The difference between TESOL, TEFL, TESL and CELTA certificates

Confused about which certification to get? Don’t know what any of these acronyms mean? We demystify it all in this article!

Want to skip all the in depth information and just look at the bottom line? Scroll down to the bottom! If you want some detailed information, read on.

So what is the difference between TEFL, TESL, TESOL, and CELTA courses? First let’s look at what they are and then explore some differences.

• TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course: This prepares teachers to teach English in a country where English is not the primary language. For example, John from the USA goes to China to teach English.

• TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) course: This on the other hand would prepare a teacher to teach in an English speaking country to students whose first language isn’t English. For example, John from the USA stays in the USA and teaches English to students who want to learn English.

• TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course: This encompasses both TEFL and TESL and can mean either one or both. Basically this prepares a teacher to teach a student whose native language isn’t English. For example, our good friend John from the USA is teaching a student who didn’t learn English as their first language.

Now that you understand those three, understand that they are often used interchangeably. That’s right, even though they all mean different things some people use them all the same way. I for one am definitely guilty of this. TESOL and TEFL are the most popular terms when talking about teacher training courses but TESL gets some use as well. Some people stick to the rules though and use them according to their actual meanings. For our purposes we are going to lump them all together and call them TESOL. What’s that I hear you say? What about CELTA?

• CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course: This is a specific brand of TESOL course operating under the umbrella of Cambridge University. You can think of TESOL as the type of product and CELTA as a specific brand. The CELTA course is the best known and some consider it the most respected of TESOL courses.

Basically for better or for worse CELTA is the industry standard because the quality of instruction doesn’t vary a huge amount, Cambridge is very well known, and it is generally well respected. There are other well known and respected TESOL courses as well (Trinity TESOL or SIT TESOL) but CELTA is by far the most internationally well known accreditation. There are literally thousands of other TESOL courses, and I’m not saying that all other TESOL courses are bad. In fact, some would consider many TESOL courses to be superior to the CELTA course. The problem is that because there are so many other TESOL courses there is a lot of variability in quality and price. So let’s break it down a bit.