Portland, Oregon – AKA The City of Roses – offers budding ESL teachers a handful of options to get fully certified to teach English as a foreign language (often acronymized in industry jargon to “TEFL”).
If you’re in the Pacific Northwest and are considering getting a valuable TEFL certification in Portland to jumpstart your ESL career, you’ll want to peruse this guide.
Requirements to Get Your TEFL Certification in Portland, OR
The requirements to enroll in a course to receive your TEFL certification in Portland, Oregon are fairly lenient. Enrollees, generally, must:
- Have a high school diploma or equivalent
- Be at least 18 years old
- Speak and write English fluently
TEFL Certification Courses in Portland, OR
Here we’ve collated our top five options for getting TEFL certified in Portland, starting with the first and most affordable accredited online option.
TEFL Hero (online option)
Cost: $99
TEFL Hero was founded by and for ESL teachers to equip them, relying on decades of their combined experience in the field, with the skills and certification they need to survive and thrive in the classroom.
Their flagship program, TEFL Hero’s 120-hour self-paced online course, at a $99 price point, is one of the most affordable accredited TEFL training programs in the world.
It’s entirely self-directed, so you can finish as quickly as you like, provided you have sufficient free time (many students graduate in as little as one month).
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TEFL Hero’s courses are accredited by industry gold standard agency ACCREDITAT. As such, it is recognized by schools and institutions around the world, from Taiwan to Peru to Finland. A TEFL Hero certificate will get you anywhere you want to go to land a high-paying ESL job.
Self-paced online courses like TEFL Hero’s offer several advantages over in-person courses, including flexible scheduling and lower cost. You can find more online and cheap TEFL certification courses here.
Oxford Seminars
Cost: $1,295
Oxford Seminars’ in-person/online hybrid Portland 120-hour TEFL course has two upcoming dates:
- The first is scheduled to occur over a period of three weekends on July 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, and 31.
- The second is scheduled to occur over a period of three weekends on Sept. 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, and 25.
In addition to the live instruction during these days, there is also a 60-hour online component that includes a 150-question online assignment.
While this course packs the in-person lessons into a total of six days, which might be attractive depending on your preferences and commitments, the daily schedule is intensive each day, with classes running from 9am to 6pm.
Both in-person courses are held on Portland State University campus at 1825 SW Broadway – but it’s not affiliated with the institution in any way.
At $1,295, it’s more expensive than comparable 100%-online courses.
Portland State University
Cost: $10,386 (one year tuition rate for Oregon resident)
Stumptown’s own Portland State University offers a top-rate in-person TEFL course.
PSU’s fully immersive 28-credit, 7-class TESL certification program covers the waterfront of all things related to teaching English to foreign learners. Due to the lengthier format, it dives a little deeper into the discipline than competing courses.
Check out the course schedule to peruse and register for upcoming program classes.
The course includes a supervised teaching practicum, so if you want to gain some real-world experience with expert feedback as part of your training, you might want to consider this course.
The university offers financing options “through grants, scholarships, loans (federal and private) and institutional financing plans,” so you might not have to cover the entire course costs up front. Contact the Office of Student Financial Aid to learn more.
The big downside to this course is the time commitment as well as the high price tag (although financial aid can reduce or eliminate the burden for qualifying students).
Teaching House
Cost: $2,695
Teaching House’s respected TEFL course consists of a total of 140 hours including 6 hours of observed teaching practice. Its partners include GoOverseas and GoAbroad.
Its TEFL certification in Portland class is actually a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) training program, a special type of certification that is sometimes preferred by employers. Learn more about the CELTA with our post CELTA vs TEFL – What’s The Difference?
Teaching House’s in-person learning center is located in downtown Portland with easy access to public transport.
It offers a teach abroad job guarantee, so they’ll ensure you get a job teaching English after completing the course, as well as providing lifetime career assistance to alumni.
The main downside of this course is the high price tag.
i-to-i
Cost: $339 (for its 300-hour online course)
i-to-i has been a mainstay in the TEFL industry since the 90s and has garnered a reputation for providing a fully decent and accredited TEFL certification to ESL teachers worldwide.
Its Portland TEFL certification courses are Ofqual regulated and DEAC-approved, so they’re legit in terms of their universal recognition. They are held at Portland English Language Academy (PELA) located at 2007 Lloyd Center.
i-to-i offers weekend courses in Portland that include hands-on teaching practice and tutor feedback over the course of two days. It also offers a variety of online courses.
What to Expect from a TEFL Course
Here are the various aspects of a TEFL course and what to expect in terms of each;
- Curriculum: TEFL course curricula generally cover basic English grammar, the four English proficiencies (speaking, listening, writing, and reading), teaching theories, lesson preparation, classroom management, and the ins and outs of the TEFL industry. More in-depth courses will cover more topics at greater length, although 120 hours of training is the general standard.
- Timeline: The timeline will vary depending on the type of course. In-person courses/programs may take up to a year or more to complete depending on how the schedule is structured. Self-paced online courses like TEFL Hero’s are doable in as little as a month, depending on how much time you can devote to your studies. See more on How Long Does it Take To Get a TEFL?
- Workload: TEFL courses usually consist of a combination of worksheets, quizzes, and end-of-course tests to ensure that you’ve properly absorbed the material and are equipped with the knowledge you need to thrive in the classroom. TEFL Hero’s course, for example, includes 15-question end-of-section quizzes and a 50-question multiple-choice examination with at least 70% accuracy required in order to earn the certificate. Other courses might have a greater volume of test questions and materials. See 15 Sample TEFL Quizzes and Practice Questions.
Related: How much does a TESOL cost?
About Portland
Portland is Oregon’s largest city, situated at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers in the northwest portion of the state, marking the endpoint of the infamous Oregon Trail (90s kids will recall the trials and tribulations of such).
It’s a cultural mecca in many respects, as an epicenter of American counterculture since the 1960s. Major attractions worth checking out include the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), the Japanese Garden, the Oregon Zoo, the Oregon Historical Society Museum, and the Hampton Opera Center.
