Comments from past students

Christopher Stern - TESOL Course IALF Bali, May – June 2005

I would recommend this course to others without hesitation. This has been
the most rigorous and well supported academic experience I have had since I completed my bachelor’s degree. The tutors have obviously put in years of dedicated energy to become thoroughly professional language teachers and language teacher trainers. Not only have they done a superlative job at presenting a very complete curriculum, they also provide an inspiring model for those wishing to better develop themselves as teachers in every facet of the word. Overall, this is an excellent course.

Jen Langley - TESOL Course IALF Bali, November – December 2003

Well, where to start? AMAZING how much I have learnt and what a month it has been! I feel I have come a long way, still have a long way to go but am ready to face the challenge ahead of me.

The input sessions were extensive and varied and provided a solid framework for us to build on. The teaching practice component was intense and spread over the four weeks. It was a good idea to rotate us so we had an opportunity to teach with each other. The guided observations were a valuable insight into different teaching styles – I learned a lot from them.

I have absorbed a tremendous amount of knowledge during this month and have found it to be an inspiring though challenging process. Here I am one month later, armed with the necessary tools, skilled in time management, organization and planning required to fulfil my future role. I feel I have been given a wonderful opportunity and the rest is up to me to apply all that I have learnt in the last month.

Paul King - TESOL Course IALF Bali, November – December 2003

Although the course has not waved a magic wand over me to instantly make me a great EFL teacher, it has provided a strong foundation to build on. It has shown me the need for well-staged lesson plans, versatile materials and clear and concise instructions.

The Cert TESOL course has also shown me the importance of considering lessons from a learner’s point of view. I now feel that I will be able to work, with more confidence, as an EFL teacher who provides a learning environment that achieves good learner outcomes.

Kayti Denham - TESOL Course IALF Bali, June 2001

I was a participant in the TESOL course of June 2001 conducted over four weeks at IALF Bali. I had long wanted to undertake a TESOL course but due to family and work commitments and the cost of the courses run in Sydney I had postponed and postponed my enrolment and this was also partly because past participants and others had told me how horrendously intense the course was and the likelihood of failure even for real academics was high let alone for a woman of forty-one with two school aged children.

I didn’t feel like an academic, most of my training in teaching was through experience, diving into the deep end, and I hadn’t enjoyed my school years overmuch. I was scared of being in a classroom surrounded by superbrainics but I went ahead anyway.

On the first day in Bali I met the other participants and found that....they were human just like me, none of them seemed to possess larger craniums, they wore normal clothes and talked of normal things!

The course itself was great, it was intense but a real sense of camaraderie developed amongst us. The classroom atmosphere lent itself to learning and I found myself working alongside some really interesting individuals who were friendly and funny. The course materials were comprehensive and I had to grapple with a barrage of new language and concepts almost daily. The tasks came upon us thick and fast and I think every one of us had a moment of tears and fears but the group supported itself and there was always someone who had the time and energy to give me a hand.

The teachers were really skilled at keeping up our interest and level of enthusiasm, they made us feel good when we did well and were really constructive in their criticism when we weren’t doing so well. I think they had a good routine worked out between them of good cop, bad cop so that after a particularly heavy session we would then have a fun class on songs or teaching kids.

Our students, the poor guinea pigs, were subjected to some hysterical teaching practices. After being taught about using drilling techniques I subjected all my students to about twenty minutes of drilling. They looked petrified; my enthusiasm for drilling way outweighed theirs.

The month didn’t go fast but it didn’t drag either, by the last week we felt like friends and family and had the chance for a few celebrations, walks on the beach and nights out together.

I really enjoyed the course and the icing on the top came when I passed and was awarded a certificate to say so. I could hardly believe it and wanted to fax copies to all the teachers who had been so dour in their appreciation of my academic abilities. I didn’t need to though as the best revenge of a bad educational experience is to become a teacher yourself and try to give your students the help you didn’t get in feeling confident and able to learn. This above all was what I got from the TESOL course, a sense of being enabled to learn, and only good teachers can give you that.

With the certificate hoisted like a sail ahead of me I embarked on my career as a teacher of English as a Second Language. I headed to Dili, East Timor and taught students from Timor, Portugal, Guinea Bissau, Poland, Thailand, Panama, Cape Verde and Serbia for a whole challenging year and then accepted a job in Bali with IALF.

I have never looked back, on many levels taking the TESOL course in Bali at IALF was possibly the best thing I have ever done for myself and my only regret is that I have yet to meet an attractive Swedish man in order to ask him “Vad ar din telefon nummer?” and thereby utilise my four hours of unknown language.

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Diah Susanti- TESOL Course IALF Bali, June 2003

This training has improved my teaching skills a lot. It has also helped me to build my awareness in material selection, presentation and classroom management. Unfortunately we weren't provided with enough time because of the heavy workload. Therefore the results were often not maximum. I guess that's the only (and the biggest) drawback of this course.

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Dian Wijayanti - TESOL Course IALF Bali, November 2000

No pain , no gain! It's a lot of hard work. Feels like doing four years at university all over again - compacted into four weeks. Despite all the pressures of finishing the tasks on time, the input was very useful and the teaching practice was quite fun. Problems will always be there, naturally, but not to worry, the instructors are 110% ready to help. Don't expect to be able to have an 8-hour sleep at night, it's a rare luxury. But again, it's worth it!

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