Finding An English Teaching Job Abroad - Tip # 1

This can become quite confusing when trawling the ‘Net for jobs. But, there no need to be confused any more. Why? Because they all mean the same thing and tend to be
used interchangeably.

Here’s a summary:

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)

This is an industry term that is not fairly outdated. It was created originally in Europe to refer to the process of going abroad to teach English. These days some course providers use it to describe their courses, but more typically it is used to describe the industry as a whole.

TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

This is a term that is more widely recognised worldwide and can relate to teaching abroad OR in your own native speaking country. All of the major accreditation bodies use the term TESOL to describe their awards, hence why our final award is
'TESOL' not 'TEFL.

TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)

This is another somewhat outdated term that was created to describe the process of teaching English in your own native speaking country to those whose first language is not
English. For example, teaching immigrants to the UK or USA.