Glossary of TEFL Acronyms

Like all professions, the profession of teaching English is full of acronyms. Some you'll come across frequently. The list on the left shows many acronyms -- if you notice missing items, send us the acronym and a definition.

Most acronyms in our profession are very straightforward -- one letter, one word. This is unlike the computer sciences, where you'll find recursive acronyms (for example, Linux stands for Linux Is Not Unix).

In general, our acronyms over 3 letters long are said like words -- TEFL sounds a bit like "teh-ful" -- while those 3 letters or less are spelled out -- EFL is E-F-L.