Jeremy is Global Crossroad's TEFL and Paid Teaching Program Coordinator. He has recently completed the online TEFL professional course

My Personal Experience with TEFL Online Professional

Educational, challenging, innovative. these are just three words that spring to mind when thinking of appropriate adjectives to effectively describe my thoughts pertaining to the TEFL Online Professional Course. Having a degree in English, I thought I was well-versed in the syntax of my native language. Sections of this course supplemented information I was already aware of as well as taught me more information pertaining to grammar, structure, and verb forms - things which even as native English-speakers, we often assume we know or take for granted.

Having very little teaching experience in the EFL classroom, the beginning units brought me up-to-date on not only the standards of teaching, but made me very aware of individual students' needs and their various approaches to learning, thus indicating the necessary steps teachers must make to reach ALL students in a given classroom.

Taking into account everything from students' methods of learning and the role of the teacher to the history of language-teaching as well as the actual, physical environment of the classroom - I would be hard-pressed to say that this course left out ANYTHING.

Some of the information in the online course helped participants prepare for teaching classes - producing lesson plans, predicting problems, and/or establishing the levels of lessons (i.e. beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc.). Some of the issues introduced included how to optimally address problems such as behavior as well as how to correct students without increasing the affective filter - an idea crucial to EACH student's ability to learn and NOT shy away from the material/information being learned.

Other issued addressed included teaching not only reading and writing the English language, but also how to effectively speak AND hear the language. Cutting edge approaches are around every corner in this industry-leading course.

Personally, having never been enrolled in an online course, I was somewhat hesitant to see the value of a course situated in an online, "virtual classroom." But, once the course began, everything began working with a fluidity rarely found in a real-world classroom. The assignments were quite fair in their expectations and just as clear in their instructions. The assessments and quizzes were perfect as a mean of refreshing the information presented in the courses lessons - ensuring that participants were not "bogged down" by the amount of information presented in each unit. The element of feedback from fellow participants offered a degree on constructive criticism rarely found in ANY classroom.

As either a refresher course or a step in the direction taken by those wishing to teach English to people all over the world, this course has something for everyone - be it a native, English-speaker or not!

Dallas, TX
June, 2007