Why the World TEFL Accrediting Commission is Important

TEFL accrediting body

In today’s foreign language teaching market, it has become necessary for an independent body of skilled professionals to service as a watchdog over language instruction companies who fail to adequately train their students for the real world of foreign language instruction. This is especially true when English is the second language being taught.

Institutions and teaching programs offering students the ability to learn the fundamental skills necessary to teach English as a second language were falling short of their promises, partly due to the internet and the ‘ease of use’ it offered. As a result, students were graduating and receiving their certification but were woefully unprepared for the real world teaching environment. In response to this need, the World TEFL Accrediting commission was formed to be that watchdog over foreign language instruction companies and an advocate for those seeking to learn how to teach English as a second language.

Since this has become more and more of an issue with the increased usage of the internet, the World TEFL Accrediting commission decided to come up with a set of standards and a list of skills that must be adhered to so that everyone with the TEFL certification can be hired to teach English as a second language in other countries and do their jobs very well.

One of the benchmarks the World TEFL Accrediting commission set when teaching is that the English course must incorporate real world teaching practice into its’ curriculum for students seeking certification and that live teaching time must constitute a large part of the instruction time. This ‘hands on’ approach has produced more fluent and confident instructors as they are forced to deal with the real students, skills that cannot be accomplished just by reading a book or watching online. The World TEFL Accrediting commission believes that actual classroom instruction for the students learning to teach English as a second language hone their skills in front of a live audience, just like they would be doing in a real classroom environment.

In addition to live classroom training, the World TEFL Accrediting commission has set another standard, requiring instructors who teach English as a foreign language have at least three years themselves of real world experience. This helps establish credibility with the instructor from the student.

A third standard requires the school offering the instruction to follow a standardized plan of methodology and course curriculum.

Following these standards set by the World TEFL Accrediting Commission goes a long way to ensuring those students who receive their TEFL certification are getting what it is they paid for and having the confidence and skills necessary to find adequate employment once they have graduated.