The acronym “TEFL” stands for “Teaching English as a Foreign Language”.
At the point when individuals say “TEFL”, they are generally alluding to a universe of English teaching, where the understudies are not native speakers of English, and where the teachers may or may not be native speakers of English.
TEFL exists in practically every country overall because the demand for learning English has never been higher. TEFL exists in nations where English isn’t the primary language (for example Brazil, China, France) as well as in nations where English is the main language (for example Australia, Canada, United Kingdom).
Note that TEFL alludes to the teaching of English, not its learning. It thusly concentrates more on teachers or those wishing to teach rather than on learners. (Obviously, teachers have to know a ton about learning, however that is another matter.)
The range of situations where individuals are teaching English as a foreign language is extremely broad. Easily the greatest number of TEFL teachers overall are native teachers working in local primary and secondary schools (for example, a Brazilian teacher of English teaching English to Brazilian schoolchildren in their local school). This is because of the sheer population numbers included and the fact that so many schoolchildren overall learn at least some English at school. In any case, past that there is as yet a vast range of TEFL situations, including:
- private language schools
- corporate training departments
- kindergartens
- colleges
- government-supported programs
- private/freelance teaching
- day camps and charity organizations
Learners of English are understudies, all things considered, from small youngsters to octogenarians. They are all levels, from absolute amateur to virtually familiar. They could concentrate in “balanced” classes or in bunches ranging from 3 to more than 50 understudies. Some of the time they concentrate by phone or on the web. Apart from learning “general English” (ie, grammar, conversation, reading/composing and so on), many learners also take more specialized classes, eg exam preparation, academic English or business English.
TEFL teachers fall into two free gatherings:
1. native English-speaking teachers, for example
- an Australian teacher of English teaching English to immigrants in Australia
- a Canadian teacher of English teaching English to Brazilian understudies in Brazil
2. non-native English-speaking teachers, for example
- a Thai teacher of English teaching English to Thai schoolchildren in Thailand
- a Polish teacher of English teaching English to French understudies in France