I have become interested in teaching English overseas. I'm an Australian who wishes to teach, preferably, in either Armenia or Georgia. Though anywhere in the region would suit me. The problem is, I am a bricklayer who has not been in a school for over 16 years, while I can brush up on my grammar etc (I feel that I already understand the basic rules of English, though whether I could explain them to another competently is another matter), and have a reasonable vocabulary, I have however no teaching experience whatsoever, and this seems quite daunting.
Is it a reasonable proposition, that someone without any teaching or academic background can do a short course and then go to a foreign country with no knowledge of the local language at all, and teach people decent English?
I'd like to hear anyones point of view on this, whether it be negative or positive. Any advice on the best courses and how to brush up ones knowledge of English would be very welcome. Also how easy is work to find solely on the basis of this certificate (or any other certificate)?
Thanks for reading this and for your responses.
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Yes, it is something many people do.
A 4-week intensive TESOL course (at least 120 hours) is a good start to a language teaching career. There are some great courses of this type out there (Cambridge CELTA, Trinity Cert TESOL, many universities also have their own courses).
Be warned, they're not your typical 'training course', though. If you've ever taken a 2 week management training course: a total of 5 hours of group discussions and team building exercises with a big lunch break each day, and drinks over dinner every evening with a mini-tour of the city it's held in on the Saturday, then a good TESOL course will be a huge surprise... They involve working non-stop from 8.30am to 6pm at the training centre, being actively involved in lectures, workshops, discussions, actual teaching practice, lesson planning and preparation, and more. And then when you get home, you have another 5 hours of additional self-study and preparation - for each day of the course. A 120 hour contact course is a 240 hours course in total when you include all the self-study you do. And they are professional and academic in nature, so it's important to pay attention to details, work (very) hard, and write formally in plans and assignments, etc.
So they're not light crash courses as much as very thorough, practical, and involving preparation courses.
Of course, they are 'initial' courses whichever way you look at it, and it is expected that a teacher completing a TESOL course of this type will need additional support and guidance over their first couple of years teaching. It allows people to get a good start, but they'll want to work with institutions that can provide further training and development, especially over their first 1 or 2 years of teaching, and ideally go on to take further study at a later stage.
(nb. You do have to get a good TESOL/TEFL course for this to be true, though. There are a lot out there that are not nearly as valuable).