE? The first thing to do is apply. Do this carefully via our application form. Be careful here - we need to see your writing ability. All course materials are supplied, and books for reference available, but you will need the teaching basics: 4 or 5 blue or black whiteboard pens, paper, and any stationery for sticking things to walls etc. You can get most of this here. We do recommend either Jeremy Harmer's The Practice of Teaching English as a Foreign Language, or Jim Scrivener's Learning Teaching as head starts for the course, and great books to accompany the TEFL teacher. Do try and dip into Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue, it really gets you interested in our language. Finally, bring your laptop computer if you have one - we have wifi and remote printing. Teaching how to order drinks! What about the school's facilities? TEFL TOULOUSE has its own area within Langues Promotion. We have 2 classrooms, office, communal kitchen area, plus a big sunny terrace overlooking the canal du midi for lunch. There is WIFI with remote printing, so bring a laptop if you have one! The staff of Langues Promotion are very friendly, and we are great friends with their staff and owners. They may even be able to employ you after the course! Is there a best time of year to do a TEFL course? There is no doubt that the majority of hiring gets done in September and October, and again in the New Year, but TEFL is booming in France, so there is currently work to be found in the local language schools all year round, and endless work available if you consider teaching privately. Any time is a good time to qualify to be an EFL teacher in France! Help! All these acronyms! TEFL, TESOL, ELT, CELTA.. what do they all mean? What's the difference between TEFL and TOEFL? ESL = English as a Second Language EFL = English as a Foreign Language TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (what TEFL is known as in the USA) ELT = English Language Teaching ESP = English for Specific Purposes (eg for Pilots) CELTA = Certificate in English Teaching to Adults (the name that Cambridge chose for their TEFL course) There are also lots of acronyms for names of exams that learners of English take. Here are some: IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, KET, PET, FCE, CAE, CPE, BULATS.... the list goes on! You will learn about all these on the course! The Certificate in TEFL, (aka "The Cert"). This is the first qualification and is what we offer at TEFL TOULOUSE The Diploma in English Language Teaching (aka DELTA or "The Dip" is what you may wish to go on to do after a few years teaching. End of course lunch (on the house!)
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