Postgraduate Courses in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
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Postgraduate courses in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) offer many attractions, especially if you want to see the world! Many graduates do a basic Certificate in English Language Teaching course (such as those offered by Trinity College or Cambridge UCLES) and set off for a post-graduation gap year or two. Some will then go on to take a Diploma (typically, 4 months full-time, for those with 2 years’ teaching experience). These are core, vocational qualifications, welcome at reputable language schools worldwide. In addition, there are also some MA ELT one-year programmes offered to beginning teachers. Some of these also give you a teaching qualification; others are purely academic. If you are interested in applying for a postgraduate course in Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) then read on to find out more.
For people with two years’ ELT experience, there are a range of masters options. Most will now give you credits for a Trinity or Cambridge Diploma. Some masters are general, covering a wide variety of ELT topics. Others are specialist MAs focusing on, for example, teaching young learners or using IT in language teaching. You can study face-to-face full-time (usually for a year) or part time, by distance study or by a mixture of campus-based and distance study. Distance study programmes vary considerably, ranging from paper-based programmes with optional on-line support to on-line study packages with students working together on tasks to tight timelines.
As you can see, there is an enormous range of options available and you would need to research carefully the course you might take to ensure you get the right one for you. Take a distance programme if you are in a job you can’t leave, and know you have the time and stamina for several years’ study mostly on your own; study full-time if you want a year out of work to complete a qualification in the UK. Don’t be put off by the acronyms! As well as TEFL and ELT, which we have already met, there is also TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Some universities also offer an MA in Applied Linguistics, which many ELT teachers will take.
Why do postgraduate course in TEFL? Many of the post-grad ‘gappers’ with their basic certificates will do anything from a few months to a year or two’s teaching, then come home to train for another career. Their time at the chalk face will be seen by most employers as useful work-experience, giving them invaluable communication and teamworking skills (as well as another language they may have picked up en route). Others will realise that ELT is the career for them. As well as the possibility of travel and/or work in the UK, it offers the chance to teach every age and background of student in a huge range of contexts. Around the world, everyone who can either speaks English or is learning it. There is, however, a lot of competition for the good jobs. If you want a fulfilling career in ELT in today’s world, you need a further qualification beyond certificate and diploma level.
We find our MA graduates are practising ELT teachers who wish to move on in their careers. So they might, for example, go on to manage a language school, or into university teaching from secondary level. They also often go into professional specialisms, such as testing, teacher training, materials writing, or curriculum development at local or national levels.
What a good MA gives you is a solid grounding in the ‘nuts and bolts’ of our language (its grammar and its sounds), plus an up-to-date understanding of the teaching of English as a foreign language. This means study of how languages are learned and how they can be taught (issues of syllabus and curriculum design come in here). Pedagogic modules will look at, for example, how to teach spoken and written language, how to teach children, how to teach English for specific purposes (eg for business or academic study), language testing and management of language programmes. Students will also be offered the chance to do original research (often in the context of their work environment) in the form of a masters dissertation.
Postgraduate courses in TEFL allow you to explore the huge field that is ELT. Discerning employers, such as the British Council, reputable language schools and state schools and universities worldwide, will snap up graduates from well-respected MA programmes to set-up, manage and/or run their ELT programmes. With a good MA, you will be well equipped to meet these challenges. Don't delay, apply now for your postgradaute course in TEFL and experience the world of opportunity that will be open to you.
Contributed by:
Clare Furneaux
Clare teaches on the campus-based and distance study MA ELT programmes at the University of Reading.
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Email: c.l.furneaux@reading.ac.uk
Departmental webpage: http://www.rdg.ac.uk/app_ling/
