How WTEFLAC Helped Improve Standards?

Teaching English as a foreign language can be a great gateway to an exciting new career, but what makes a good teacher and a good course?

Author's Note

Teaching English as a foreign language can be a great gateway to an exciting new career, but what makes a good teacher and a good course?

Every journey starts somewhere. When teaching English as a foreign language, you need to understand what skills you need, and the best way to acquire them. That means understanding what makes a good English teacher and what makes a good TEFL or TESOL course. The WTEFLAC sought to help with both and in doing so raised overall standards in the sector.

Making a good teacher

Teaching English as a foreign language is much more complicated than many people assume. English is a highly complicated language and even native speakers do not fully understand its structure or how it is put together. We speak English naturally from our earliest years, but we’ve never stopped to think about the various rules that govern the language.

Before we can teach it, then, we need to get under the hood and understand the nuts and bolts of the English language and how we can communicate those to non-English speakers. That’s one of the most important elements of a good TEFL course and is an essential skill to master before you can take on a class.

Classroom skills are also critical. There are plenty of subject matter experts who have not gone on to be good teachers not because they did not understand the subjects but because they lacked the teaching skills required to manage a classroom.

 A good TEFL course, therefore, will arm you with basic skills to control classrooms and make sure learners of all ages get the best possible learning experience.

This was something the WTEFLAC could also help with. The website hosted a series of blogs and guides providing advice about managing classrooms and understanding the English language more effectively. It served as a training resource for teachers as well as an accreditation body for TEFL courses.

What makes a good course?

TEFL and TESOL courses come in all shapes and sizes. They can be online or offline and be of different lengths.

However, at the end of the day, each of them has to provide students with a clear grounding and the skills they need. That’s what the WTEFLAC monitored. It set out to be an accreditation body for the TEFL and TESOL sectors. Through its accreditation board, it assessed course providers, checked the quality of the content, the experience of the teachers, and the company’s commitment to ongoing improvement.

The World TEFL Accrediting Commission (Wteflac), therefore, served several roles in the TEFL and TESOL sectors. It provided peace of mind for all people looking to find a training opportunity and it provided a valuable source of information where people could find out about the sector and improve their skills as teachers.

By being both an accreditation body and an information source, the WTEFLAC sought to transform standards in the sector, raising the bar and giving people the tools they needed to thrive in this sector.