Oxford House TEFL Review
I’d always dreamed of being a teacher. I worked really hard for a very long time to accomplish my goals and in June 2018, I gave that last step that would ensure I had a career in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. A TEFL certificate is now considered more important than a BA in Education. Therefore, it came as no surprise that I had to find a school to get my certificate. The one I ended up choosing was Oxford House. This school has offices around Europe and even Asia and my choice of where to go was solely financial. Prague offered the cheapest course with the cheapest living cost. I’m originally from Portugal, so moving to Barcelona or London weren’t my top choices because the course is more expensive there.
Oxford House TEFL 134-Hour Course
Oxford House gives you a 134-hour intensive TEFL course, prices starting at 1200€, and certified by Trinity College of London, making it a CELTA. As said previously, I started this course in June 2018, on the 29th and completed it on the 25th July. This course first caught my attention because it provides us learning-teachers with a minimum of 7 hours of observed teaching practice and a little introduction course for those who don’t feel very confident with their grammar and phonology. When I attended this course, we were about 12 learners. I think having a small group really is important to guarantee the best learning atmosphere.
Oxford House TEFL Course Delivery
The first week of the course we all attended specific classes, where we were taught teaching techniques, more about grammar and terminology and also phonology. These were extremely helpful because we discussed in depth each topic which would later guide us in our classes. Moreover, right on week number one, I started teaching. I had real adult students from various backgrounds and the best part about teaching was that we got feedback with our tutor right after the class. The tutors were friendly and supportive and always led us into questioning what we could’ve done better. By stimulating self-awareness, I believe they created a safe atmosphere where I felt comfortable and even excited about these feedback sessions. Towards the end of the course, we had almost every day a class to teach in the morning and then in the afternoon we focused on polishing our grammar and language awareness.
Thoughts About Oxford House TEFL
If you’re a native speaker and have no teaching experience, this is a great course for you too. The tutors really accompany your progress and help you any time you need. By the third week, we change tutors, so we get to observe two different experienced teachers, but also, they get to give us feedback on our lessons. This helped realise different strengths and weaknesses in my lessons. And if you’ve never learnt a second language (which wasn’t my case, but I saw how important this was for native speakers) this school also includes four language lessons in a language you have no prior experience of. They don’t even use English during these lessons, which made it fun but, more importantly, made us realise how we can communicate with our students in only English, not having to use their native language. We learnt Gaelic – truly fun and challenging!
At the end of the course, the tutors also helped me to find work. They can’t promise a job, but they help you get in touch with schools around the world and people living in those countries.
Because I was planning on moving to France, they put me in touch with another English teacher living in France and some schools I should contact. This was useful because I felt a little lost and didn’t know where to look for a teaching job.
Final Thoughts about Oxford House TEFL
My overall impression of the school and their specific course is great. I really loved all the senior teachers, and they really helped us feel like we could achieve anything, and that time makes perfect. I would definitely recommend this school to anyone interested in a TEFL course.
