I want to teach English as a second language. What certificate should I get? Do I need to get one? How are they different?

TESL certifications are not required to get a job through Teach Away.  However, if you are really interesed in strenghtening your resume and learning more about teaching English as a second language, getting certified might be a great option.

The language teaching industry is huge and parts of it are regulated but large parts of it are not. Choosing the kind of training you want really depends on your purpose. If your purpose is to teach and travel for a short time, you may want to work in more casual teaching settings which have more flexible teacher training requirements. For this kind of teaching, you may not need to take a  long training program, so a shorter program would meet this need.

If you are serious about teaching as a career, you should research the kind of job you are looking for (e.g. high school, college, university, professional private language provider, etc.) and determine the required teacher training requirements before choosing  a training program. A good way to assess if a program is professional or not is to find out if the program is certified by a professional organization (e.g. in Canada, the Canada Language Council, CLC, or the Canadian Association of Private Language Schools, CAPLS, are presently the two Canadian organizations that guarantee programming standards. In 2008 these organizations will merge and operate under a new name). Internationally, there are other organizations such as the British Council which certify programs in many countries around the world.

Key terms in the field

ESL: English as a second language
This term usually refers to contexts where the majority first language is English. Examples of ESL students would be immigrants, or visa students studying English in an English speaking country (e.g. Canada). Reasons for learning English in this context may be for settlement purposes, academic study or to fulfill a language policy requirement.

EFL: English as a foreign language
This term usually refers to contexts where the majority first language is NOT English (i.e. Japan). Students in these contexts often speak the same first language and only encounter English in their classroom. Reasons for learning English in this context may be for business travel, academic requirements, holiday travel, etc.

TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language

A general term that refers to many things. A TESL program means a program where students learn how to teach English as a second language. A TESL organization means a professional organization that represents teachers of English as a second language, for example, TESL Canada (national organization), TESL Ontario (provincial) and TESL Toronto (city).
TESL may also refer to the teaching English as  second language field in general (e.g. “I work in TESL.”).

TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
This term is used in the United States and is the name of the professional organization that represents teachers of English as a second language in the United States.

CELTA: Certificate in Language Teaching to Adults
This is a British (Cambridge) teacher training certificate that is offered worldwide.  The program trains people to teach English as a second language. 

This information was provided courteousy of Bruce Russell, Former President of TESL Toronto