Meet job requirements worldwide.
The 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate gives you the flexibility to teach English abroad, online, or locally. Qualify for ESL teaching positions in Canada, the USA, and internationally.
Online TESOL/TEFL Accredited by:
TESL Canada
Professional Standard 1
Equivalency:
Equivalent to CELTA
& Trinity CertTESOL
Course Overview
Use your OnTESOL certificate to teach English abroad, online, or locally. This course leads to TESL Canada certification, so you never have to take another 120-hour TESOL/TEFL course again to progress in your career.
Accredited by TESL Canada at Professional Standard 1 and accepted by language schools, recruiters, and online platforms in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Your certificate never expires and qualifies for government authentication through Global Affairs Canada when a work visa requires it.
View requirementsAt OnTESOL, we prioritize advanced lesson planning skills, equipping you with the tools to design grammar, vocabulary, receptive skills, and productive skills lessons for any level.
Our comprehensive training encompasses grammar, phonology, and methodology, providing a solid theoretical foundation. But it’s our practical approach that truly sets us apart. Our 120-hour course includes three (3) hands-on lesson planning Lab Assignments – a unique feature that goes beyond the usual reflection essays and multiple choice tests found in other online TESOL/TEFL courses.
View syllabusLearn the teaching methods and lesson planning frameworks that you need to teach fun and effective English lessons to different levels of students, anywhere in the world.
By the end of this online TESOL/TEFL course, you will be equipped with the skills to plan communicative and task-based lessons, adapt to any ESL curriculum in the world, and supplement the traditional ESL textbook with more engaging authentic material such as newspaper articles, movies, and songs.
What’s included?Not sure this is the right course for you? Compare all TESOL/TEFL courses
Accreditation & Requirements
This certification meets the requirements for English teaching jobs abroad, online, in Canada, and the USA.
On completion of the 120-hour online program, you will receive the 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate issued by Coventry House International – OnTESOL from Toronto, Canada.
This 120-hour certification meets the requirements for English teaching jobs abroad and online.
Complete a separate 20-hour Practicum to receive the 140-hour Advanced TESOL Certificate with Practicum and qualify for TESL Canada certification.
TESL Canada Professional Standard 1 certification is the minimum requirement for English teaching jobs in Canada.
For Canada: TESL Canada Standard 1 — what Canadian employers ask for and how this course gets you there. Full and current requirements: TESL Canada recognition.
Save CA$199 when you add a 20-hour specialist certificate
Save US$160 when you add a 20-hour specialist certificate
New — Live Workshops
OnTESOL is the first accredited online TESOL/TEFL provider to offer live classes as part of a self-paced certification program.
Combine the flexibility of a self paced online TESOL/TEFL course with live, interactive workshops that build the practical lesson planning skills schools expect from professional ESL teachers.
Your 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate includes 12 hours of live training with Senior Teacher Trainers: 1-hour Grammar Tutorial, 1-hour Phonology Tutorial, 10-hour Lesson Planning Workshop Series.
These live sessions strengthen everything you learn in the self paced modules. Learn alongside peers, ask questions in real time, and join group activities that directly support your Lesson Planning Lab Assignments.
Attendance is optional, but every session is designed to help you improve your performance in the course and build confidence in the classroom. All live classes are taught by Senior Trainers with extensive ESL teaching and teacher training experience.
Across four 2.5-hour sessions, our senior trainers show how to apply methodology concepts to real lesson planning scenarios.
Learn the Presentation–Practice–Production framework and how to apply it to real grammar teaching scenarios.
Design vocabulary lessons that connect meaning, form, and pronunciation in engaging communicative activities.
Plan reading and listening lessons using two industry-standard frameworks with real-world material.
Bring authenticity to the classroom with task-based approaches and real-world material integration.
Review key grammar concepts from Module 2A with a Senior Trainer. Ask questions and clarify concepts before your grammar exam.
Explore pronunciation, phonemes, stress, and intonation with a Senior Trainer. Strengthen your understanding before the phonology exam.
| Session | When |
|---|---|
| Workshops 1–4 | Every Tuesday, 6–8:30 PM (Toronto time). New cycle each month. |
| Grammar Tutorial | 2nd Thursday, 6–7 PM |
| Phonology Tutorial | 4th Thursday, 6–7 PM |
Flexible schedule: Live classes run every month, so you can attend when you reach each section. Join all in one month or spread them out. Attendance is optional.
Syllabus
This online TESOL/TEFL course is asynchronous and takes anywhere between 1 and 6 months to complete. You can enroll any time and study at your pace for a maximum of 6 months.
There are a total of 5 assignments, 6 quizzes, discussion forums, and two exams required to pass the 120-hour Advanced TESOL Certificate course, including 3 lesson planning labs. A personal tutor will be assigned to correct your lesson plan assignments, provide you with feedback, and answer your questions.
Depending on your pace and performance, you can expect to complete this course in 1 to 6 months. For your reference, a similar professional-level TESOL/TEFL/TESL/CELTA course offered in-class on a full-time, 7-hour daily schedule takes 4 weeks to complete. If you work full-time or have other academic commitments, you will have up to 6 months to pass the online course with OnTESOL.
Design grammar, vocabulary, receptive skills, and productive skills lessons for any level using professional frameworks like PPP, ESA, TTT, and TBL.
Build a deep understanding of English grammar structures and pronunciation features — from parts of speech to sentence stress and intonation patterns.
Learn to create engaging, communicative, and task-based lessons that go beyond textbooks — using authentic materials like articles, movies, and songs.
Complete three practical lesson planning labs — a unique feature that sets this course apart from reflection essays and multiple-choice tests found elsewhere.
Master grouping strategies, error correction techniques, seating arrangements, and handling discipline challenges in diverse learning environments.
Graduate with a certificate valid for teaching positions worldwide — including TESL Canada Standard 1 eligibility.
This module contains general information on the ESL/EFL/ELT industry and explains the characteristics of the adult learner (Andragogy), types of learning styles, and study skills techniques to help students maximize the learning process.
In this module, we will cover the basics of English grammar. This material is designed to be accessible for so-called 'pre-service' trainees (that is, trainees who have never taught before), and for new teachers. For those with teaching experience, it will be a good refresher course.
1-hour Grammar Tutorial (Live via Zoom): Access after passing Module 1. Every second Thursday of the month, 6 pm – 7 pm (GMT-5 Toronto time).
In this module, we will cover the main features of pronunciation: Introduction to Phonology, Introduction to Phonemes, Getting to Know the Anatomy of the Mouth, Vowels, Diphthongs and Triphthongs, Consonants, Sentence Stress, Intonation.
1-hour Phonology Tutorial (Live via Zoom): Access after passing the grammar test. Every fourth Thursday of the month, 6 pm – 7 pm (GMT-5 Toronto time).
Methodology is the most important module in the 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate course. You will have to complete five (5) assignments, which will require you to develop activities, create full lesson plans, and write an observation report on recorded ESL lessons. The three (3) Lab Assignments in this 120-hour TESOL/TEFL course will teach you to use the most popular ESL lesson planning frameworks to prepare you to teach English to different levels.
Includes 10 hours of live lesson planning workshops via Zoom. Four 2.5-hour sessions covering PPP, vocabulary, receptive skills, and task-based learning. View workshop details & schedule
Choosing a 120-hour course
Most employers ask for 120 hours of training. A 120-hour course can be a weekend of multiple-choice quizzes or a professional-level program with real lesson-planning projects — and the difference decides which jobs you qualify for.
Foundational courses introduce the theory of English language teaching and test it with short essays and multiple-choice questions. They are quick and cheap, and many graduates discover at the interview stage that the certificate isn’t recognized where they want to teach, or that they have never planned a lesson.
Professional-level courses like the 120-hour Advanced Certificate ask you to plan real lessons, get tutor feedback on each one, and meet the standards of an external body such as TESL Canada. That is what qualifies you for language schools in Canada and the U.S., international programs abroad, and the better online platforms — without retraining later.
The video shows how we teach lesson planning: clear objectives, your students’ backgrounds, the problems to anticipate, and the method to match.
30% of OnTESOL students enrol after a first TESOL/TEFL course that wasn’t enough for the job they wanted. (OnTESOL enrolment records, 2019–2025)
Tuition Fee
Everything you need to earn your TESOL/TEFL certification is included in one tuition fee — course material, live workshops, tutor support, and lifetime job assistance.
Practical training for teaching children and teenagers — grammar and pronunciation approaches, TEYL textbook analysis, and a Task-based Learning lesson plan. About the TEYL certificate →
Needs analysis, syllabus design and materials for one-to-one tutoring, in-company lessons and Business English programs at international language schools. About the Business English certificate →
The technologies, platforms and teaching approaches for working with an online language school or running your own online program. About the Teaching English Online certificate →
How the IELTS test works and the strategies and materials for teaching all four papers: Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. About the Teaching IELTS certificate →
Save CA$199 when you add a 20-hour specialist certificate
Save US$160 when you add a 20-hour specialist certificate
Optional and separate 20-hour Practicum not included in fee
Real reviews from OnTESOL graduates teaching around the world.
I found the 120-hour TESOL certificate program challenging and rewarding. This course allowed me to gain a proper understanding of the concepts and methods that work in the ESL classroom. This TESOL course helped me to better organize my classes and ultimately benefit my students.
My 120-hours OnTESOL course was an effective, efficient, and high-quality expenditure of my time and money. My instructor was easy to communicate with, responsive, and provided in-depth feedback that was entirely specific to my work. Since completing this certificate, I have had steady work as an ESL instructor at various post-secondary institutions in Canada.
The lesson planning assignments and reflection essays challenged me to think about what I would actually do if I were in a classroom, making the learning experience all that more experiential. The online course prepared me really well for the Practicum and my tutor provided me with invaluable support.
Both. TEFL, TESOL and TESL are different names for the same professional qualification for teaching English, and employers use the terms interchangeably in job ads. The certificate is issued as the 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate, so it meets a requirement written either way. What employers check is the number of hours, the accreditation, and whether you can plan a lesson. Full explainer: TEFL vs TESOL vs TESL.
An Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate is a professional-level qualification for teaching English as a second or foreign language. It provides comprehensive training in grammar, phonology, and methodology, with hands-on lesson planning assignments that integrate grammar and language skills like speaking, writing, reading, and listening.
The 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate course is designed for flexibility, allowing you to complete it at your own pace while balancing work or study commitments. You can expect to complete this course in 1 to 6 months depending on your pace and performance.
No, a university degree is not required to enroll in this TESOL/TEFL course. We welcome applicants from diverse educational backgrounds, whether you are currently in college or university, or your highest qualification is a high school diploma. However, candidates who want to teach English abroad are advised that a university degree is necessary to obtain the work permit in most countries.
Yes. The 120-hour Advanced TESOL/TEFL Certificate is accredited by TESL Canada and accepted by language schools, recruiters and online platforms in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. It never expires, and when a work visa requires it the certificate can be authenticated through Global Affairs Canada. Teaching jobs in Canada usually ask for TESL Canada Professional Standard 1, which this course leads to once you add the 20-hour Practicum (see Accreditation above).
The 120-hour course is fully online and does not include a practicum, and you do not need one for most teaching jobs abroad or online. A practicum is required only for TESL Canada Professional Standard 1 certification, which most employers in Canada ask for. OnTESOL graduates can complete a separate 20-hour Practicum with a partner ESL school in select Canadian cities or online (extra fee applies).
Ready to Start Teaching?
Register today and begin your journey toward an internationally recognized TESOL/TEFL certification. Study online at your own pace with full tutor support.
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