Affordable TEFL For Teaching Online or Abroad $49

TEFL with a practical feel

Our TEFL courses always include real teacher tips, deep learning, and lots of application of interactive, practical tasks to help you move from ‘what to teach’ to ‘how to teach.’

Our Most Affordable TEFL Certification Course

Our accredited 120-hour TEFL course includes full video coverage, self‑paced learning and assessments Including scenario-based learning tasks), and a QR‑verified digital certificate. The QR-code allows for instant-verification. If you need your TEFL certificate notarized and apostilled, TEFLmasters works exclusively with Apostille.org.uk for getting your accredited TEFL certification apostilled.

$49

120-hour Online TEFL Course

☑ 24 Units of content
☑ With 'teaching online' unit
☑ 1-26 weeks finish
☑ With QR-verify bundle
☑ Includes QR-verification
☑ Includes transcript
☑ Bonus self-print certificate


Enroll Now $49

Dual-Accredited TEFL Courses with Tutor Support

☑ Teacher-made text
☑ Includes videos and AI audio
☑ Quizzes assess learning
☑ Theory & practical tasks
☑ Instant access courses
☑ Self-paced with support
☑ Lifetime access to text
☑ Content updated regularly
☑ Certificates include QR
☑ Certificates can be apostilled

Study TEFL online with the TEFLmasters

Our fully online TEFL course content is delivered and assessed using the latest technology. Forget essays – our quizzes and practical tasks test the content and aid memory consolidation.

Tutor Support Included

Our affordable online TEFL course was created by actual TEFL instructors with teaching licenses and years upon years of experience. Technical & tutor support is available for all students. Our team of trained staff are here to ensure that your TEFLmasters experience is as smooth as possible.

Practical Training Via Scenario-Learning

We want to be the best cheap TEFL course provider in the world, not just delivering incredible value but providing the best service, too. Our self-paced and automated TEFL courses give you practical experience via short scenario-based learning tasks online: these are automated but put theory into practice.

Learn At Your Own Pace

Enjoy instant content unlocking. Study 24 units filled with premium content that will turn you into a knowledgeable and confident EFL teacher. Our content goes deeper and prepares you better than most other TEFL courses. How do we know? We’ve taken many of them, and had customers from refunded courses.

120-Hour Online TEFL Course

Our 120-Hour Professional Online TEFL Certification Course – also known as a TESOL certification course – is an affordable option for new teachers and current EFL teachers who need a recognised TEFL certificate for work, promotion, or professional development.

With in-depth text and video lessons, the course goes beyond basic budget TEFL training and helps prepare you for real classroom and online teaching situations. No previous TEFL experience is required, and learners receive immediate access after enrollment.

Applicants must be 18 or older.

26-Unit Course Outline

TEFL Curriculum

The programme below moves from essential language awareness into teaching practice, lesson design, skills work, assessment, and employability. Open each unit to view a concise overview and the main areas of competence developed during study.

Overview

This opening unit establishes the professional landscape of TEFL and explains how English teaching operates across different countries, institutions, and learner groups. It frames the course by introducing core terminology, practical expectations, and the wider purpose of language education.

Key Learning
  • Define TEFL in relation to other English teaching contexts.
  • Recognize where TEFL teachers typically work.
  • Identify broad differences between learner populations.
  • Understand the scope of a teacher’s professional role.
  • Begin relating training content to real classroom practice.
Overview

A teacher does not need to become a linguist, but must understand how English is built. This unit reviews the principal word classes and shows why grammatical identification matters when presenting language, correcting errors, and answering student questions.

Key Learning
  • Distinguish nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and related categories.
  • Analyze sentence structure more confidently.
  • Notice how form affects classroom explanation.
  • Improve precision when discussing grammar.
  • Support learners with clearer language models.
Overview

This unit considers the practical demands of teaching English to learners who need the language for study, work, relocation, or everyday communication. Attention is given to clarity, patience, classroom tone, and the importance of building confidence alongside accuracy.

Key Learning
  • Describe the aims of English instruction in learner-centered settings.
  • Recognize common barriers faced by language learners.
  • Use supportive teaching behaviors more deliberately.
  • Balance correction with encouragement.
  • Adapt explanations to level and need.
Overview

Effective teaching depends not only on content but on control, structure, and atmosphere. This unit addresses lesson flow, instructions, transitions, grouping strategies, pace, and the practical habits that help classes run with consistency and calm.

Key Learning
  • Establish routines that support focus and participation.
  • Give instructions that are brief and intelligible.
  • Manage interaction patterns more effectively.
  • Reduce disruption through planning and presence.
  • Create a more orderly learning environment.
Overview

This grammar unit examines how English expresses routine, current activity, and present-time states. The emphasis is not merely on naming forms, but on teaching them in ways learners can understand and use with confidence.

Key Learning
  • Separate major present tense forms by meaning and function.
  • Teach present-time language through context rather than rule alone.
  • Anticipate common learner confusion.
  • Use checking questions and examples with greater skill.
  • Plan practice tasks around realistic use.
Overview

Progress in language learning is closely tied to motivation. This unit explores what helps students persist, participate, and take risks with language, with attention to praise, achievable challenge, relevance, and classroom climate.

Key Learning
  • Identify factors that increase or reduce learner engagement.
  • Use goals and success criteria more effectively.
  • Build confidence without lowering standards.
  • Encourage sustained effort in mixed-ability groups.
  • Respond more constructively to low participation.
Overview

A language classroom must create room for learners to think, respond, negotiate meaning, and produce language. This unit focuses on shifting attention from teacher performance to learner activity and meaningful participation.

Key Learning
  • Explain the principles behind student-centered teaching.
  • Reduce unnecessary teacher dominance.
  • Increase purposeful learner interaction.
  • Use scaffolding without removing challenge.
  • Design tasks that require active student contribution.
Overview

Language is inseparable from context, identity, and social expectation. This unit examines cultural awareness in teaching and shows how teachers can approach difference with sensitivity, flexibility, and professional judgment.

Key Learning
  • Recognize how cultural norms influence communication.
  • Avoid simplistic assumptions about learners and settings.
  • Teach with greater awareness of appropriacy and context.
  • Promote respect in diverse classrooms.
  • Make more informed cross-cultural teaching decisions.
Overview

This second present-tense unit consolidates earlier work and takes a more applied approach to explanation, error awareness, and classroom practice. The focus is on making grammar teaching more accurate, more economical, and more teachable.

Key Learning
  • Reinforce distinctions within the present tense system.
  • Handle recurring learner mistakes with greater confidence.
  • Refine explanations of time reference and usage.
  • Sequence practice from controlled work to freer output.
  • Strengthen classroom grammar presentation.
Overview

Teachers benefit from understanding the major traditions that have shaped language education. This unit reviews leading methods and approaches, not to promote a single orthodoxy, but to help trainees make informed methodological choices.

Key Learning
  • Identify influential approaches in language teaching.
  • Compare teacher-led and communicative models.
  • Evaluate methods in relation to learner need.
  • Choose techniques with clearer pedagogic purpose.
  • Develop a more flexible view of methodology.
Overview

A well-designed lesson has direction, logic, and purpose. This unit introduces the architecture of lesson planning, including outcomes, staging, timing, transitions, and the selection of activities that meaningfully support learning goals.

Key Learning
  • Write clearer lesson aims and stage objectives.
  • Order activities in a coherent sequence.
  • Allocate time more realistically.
  • Match tasks to language and skills aims.
  • Plan with greater consistency and control.
Overview

The midpoint assessment draws together the core concepts studied in the first half of the course. It is designed to test understanding of grammar awareness, lesson structure, methodology, and classroom decision-making.

Key Learning
  • Review foundational course content in a structured way.
  • Measure progress across central teaching concepts.
  • Identify areas that need consolidation before later units.
  • Prepare for more advanced course content with a firmer base.
Overview

This unit explores how English refers to completed actions, ongoing events in the past, and earlier past relationships. Special attention is given to clear explanation, contrast between forms, and classroom-friendly presentation.

Key Learning
  • Differentiate the principal past tense forms.
  • Explain time relationships more clearly to learners.
  • Use examples and timelines with better effect.
  • Anticipate common problems in learner production.
  • Build effective practice around past-time meaning.
Overview

Some language points create difficulty not because they are rare, but because they are conceptually dense or structurally unfamiliar. This unit develops strategies for unpacking more demanding grammar without overwhelming learners.

Key Learning
  • Recognize features of more complex grammar instruction.
  • Break difficult structures into manageable steps.
  • Explain challenging language with greater economy.
  • Anticipate conceptual confusion before it arises.
  • Prepare practice that supports gradual mastery.
Overview

Vocabulary teaching involves far more than giving translations. This unit looks at meaning, form, pronunciation, use, collocation, recycling, and the conditions that help words move from recognition into active command.

Key Learning
  • Select vocabulary with learner level and purpose in mind.
  • Teach lexical items through context and meaningful example.
  • Highlight usage, pronunciation, and word partnerships.
  • Use revision more systematically.
  • Support long-term retention of target language.
Overview

Speaking and writing require learners to generate language for themselves. This unit examines how teachers can guide output through preparation, task design, feedback, and structured progression toward greater independence.

Key Learning
  • Differentiate the demands of spoken and written production.
  • Design tasks that encourage meaningful output.
  • Use staging to support fluency and organization.
  • Respond to learner errors in a purposeful way.
  • Promote confidence in productive performance.
Overview

Pronunciation work helps learners become easier to understand and better able to process spoken English. This unit covers sounds, stress, rhythm, and practical techniques for integrating pronunciation into regular teaching rather than isolating it unnecessarily.

Key Learning
  • Prioritize intelligibility in pronunciation teaching.
  • Recognize key sound and stress patterns.
  • Model spoken language more clearly.
  • Use drilling with stronger purpose and control.
  • Integrate pronunciation into broader lesson aims.
Overview

Reading and listening are often misunderstood as passive activities. In reality, learners need strategy, preparation, and guidance to process texts effectively. This unit introduces the essential structure of receptive-skills lessons.

Key Learning
  • Explain the role of receptive skills in language development.
  • Plan pre-task, task, and follow-up stages more effectively.
  • Use gist and detail tasks with clearer purpose.
  • Support comprehension without over-explaining.
  • Link text work to wider learning goals.
Overview

Building on the previous unit, this section examines sub-skills such as scanning, inference, and selective listening, while also considering text difficulty, task sequencing, and the sources of learner misunderstanding.

Key Learning
  • Teach sub-skills more explicitly.
  • Select materials with greater discrimination.
  • Recognize why learners struggle with spoken or written input.
  • Design tasks that build confidence progressively.
  • Develop more refined receptive-skills lessons.
Overview

Teachers need ways to judge progress and communicate it usefully. This unit considers formal and informal assessment, the difference between measuring achievement and supporting improvement, and the role of feedback in further learning.

Key Learning
  • Differentiate formative and summative assessment.
  • Give feedback that is specific and actionable.
  • Use criteria more consistently when reviewing performance.
  • Assess the four skills with greater confidence.
  • Use evidence of progress to shape future teaching.
Overview

Materials and equipment shape how efficiently a lesson runs and how clearly information is presented. This unit reviews common teaching tools and emphasizes making practical, context-sensitive choices rather than relying on equipment for its own sake.

Key Learning
  • Identify commonly used classroom resources.
  • Use boards, visuals, and handouts more effectively.
  • Match equipment choices to instructional purpose.
  • Improve organization during lesson delivery.
  • Adapt resource use across different teaching environments.
Overview

Games can be highly effective when they are chosen with clear instructional intent. This unit examines when playful activities support learning, when they distract from it, and how to retain control while maintaining energy and engagement.

Key Learning
  • Select games that reinforce language aims.
  • Manage timing and pace during active tasks.
  • Balance enjoyment with clear pedagogic value.
  • Adapt activities for different ages, levels, and class sizes.
  • Use games more strategically in lesson design.
Overview

Virtual classrooms require deliberate planning, different interaction patterns, and stronger attention to pacing and engagement. This unit explores the techniques and practical adjustments needed for effective online teaching.

Key Learning
  • Adapt lessons successfully for remote delivery.
  • Use common online teaching tools with greater confidence.
  • Maintain participation in a digital environment.
  • Monitor understanding despite physical distance.
  • Respond more effectively to routine online challenges.
Overview

No single lesson model suits every learner, institution, or teaching arrangement. This unit considers how age, purpose, setting, and delivery format influence planning, activity choice, and teacher behavior.

Key Learning
  • Recognize how context alters classroom priorities.
  • Adjust planning for varied learner groups.
  • Differentiate between institutional and independent teaching demands.
  • Make more context-responsive teaching decisions.
  • Develop greater professional adaptability.
Overview

The course concludes its professional preparation by focusing on employment routes, applications, presentation, and readiness for the TEFL job market. Trainees are encouraged to think practically about next steps and professional standards.

Key Learning
  • Identify realistic TEFL employment pathways.
  • Understand what employers commonly expect.
  • Prepare stronger applications and supporting documents.
  • Present skills and training more professionally.
  • Plan a credible route into work after certification.
Overview

The final assessment evaluates understanding across the full programme. It brings together language awareness, methodology, lesson planning, skills teaching, and broader classroom practice in one concluding measure of achievement.

Key Learning
  • Consolidate knowledge from the complete course.
  • Demonstrate understanding of major teaching principles.
  • Review both practical and theoretical areas of study.
  • Complete the programme with a clearer sense of professional readiness.

CPD Accreditation

CPD-verified, an independent training course accreditor has now granted accredited status to TEFLmasters. CPD-verified: 002991

TEFLmasters is a UK registered learning provider.

Registered Learning Provider

The UK government recognizes TEFLmasters as an official UK learning provider. This means we've been validated against a trusted legal source.

OTCAC Course Accreditation

Our 120-hour TEFL course has been awarded full accreditation by OTCAC, an independent, online education course accreditor. OTCAC: 20210112A

If you bought the old-style TEFL course, please don’t worry! You can still use your old password and continue as normal.

Should you have any problems at all, please contact us.

Due to the lower cost of an online TEFL course compared to the traditional in-class variety, online TEFL certification has inevitably become ever more popular in recent years. A quick online search will bring up dozens of providers offering a huge range of course options, but how do you know if they are valid? Always check that they are accredited, as TEFLmasters courses are. You can be confident in the quality of our OTCAC accredited courses.

If you are fluent in written and spoken English, you are eligible to take any TEFLmasters course. You must demonstrate a high level of understanding but simply being a non-native English speaker will not prevent you from getting qualified and teaching English.

The 120-hour course is designed to take you approximately 90 hours of study and around 30 hours for completing quizzes, but some students will complete it in a shorter duration. It is entirely possible to complete the course within 1 week but you would need to do little else than study and sleep each day. There is no time limit on how quickly you can complete the course but you must finish within 6 months.

Our course is fully online, meaning there is no classroom experience, much like most other cheaper certification courses around. It means you learn lots of theory so that when your time comes, you know what to do. Some courses are blended with online and offline classes, meaning you pay much more but may also get to put some of what you learn into practice. However, unless you are actually teaching real students (which is rare), the whole scenario can seem quite unnecessary and nothing like the real thing. Another important thing to keep in mind is that learning online may not suit everyone. Some people need the human element when learning and will find learning online a struggle. The TEFLmasters online course does not allow you to practice teaching in-person but we have one of the cheapest TEFL courses in the world and we do provide you with videos and feedback of actual EFL lessons, unlike many other courses.

Our online course is without personal tutor guidance but you can ask our experienced online tutors questions should you become stuck on any part of the course. Courses are 100% online and completed at your own pace on any device. You read text, watch videos, read again, and then take an open-book quiz (or quizzes) for each lesson.

A TEFL course is a serious academic undertaking, so it is possible to fail, but with our feedback you should be able to pass any failed unit quizzes. Some students voluntarily drop out as they are unable to commit to the time and effort required but it is extremely unlikely that you won’t pass, so long as you are committed to learning the content. 

Our TEFL certification does not expire. It is your responsibility to keep yourself informed on the latest developments in English teaching so that you can best meet the needs of your students.

No. Our units are tested by quizzes. Our overall graduation/pass rate is close to 100% (mostly due to a handful of students losing interest in becoming a teacher of EFL) but many students do need to take at least one retake.

Twelve months. After 365 days, your course code will expire and you will no longer be able to access the course content.

Experience and accreditation. Our staff each has over a decade of TEFL experience, certification, Masters in TESOL or (Applied) English Linguistics, and some also have teaching qualifications such as PGDE. Our courses have each been approved by OTCAC for full accreditation, meaning they meet objective standards set by the industry for training new EFL teachers. 

We are fairly new so, to compete, our prices must start extremely cheap. Over time, our prices will increase, but we will always be affordable to reflect our educational ethos. Low costs, low profit, and high student numbers help to keep our course fees low. Additionally, automation and fewer staff save us money. Unlike other course providers, we don’t rip you off. Low cost can sometimes equate to low quality, but we offer low cost and high quality; that’s why we let you try the course before you pay anything.

No. Our content is 100% online.

All courses come with a digital PDF TEFL-TESOL certificate with foil stamp and QR-code, self-printable certificate with QR-code-embedded (and no foil stamp), and a separate transcript. You don’t need an embossed hardcopy certification (as our self-printables can be printed at home). To get your certificate apostilled, you don’t need a hardcopy! We save you money.

No. See for yourself by taking our free TEFL lessons. If you want classroom courses then you will receive a more personable experience, but the content is always similar. TEFLmasters content adheres to international TEFL standards; we know because all of our staff have studied these courses before (and some have actually taught TEFL as a master’s program!). We cover the same material as other online courses and actually offer more modern content since we were established more recently. So, actually, we consider our content to be superior to most course providers. Part of our motivation for forming TEFLmasters was dissatisfaction about courses provided by certain TEFL course providers. 

Yes. If you change your mind about taking our online TEFL course, within 14 days of paying for your course, then we will provide you with a full refund. Courses that have begun will be subject to fixed penalties on a per lesson basis, so please try our free lessons before signing up rather than use paid lessons to check if our course suits your needs. Requesting and receiving our course textbook by email will cause your right to a refund to be revoked.

Please ensure that you learn the material thoroughly before undertaking the quizzes, which utilize multiple choice and short response questions to help you assess your understanding. You may retake any failed quiz.

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