Smoke and mirrors
ESL training courses on the internet are a problem. While there are presumably courses that are worth the money, most seem a waste of time and money. Apart from the obvious defect of not having any observed classroom teaching, many are quite simply rip-offs and there is a problem with recognition, as many have set up their own recognising bodies.
I came across this one while roaming around the other day- ESL Teacher Training.Com offers courses that are "backed by the World ESL Society". The only problem is that the World ESL Society is a website set up by exactly the same person and recognised by no one, a site that at the time of writing has managed a couple of thousand visitors in total, which rather makes a nonsense of their claim that the "certification we offered is backed by the good name and international reputation of the World ESL Society". It has no name and no reputation, international or other. This is just one example of a site that corrals visitors towards its own 'certification' to try to make what they are offering look worthwhile.
The state of play with online ESL training is so dire and so suspect that, if I were an employer, I would junk any application with an online course, which is sad for those that are trying to offer decent products online. There is clearly a need for some sort of standard in the recognition, though basic training courses that don't have classroom practice seem inherently less worthwhile than those that do.
Categories: General
The World ESL Society is trying a much spammier approach now and says in its forum that it is using a number of parked and other domains:
"Alot of different domains have been reborn as abcesl.com" Admin (15/6/06- http://abcesl.com/esl-tefl-forum/index.php?topic=9.0)
(This is its new URL. I have left the mistake in the quote.)
Something for us all to look forward to.
I am the owner of both of these domains.
I'm not maintaining them now due to lack of time, but . . .
With ESLteachertraining.com there was nothing for sale.
I was using a Moodle CMS to deliver FREE content related to teacher training. This was not a pay to play course or certification program. Just something I was doing to try and help other people.