Difference Between TESOL and TEFL - Business English Success

TESOL stands for: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
TEFL stands for: Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

Essentially, the difference is this:

- TEFL is when the teacher is in the foreign country.
- TESOL is when the students are in the foreign country.

For TEFL, the students tend to be from the same country and for TESOL, they tend to be more mixed in their backgrounds.

This will make a difference to the teacher outside of the class (living and working in a foreign country, as opposed to ‘at home’), but as far as the courses are concerned, there is no reason why there should be any change in approach or material.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter which course you do. Some even ask you which you want on your certificate at the end of the training.

The difference between TESOL and TEFL are minimal and should not really be a decisive factor when choosing a course.

The course content is far more important and this will be covered in a later video.

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About this video:
In this English learning video, Derek Smith from ESFORAY GmbH and Business English Success looks at the difference between TESOL and TEFL.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[BusinessEnglishSuccess]

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[kamelia]

Thank you very much, very informative

[gonzalojauregui]

So, if I’m going to be an English teacher in Russia (teaching only to Russian kids), do you recommend one specifically? I was thinking to get both certifications but I’ve heard they are pretty much the same... Do I get them both or just one? And which one would you recommend?


Thanku!!