Recently I was reading an article on Wechat, the most popular social media in China. It was one of those articles on how to find work as an English teacher in China. One of the steps that it listed was getting your certificate for English teaching. The article said something along the lines of “you can get a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA, with the CELTA being the best but the most expensive. Since you will have other expenses on the way to getting a job teaching in China, you should go for a cheaper TEFL or TESOL.”
In one of the Wechat groups for recruiting and hiring English teachers, of which there are many, the CEO of Eternitique service (https://eternitiqueservices.com), which is a company that ostensibly places teachers in schools in China, posted a video on why you need a TEFL or TESOL. He didn’t mention CELTA at all. He goes on to say that when he did a TESOL many years ago, he didn’t actually learn anything and that he learnt most of his teaching methodology from other teachers once he started teaching in China.
The implication that you get from reading these articles or from talking to these placement agencies is that the TEFL/TESOL/CELTA is only necessary because it is required by the Chinese government so just pay for the cheapest one you can find and you’re good. Personally, I don’t understand why someone would not want to be as prepared for teaching as possible but that’s just me. My own reasons for doing the CELTA can be found in my previous post but I would like to look at the differences between a CELTA and a TEFL.
If you look at the website of the North American TEFL Academy, which is the TEFL being pushed by Eternitique, you will see a brief synopsis of the course but that is all the information about it you can find until you actually pay the money for the course. For the CELTA, you can find the entire detailed syllabus online (https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/21816-celta-syllbus.pdf) showing not only what you will study but for how you will be assessed.
According to my CELTA tutor, the reason why a CELTA is so valuable is that it is both standardized and held to a high standard. You can apply for a job anywhere in the world and a CELTA will be known both for its level and for the content of the course, no matter where you passed it or where you are applying.
A TEFL on the other hand, is an unknown factor, especially with the increasingly common “online” versions that abound. I passed a TEFL course back in 2003 and it was basically useless but it gave me a piece of paper that I needed for work requirements and I haven’t heard anything since then that illustrates how a TEFL actually prepares you for teaching. Last week, my boss asked me to coach another teacher in how to write lesson plans. I assume that this other teacher had passed some sort of TEFL course but apparently it hadn’t taught him how to write lesson plans.
If you want to be a teacher in China, I urge you to try to get a CELTA if possible. It’s harder and more expensive but it is the first step in building a career as an English teacher. Most of the trainees who passed the CELTA course with me already had a TEFL and most of them were there to get their CELTA because their bosses wanted to promote them but required them to have a CELTA to show that they were serious about their teaching. I myself received a raise after I got my CELTA because my passing the CELTA allowed my director to emphasize to the owner of the company that I was a career teacher and thus should be paid a higher salary. Skip the TEFL and get a CELTA today.