UPDATE – website now dead, so I guess they are no more
So Global TESOL claims, although some of the things written there are a bit offputting- maybe deliberately so as they seem to be warning people off the need to take TEFL courses at all!!?
“As a TESOL teacher you generally only need a University degree to work in most countries. Very few countries require a TESOL certificate.”
and
“This TESOL Certificate will get you credit if you wish to go on to Master’s level studies at…
Less than 3% of TESOL teachers go on to Masters level studies according to a global survey undertaken by Pusan National University in 2004.”
They also seem a bit confused about whether they are called Global TESOL or TESOL Global! I have sent them an email and will hopefully be getting the good or bad news about this seemingly too good to be true offer soon.
A hat tip to Commentarii de Peregrini for this one.
TEFLtastic 
Wow.
What’s also interesting is that they seem to be claiming that this certificate is supported, in part, by David Nunan. TEFL International also makes the same claim. So which is it?
It’s clearly another TEFL scam (just what we need!), as you can’t begin the ‘free’ course without stumping up almost $100 for the administration fee.
Go for ’em, Alex!
At this time of year it’s nice to have a bit of optimism, which I’ll save for elsewhere as I’m sure this is heading for scamsville.
They’ve agreed to an interview (of sorts, I’m too lazy to do it properly, so I’ve sent them some questions), so we will see very soon I hope
i was highly dubious about a ‘free’ course and so did some research first. you can actually access all the course materials without paying the admin fee so i downloaded those, however, i simply can’t believe that any of these online certificates (free or otherwise) are actually worth the paper they’re printed on, how can i learn to teach by reading set texts and answering multiple choice questions?
Just to clarify… This site is not GlobalTESOL.com. It is just a scam site that is trying to get the attention of people searching for GlobalTESOL by using its name inappropriately.
GlobalTESOL.com has been in business for over 18 years, and is the world leader for in-class and online TESOL courses, with over 40,000 graduates worldwide.
Mike
You’ll have to tell me what is wrong with this statement:
“As a TESOL teacher you generally only need a University degree to work in most countries. Very few countries require a TESOL certificate.”
In my experience, this can be said for MANY countries. You don’t need a TESOL certificate of any kind to teach in South Korea. You don’t need one to teach in Japan, either. On average, those are two of the highest-paying countries in Asia. The list goes on.
Generally, I find the reverse argument (that you need a TESOL course) used by people who are “teacher trainers” involved in selling more expensive TESOL/TEFL courses. Dig deeper, and you’ll find that many of the jobs “requiring” these courses are associated with that actual course itself!
I’m not saying that taking a CELTA, for example, won’t help you learn something. I will say that it’s very expensive, and that if you plan on teaching just one or two years in a country like South Korea, you will not receive a raise high enough to make up what you paid for the course. People, do your research before you plop down a chunk of cash on ANY… yes ANY of these courses.
In my opinion, real teachers need full university degrees in education PLUS certification afterward. NO wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am TESOL/TEFL course — even a pricey CELTA/Trinity — will turn you into a licensed public school teacher in your home country. Why pretend it does that overseas?
What you see in this thread is nothing more than people involved with more expensive courses crying over the fact that far cheaper courses have undercut their massive profit margins. They’re all snake-oil, IMHO. None of these TESOL courses will make you a certified teachers in a public school in the USA, U.K., Canada, etc..
Will try and answer your points soon. In the meantime, if anyone else is visiting from the thread in Dave’s Korean section, can someone post that:
– I don’t own TEFL.net, it just hosts my blog
– I don’t make a penny out of TEFLtastic. Not sure whether that’s good or bad, but there it is anyway…
i am too glad in finding free on line teach of Englishas foreign language course. I have great desire to teach English in abroad but I have not TEFL certificate though i am English Language teacher In Nepal.so i request to my respected personality to provide good feedback to me so that i can grab chance to be teacher to teachELT in abroad.
Global Tesol never teach even train student freely.You see their cost! BUT, the quality of their TESOL/TEFL is very good.
Their site hasn’t been updated since July 2009, which is never a good sign
I need a FREE ONLINE TEFL CERTIFICATE.Can I have it?
Can i have a free tefl course please? I want to be an engilsh teacher .
Dear sirs,
Can I do a free tefl course with ur institution? What qualification can one get at the end of the course? Why do u offer these courses without any fee and who will my for my course?
I am really interested with these courses. what can do to register?
yours faithfully,
Brian Manyando
I would like more information on the course.
Here’s the interview I did with the guy:
https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/teach-abroad/free-tefl-course-speaks/
I would be very surprised if the course was still running.
Someone else claiming to offer a free TEFL course here:
http://eslinsider.com/free-tefl-course
And if you Google “free TEFL course” there are others too