Alphabet Soup: Terminology of the TEFL Trade

Teachers tend to be long-winded, and had to come up with ways to abridge all the clever-but-lengthy titles and exams they’d come up with before, hence, the hodgepodge of letters. What does it all mean? If you’ve found yourself stumped by the proliferation of abbreviations, here is a cheat sheet of some common abbreviations in TEFL:

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in contrast to
TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), which is more commonly used to describe teaching English to people who will “adopt” it as “more than” just a foreign langauge – often immigrants.
ELT (English Language Teaching) can cover both.
TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages): an association of teachers.

Qualifications:
CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults): one of the most common introductory classes in the ELT field, which, if done intensively, takes four weeks to complete. In Europe, in my experience, this is pronounced with an “S” sound at the beginning, not a “K”.

DELTA (Diploma of English Language Teaching to Adults): a course similar to the CELTA but which gives a higher level qualification and which is most commonly done while teaching full-time over a six month period.
(Note that there are multiple good quality, recognized certification courses; these are the ones with abbreviations and are listed here for that reason.)

People:
DoS (Director of Studies): generally a more experienced teacher who supervises and advises other teachers.
ADoS (Assistant Director of Studies)
Celtoids: the name given to CELTA trainees by teachers working at schools which run the CELTA.

Tests your students may take and you may need to prepare them for:
TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language): test taken by international students to demonstrate their English ability in order to study in North America. The latest version is the TOEFL iBT (Internet-based Test), which, in contrast to the paper- and computer-based tests incorporates speaking and integrated skills.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System): test for people who want to study or work in a country where English is the main langauge.
FCE (First Certificate in English): Cambridge test taken by students of English which is on a pass/fail basis (as opposed to giving a score as the TOEFL does). There are lower-level but less common Cambridge exams as well.
CAE (Certificate in Advanced English): the next highest level Cambrige exam.
CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English): the highest level Cambridge exam.