TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. In Malta, people qualify for a permit to teach English to foreign learners if they:
Permits are issued by the EFL Monitoring Board, the body that sets rules and issues permits for EFL teachers and schools. English Language Teaching (ELT - another acronym for TEFL) is a thriving business in Malta, where students come both to learn English and to enjoy the summer atmosphere. At present there are 45 language schools in Malta, employing several hundred teachers.
Since I did A-levels in Maths and Physics, I at first did not have the English A-level required for the TEFL permit. However, I soon found out that the EFL Monitoring Board was offering a special exam that would count as an equivalent for the English A-level. This exam was meant for people like me who wanted to teach English but lacked an English A-level, and it also had the advantage that it did not have a literature component.
Before sitting for the exam, I attended a 4-week evening preparation course at Worldwide Languages Academy between 21st February and 17th March 2005, which gave me the necessary grammar and phonetic background to sit for the exam.
The exam was very difficult, consisting of two parts (written and oral respectively), each with a 75% pass mark. I had expected it to be difficult before sitting for it, but when I sat for the written paper, it was so hard I thought I failed. I nonetheless passed it, and then went up for the oral. Little did I know that my examiner was Alan Marsh, the man who would later teach me in my TEFL course. Also, one of the people who did the oral with me also attended the same TEFL course as I did. Anyway, I passed the oral session too, so that was the first step towards obtaining my TEFL permit.
Between 23rd May and 23rd June 2005, I attended a 5-week TEFL course directed and taught by Alan Marsh, at EASY School of Languages. I made good friends from our class of 18, and we really had a great time. The course, apart from lessons in teaching methodology, comprised two assignments and two teaching practice sessions.
With everything I needed for the permit, I finally applied for it two days after my 18th birthday, and got it another two days later. By then, however, the TEFL season was over, so I had to wait till the following year to teach.
I was a member of the Malta Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (MATEFL), the local "organisation run by and for teachers of English as a Foreign Language", to quote its website. Members of MATEFL are teachers who get together to learn and share ideas, and seminars are organised by MATEFL wherein teachers can learn new techniques for teaching. I joined MATEFL back when I was doing the TEFL course, and some other fellow TEFL trainees are also members. We attended the first MATEFL seminar together, and Alan Marsh was the one directing the sessions we attended.
In case you're wondering why Alan Marsh's name keeps cropping up, he's actually one of the top EFL personalities in Malta - and the president of MATEFL.
In Summer 2006 I taught English at the European School of English (ESE Malta) branch in San Gwann. I taught for four weeks between 10th July and 4th August 2006. During those four weeks I taught two classes, five intensive students, and four different levels. I taught both General English and Business English. While most of my lessons were in the San Gwann branch, I also had to teach an intensive at the Naxxar branch once.
© Daniel D'Agostino 2007-2008