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For my summative task, I have chosen the topic of ‘online TEFL courses vs onsite TEFL courses’ As we becoming more technical and digitally savvy, the obvious answer to this debate is that online TEFL courses are the way of the future, but is it really? Follow me for the next few minutes as I run through my pros and cons of teaching online and onsite. Let’s look at current events and what is happening right now. Coronavirus is a plague that is spreading throughout the world. In countries like China where the virus originated, Chinese New Year holiday was extended, and the school holidays are still ongoing from my understanding. In a time where isolation is needed, online teaching becomes the flavor of the moment; it allows a child or adult the luxury of staying in their safe and comfortable home, log online and access a portal to practice English with a foreign teacher. It does make it that much more convenient, instead of going to crowded places and attending a class at a physical location while fighting all the traffic. Terrific is it not?! Well that depends. An online course range from 25minutes to 45 minutes, you are dealing with multiple tutors instead of a few familiar faces, and some of these tutors has a citizenship in the US or Canada but they may be of an Asian or Latin America decent, where English is not their native language. Now don’t get me wrong, these individuals I am sure are exceptional people, but they may be providing the wrong influences on their students, who are there to learn English. How much can you really learn in 25 minutes, 2 – 3 times a week? By the time you finish with your introduction, you are halfway within your time limit. Okay so I am exaggerating slightly but you get the point. With onsite learning, the difficulty is that parents or adult students have to find the time from their busy schedule to bring their kids and to get themselves to the location of where the training is at. It is not as convenient as simply logging onto your computer at home (with a good internet connection) and proceed with your learning. The positives about attending a physical site, in my opinion, is that the classes are general longer affording you the time to have a proper review session, to learn about the new contents, and the ability to learn from your surrounding classmates can be priceless. For young leaners, it is important that they have someone physically present to guide them throughout the lesson. At a young age, you need to have that physical bond to make learning exciting and fun, and this method helps the children to retain the information easier (based on researches that I have read). Kids tend to be timid and some are wild and active. Having them sit in front of a screen does not allow the teacher to dictate the pace of the class, since managing the children becomes a difficult task over a monitor. If I have to summarise, both methods have its pros and cons. The ease and comfort of working from home provides parents with more precious time to themselves, however the ability to work with other children at a physical location will help children to develop confidence, work with others, other than the obvious reason of learning English.
