Lesson 1
TEFL Introduction
Explore what TEFL is, where it is commonly practised, the different learners and teaching settings you may encounter, and the core responsibilities of an English teacher.
Inside the Complete TEFL
120-hour TEFL course curriculum: what you actually learn.
A low price shouldn't hide a thin syllabus. The complete 120-hour TEFL course curriculum at StudyTEFL covers TEFL foundations, grammar awareness, ESL teaching, classroom management, learner motivation, student-centered learning, culture, teaching methods, lesson planning, vocabulary, pronunciation, productive and receptive skills, assessment, classroom resources, games, online teaching, different teaching contexts and finding work.
Below you can see all 24 lessons, the midterm and final exams, and a detailed look inside one of the largest units. You'll also see how classroom-observation footage, scenario tasks, quizzes and applied lesson-planning work fit around the written material.
Real StudyTEFL lesson content you can open before you enroll.
24teaching lessons
15+lesson-flow scenarios
6complete ESL lessons to observe
2formal exams
Complete 120-hour TEFL curriculum
The full 120-hour TEFL course curriculum, one section at a time.
The $39 Complete course is our main 120-hour TEFL certification route: 24 teaching lessons, a midterm exam and a final exam. Filter the 120-hour TEFL course curriculum by topic or search for a subject, then open any section to inspect the syllabus.
01Build your TEFL foundation
Start by understanding the profession, the language system, the learner and the classroom before moving into more specialised teaching decisions.
4 lessons
Lesson 2
Parts of Speech
Develop the grammar awareness needed to identify word classes, distinguish form, meaning and use, and explain language points more clearly.
Lesson 3
ESL Teaching
Look at the practical realities of helping learners communicate, including learner needs, teacher responsibilities, clarity, patience and adaptability.
Lesson 4
Classroom Management
Learn how routines, instructions, pacing, grouping, transitions and behaviour management help create an organised and productive learning environment.
02Understand language, motivation and learner participation
Build the grammar and learner-awareness needed to teach more clearly while increasing meaningful student involvement.
5 lessons
Lesson 5
Present Tenses
Teach present-time meaning through context, examples, timelines and concept questions while anticipating frequent learner errors.
Lesson 6
Motivating Learners
Explore confidence, goal-setting, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, classroom atmosphere and constructive responses to disengagement.
Lesson 7
Student-Centered Learning
Reduce unnecessary teacher talking time, increase meaningful student interaction and design tasks that encourage autonomy and participation.
Lesson 8
Culture
Examine how culture affects communication and classroom expectations, and how teachers can avoid simplistic assumptions while supporting intercultural communication.
Lesson 9
Present Tenses
Revisit the present tense system in greater teaching depth, comparing present simple and continuous, state and action verbs, common errors and freer practice.
03Choose teaching methods and plan coherent lessons
Move from methodology into one of the deepest parts of the course: planning what learners should be able to do and how each lesson stage gets them there.
2 lessons and an exam
Lesson 10
Teaching Methods
Compare major language-teaching approaches, their strengths and limits, and how to choose techniques according to lesson aims rather than following one method rigidly.
Lesson 11
Planning Lessons
Work with lesson aims, outcomes, sequencing, staging, timing, activity choice, learner level and context. The lesson itself goes much deeper into PPP, ESA, objectives, proficiency and assessment.
Assessment
Midterm Exam
Review the first half of the course and demonstrate progress in grammar awareness, methodology, classroom practice and lesson planning.
04Teach grammar, vocabulary, speaking, writing and pronunciation
The second half of the course develops the language-awareness and skills-teaching knowledge needed to turn content into teachable classroom work.
5 lessons
Lesson 12
Past Tenses
Teach major past forms through context and contrast, using timelines, examples, guided practice and communicative work.
Lesson 13
Advanced Grammar
Break more complex grammar into manageable teaching stages, clarify meaning without overcomplicating explanations and anticipate learner difficulty.
Lesson 14
Teaching Vocabulary
Teach meaning, pronunciation, spelling, stress, collocation and lexical sets while recycling language to move vocabulary toward active use.
Lesson 15
Teaching Productive Skills
Plan speaking and writing work that scaffolds meaningful output, balances fluency and accuracy and uses correction appropriately.
Lesson 16
Teaching Pronunciation
Focus on intelligibility, sounds, stress, rhythm, modelling, drilling and pronunciation issues that affect understanding.
05Teach receptive skills, assess learning and use classroom resources well
Build reading and listening in stages, use assessment to guide future teaching and select classroom resources because they help learning rather than because they look impressive.
5 lessons
Lesson 17
Teaching Receptive Skills 1
Introduce reading and listening through pre-, while- and post-task structure, prior knowledge, gist, detail and staged comprehension work.
Lesson 18
Teaching Receptive Skills 2
Go deeper into skimming, scanning, inference, text selection, connected speech, intensive and extensive work and diagnosing learner difficulty.
Lesson 19
Feedback and Assessment
Compare formative and summative assessment, give useful feedback, assess different language skills and use evidence of learning to shape future teaching.
Lesson 20
Classroom Equipment
Use boards, visuals, handouts, digital tools and other resources efficiently and critically across different teaching environments.
Lesson 21
Games in Teaching
Use games as purposeful teaching tools for engagement, repetition and practice while keeping activities aligned with clear language aims.
06Prepare for online teaching, different contexts and the job market
The course closes by moving beyond the generic classroom and asking how teaching changes across modes, learners, institutions and employment situations.
3 lessons and an exam
Lesson 22
Online Teaching
Adapt lesson stages for remote delivery, use online tools confidently, maintain engagement and respond to technical and communication problems.
Lesson 23
Teaching Different Contexts
Compare online, in-person, private and group teaching, then adapt tasks, materials and decisions for different ages, institutions and learner goals.
Lesson 24
Finding Work
Explore TEFL employment pathways, what employers commonly look for, applications, professional presentation and practical next steps into the job market.
Assessment
Final Exam
Consolidate the full syllabus and demonstrate understanding of TEFL principles, grammar awareness, skills teaching, classroom practice and teaching decisions.
?
No lessons match
Try another word or choose All. Every lesson is listed here.
Detailed look: one lesson, not the whole course
What does “Planning Lessons” actually mean inside a 120-hour TEFL course?
A syllabus title only tells you so much. Lesson 11 shows the depth behind one line of the curriculum. Pick an area to see the kinds of ideas developed inside this single lesson.
Planning foundations
The unit treats lesson planning as professional route design rather than paperwork. Trainees consider where learners need to end up, what evidence would show they got there, and what sequence of lesson stages can realistically move them toward that outcome.
Lesson plans as flexible guides, not binding scripts
Planning for beginner teachers
Sequencing activities so each stage prepares the next
Adapting a plan when the lesson goes wrong
Student talking time vs teacher talking time
Transitions, timing and contingency activities
✓
What makes this more than a summary?
The unit includes expandable Think Deeper sections, embedded knowledge checks, applied examples and reflection prompts alongside the core text.
How depth is built into the course
The 120-hour TEFL course curriculum doesn't rely on one type of learning activity.
The lessons contain several recurring learning layers, not just paragraphs followed by a final quiz.
Check Your Understanding
Embedded multiple-choice questions ask trainees to distinguish close alternatives, then reveal a reasoned explanation rather than only a green tick.
Think Deeper
Expandable sections push beyond basic definitions into planning logic, communication, learner psychology and why one teaching choice may be stronger than another.
From the Field
Teacher-facing notes connect the course idea with classroom reality, professional resources and the compromises teachers make in actual contexts.
Beyond the Basics
Implementation blocks connect principles with concepts such as alignment, sequencing, assessment validity and clearer learning objectives.
Real ESL classroom observation
Watch a real lesson change stage.
Complete TEFL includes six full ESL lesson recordings. Here are five stills from one lesson, so you can see it move from engagement to review. Tap a stage to see what to notice.
Stage 1: Engager
See how the teacher gets attention, activates prior knowledge and creates a reason to enter the topic.
Stage 2: Group work
Watch student talking time increase as learners use language with a communicative purpose.
Stage 3: Jigsaw reading
Watch learners process different information and depend on one another to reconstruct meaning.
Stage 4: Pronunciation
Notice the teacher step back in to model, correct and sharpen the language learners need.
Stage 5: Review activity
See how the teacher checks what learners can now do and closes the lesson around the original aim.
What does a 120-hour TEFL course teach?
Answers about what a 120-hour TEFL course curriculum teaches.
The questions people ask before they choose a provider.
Does TEFL teach grammar?
Yes. StudyTEFL builds grammar awareness through parts of speech, present and past tenses and more advanced structures. The goal is to help you explain language clearly, not turn you into a theoretical grammarian.
Does TEFL teach lesson planning?
Yes. Lesson planning is one of the deepest sections of the course, covering objectives, proficiency levels, PPP, ESA, lesson sequencing, transitions, assessment alignment and complete lesson-plan examples.
Does TEFL teach classroom management?
Yes. You'll study instructions, routines, grouping, pair work, pacing, transitions, monitoring and how classroom management connects to student talking time and lesson flow.
Does TEFL teach pronunciation?
Yes. The pronunciation unit covers intelligibility, sounds, stress, modelling and drilling, while pronunciation also appears inside lesson-planning and skills content.
Does TEFL teach reading and listening?
Yes. Receptive-skills units cover reading and listening stages, gist, detail, skimming, scanning, inference, connected speech and how to build comprehension tasks progressively.
Does TEFL teach speaking and writing?
Yes. Productive-skills training focuses on designing speaking and writing tasks, scaffolding output, developing fluency and accuracy, and choosing when to correct.
Does TEFL cover online teaching?
Yes. StudyTEFL includes a dedicated Online Teaching lesson covering virtual interaction, digital resources, pacing and the adaptation of classroom techniques for online lessons.
Does TEFL prepare you for different teaching contexts?
Yes. The course includes a dedicated lesson on adapting teaching for online, in-person, private and group contexts, as well as different learner goals, ages and institutions.
Does TEFL help with finding work?
Yes. The final teaching lesson focuses on common TEFL employment pathways, applications, professional presentation and practical next steps into the job market.
Which version of the 120-hour course?
Compare the $39 Complete course with the $29 Online Teacher course.
Drag the slider or tap a price to see what each course includes. The $39 Complete course adds more video, real lesson observation, scenarios and tutor support. Looking for the leanest route? See our cheap 120-hour TEFL course for $29.
120-hour TEFL course curriculum FAQs
Questions about what the course actually contains.
Is this really a cheap 120-hour TEFL course?+
Yes. The Complete TEFL course costs $39 as a one-time payment, and the leaner Online Teacher course costs $29. The important question is what remains at that price: 24 teaching lessons, assessment, video, classroom observation, scenarios, tutor support and a QR-verifiable digital certificate. See our cheap 120-hour TEFL course for $29 if you want the leanest route.
How many units are in the StudyTEFL 120-hour TEFL course curriculum?+
The current LMS structure contains 24 teaching lessons, followed by a midterm exam after Planning Lessons and a final exam at the end of the course.
Is the course only text and multiple-choice quizzes?+
No. Depending on the route, the course combines teacher-made text, video, embedded knowledge checks, scenario-based tasks, deeper explanation boxes, reflection, implementation material and classroom-observation footage. Complete TEFL includes six full ESL lesson recordings.
How detailed is the lesson-planning training?+
Unit 11 covers planning foundations, objectives, proficiency levels, PPP, ESA, Straight Arrow, Boomerang and Patchwork sequences, young learner planning, formative and summative assessment, transitions, timing and complete lesson-plan examples.
Will I watch real English classes?+
The $39 Complete course includes six full ESL classroom lesson videos. These help you observe teaching and learner behaviour in context, although classroom observation is not the same as supervised teaching practice.
Does the course include teaching English online?+
Yes. Online Teaching is a dedicated lesson in the current syllabus. StudyTEFL also offers the $29 Online Teacher course for trainees who want a more compact, online-focused version of the 120-hour course. It has technical and account support rather than tutor support.
Does the Complete TEFL course include tutor support?+
Yes. Tutor support is included with the $39 Complete TEFL at no extra charge.
Can I see real course content before enrolling?+
Yes. StudyTEFL publishes a real free lesson on assessment and feedback so you can inspect the teaching style and embedded questions before buying. Open the free lesson.
Course depth you can inspect
A 120-hour TEFL course should show you exactly what you are paying for.
Use this page to inspect the 120-hour TEFL course curriculum, open the free lesson, compare the $39 Complete course with the $29 Online Teacher course and decide whether StudyTEFL gives you enough depth for the kind of teaching you want to do.
The syllabus is part of the evidence