187 reviews of i-to-i TEFL

Review 140 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

63%
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I bought the 300-hour online course package when it was on sale for around $200, and finished the entire 120-hour course, including the homework, in 7 hours. They claimed the final exam would take 3 hours but it took 30 minutes. I bought the course package because I’ve been unemployed for 6 years and was told by a teacher from an English school in Japan that the TEFL counts as a “teaching license” so I could then teach in Japan etc (previously I’d assumed you had to go to school for 2-7 years to get a license!). In general if you have highschool aged kids or something, I’d tell them to get this certificate in order to guarentee a back-up job in the future. Overall, if you “just need a job” or want to boost your resume/CV I highly recommend buying the 120-hour course and passing it, then reading other people’s advice for lesson planning etc. If you don’t actually need the certificate but want to learn how to teach, I’d recommend to just read a few books on teaching and then go out and teach someone.

I thought extra course sections (such as “Lesson Planning”) bundled with the 300-hour purchase actually taught the same subjects better than the basic 120-hour course did. The courses are clearly meant for people who haven’t been to school for a while, who haven’t studied a foreign language in a classroom setting, haven’t ever taught English before, and/or who can’t remember what was good/bad about their own teachers and classes. I’ve studied 6 languages, have been in university for 5 years, lived in 3 foreign countries and my wife is ESL so I breezed through it all except for the specific terminology for English tenses, which type of lesson plan/activity is what (what is PPP or induction method, for example) and a few things on which ESL test is for what kind of person.

The quiz questions were sometimes worded confusingly, including a couple points where a term wasn’t explained at first and was then explained later on, so I’d answer wrong because ex. I thought “drill” mean any kind of repetition where they only meant ex. pronunciation drills. The quizzes were more about if you 1. had common sense, 2. could remember exactly what they said about certain points such as certain ESL test names or grammar points.

If you want to learn grammar in order to teach English, I actually recommend learning Esperanto (it’ll take 2-3 months of hard study) before you try reading English grammar books. If you want to teach in one specific country, I also can’t recommend enough that you start learning that country’s language and reading up on its grammar as fast as you can — that language is what causes almost all the mistakes your students will make in English, and if you don’t understand WHY they make a mistake you can’t easily help them fix it. As other people have mentioned, TEFL doesn’t actually teach you grammar and doesn’t explain the kinds of mistakes people make in English due to different aspects that are in foreign language (ex. in some languages, present and past tense are the same).

Review 139 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

35%
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They don’t do much teaching in these online courses- I did the 120 hour course plus Advanced Grammar, Teaching One to one, Teaching Young Learners, Teaching Business English, Lesson Planning modules- I previously did their 60 hour taster and teaching large classrooms and grammar modules . They don’t refer to textbooks except for one tiny part in Teaching One to one to help form your syllabus from the contents page yet using textbooks is the mainstay of teaching. Most of the content is obvious stuff- can do it without reading their notes-or term learning which is of marginal value and every test is multichoice and you can’t fail. There is little preparation for the lesson plan and essay that you have to write for every single course- many courses have had them doing very little effort into scenarios for the lesson plan forming. The Teaching Large Classroom module was actually good with a lot of little assignments. The grammar modules never include actual teaching the basics of grammar- verb forms and sentence formation. There are some good parts to the Advanced Grammar course such as use of “few” and “some”. The lesson plans do get checked by varying quality of tutors- one passed me in half an hour whereas others give decent comments but their highest regarded quality of the essay is that it has 1000 words or more. If you want to learn something useful save your money. If you want a certified certificate then they are OK for that purpose. You learn more by self-teaching as you struggle with your lesson plans. If a textbook doesn’t include everything perfectly set down then I quite stuck.

Review 138 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

100%
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The weekend course and the online course are really informative! I enjoyed the weekend course immensely, I leaned so much even though it’s a really full weekend, and there’s a lot to learn. After finishing both, I am not applying for jobs and have already had a lot of offers. The online course could be a bit more interactive, and I’d love to see more videos, but the weekend course helped to solidify the theory from the online side.

Review 137 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

23%
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Steer well clear of I-to-I. I wish I had done more research before wasting my money and time on their course and internship!

The course was terribly written and not helpful as a first time TEFL teacher whatsoever.

The customer service is awful.

The internship is a complete rip off. I met someone on the exact same internship through a reputable TEFL company who hadn’t charged them anything. Nobody was there to meet me at the airport and I didn’t have accommodation provided for the first three weeks!!

I met so many people who had been through the same thing with them. They don’t care about people, just lining their pockets! Rubbish company, stay away!

Review 136 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

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I finished the TEFL course since the middle of last year, and I’m still waiting for my certificate. I’ve tried contacting them but…nothing. It was a good experience, but it’s worthless over here in Nigeria without proof.

I was even offered the Advanced Grammar course for free, and till today I’m still waiting to be allowed to start the course.

I doubt I’d recommend them to anyone, because as far as my current employer is concerned…I am not a certified TEFLer!

Review 135 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

43%
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Course is very expensive for how old the information is, plus a lack of resources and support from the team. Spend you money elsewhere.

Review 134 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

63%
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I gained a lot of confidence standing in front of a class and teaching English. During the course I gained ideas and techniques on how to keep students focused and how to transfer knowledge.

The course is well laid out and the highlighted text helps you to find the answers yo the tests. At first I battled submitting the tests, not knowing the sequence of icons to press but got round to it eventually. From then on it was quite enjoyable doing the tests. The voice recordings was not clear and I struggled a bit identifying the errors made.

The practical course was excellent. The group work and interaction with fellow course students was great. The lectuter could not help me with the setup of my e-resume though. The call centre was friendly and quick to respond to questions. I enjoyed my course, thank you.

Review 133 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

58%
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I took the i-to-i TEFL course based on all of the high reviews. I regret taking this course and even tried to receive a refund, but was told that I couldn’t get a refund because it was past the allowed period of time. This class is very overpriced for what it is. The layout of the lessons is awful, I am very distracted by the bold lettering and the videos are difficult to understand. I could learn everything in this course just by reading a book and not paying so much money for it. It is very clear that the company is all about making money off of eager teachers wanting to go abroad. The content is good for the most part, they cover a lot of topics, but I am not satisfied with my experience in general and wish I would have taken my TEFL with another company.

Review 132 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

88%
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I had half-done a TEFL minor in school but never finished and I am SO glad that I finished it here! The i-to-i course was very straightforward and easy/fun to do, and FULL of useful and practical information. I feel that this course has prepared me much better than all the TEFL classes I took in university because it covers the things you’ll actually need and use (like classroom management, how to create good activities, resources for games and ideas for lesson plans, etc.) and none of the things you don’t. The checkpoint assignments were on point and realistic, and the webinars and resources are very handy and appreciated! I would wholeheartedly recommend this course to anyone looking to teach abroad.

Review 131 of 187 i-to-i TEFL

85%
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I’ve recently completed the 150 hr i-to-i TELF course, including the Advanced Grammar and Teaching Business English courses. I was a bit dubious to sign up to start with but I asked a friend to recommend a company and i-to-i was the one she recommended through personal experience. I was pleasantly surprised how much content there was, how user friendly the whole thing was and how much I learnt from it, even though I’ve been ‘tefling’ for several years. I phoned the helpline a couple of times during the course and the people In spoke to were pleasant, professional and helpful. I was so happy when I finally finished it, felt I’d really achieved something, that I then signed up for the Teaching English to Younger Learners course. My certificate took about ten days to arrive. Thanks i-to-i.

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