Job Discussion Forums

[Whatever will be]

My estimate on the teaching staff's ethnicity/nationality is 45 % Indian, 25 % Filipino, 15 % Arab-speakers (Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt), 10 % "broken Russia" (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and 5 % native speakers (UK, Canada).

The locals/Omanis have co-ordination, supportive or administrative staff roles, which they perform from their offices.

[veiledsentiments]

[Whatever will be]

Native speakers are becoming a rarity.

Many (not all) non-native speakers' quality of teaching and linguistic proficiency have observable issues:

* a strong accent,
* incorrect grammar,
* wrong use of lexical items,
* a limited range of vocabulary, and
* old fashioned teaching methods (chalk & talk, rote learning).

One might argue that their level of expertise is sufficient for the task at hand.

[veiledsentiments]

[gregory999]

Quality control inspection of English!

[Whatever will be]

Not poor, just old-fashioned

Many have been teaching in the Gulf for a very long time - often in the same position - without any need to up-grade their pedagogical skills.

If the definition of teaching includes classroom management, relationship building skills, delivering the content and designing learning activities based on rote learning, then they are rather competent.

However, if the definition of teaching includes collaborative, experiential or problem-based learning, then their methods of "drill & kill" are old-fashioned.

Apologies for missing the hyphen while drinking my Old Fashioned.
One tends to imbibe to cope with the daily madness.

[veiledsentiments]

Not sure what "missing hyphen you are referring to... but anyway...

[Whatever will be]

@ Veiled Sentiment


When was the last time you taught in an Arab country?

How current is your knowledge?

[Whatever will be]

@ Veiled Sentiment

You don't know what rote learning is? Google it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning

The memorization of words, sentence fragments or whole sentences for regurgitation in exams is widely practiced. It is in contrast to actual learning (comprehension) and then successfully communicating in the target language.

A teacher standing at the front of the class and blabbing for 2 hours at them in "Hinglish" is what happens in this workplace on a daily basis.

[Tazz]

Other than the utter, mind numbing boredom of the interior location itself, it is this 'drill and kill' approach/ method to teaching that motivates me to leave....Whatever will be is spot on-with regards to the MOM colleges and what is actually happening there....walk along any corridor of the ELC and look into the classroom and you will see the 'teacher' standing at the front of the class giving endless 'instruction' followed by short periods during which the students silently, and individually complete the relevant exercises from the textbook. I had the misfortune to invigilate a post-foundation writing exam recently, while they are able to regurgitate the structure and layout of an essay-thesis statement + blah,blah,blah......not a single student was able to actually comprehend the essay question and effectively write a discursive essay at all.....

[veiledsentiments]

[1st Sgt Welsh]

Never been in the classroom of a South Asian teacher in the Gulf so don't want to comment too much on that. Besides, there is only one South Asian teacher in the English Department at my college (other departments have many). Very nice chap and seems to have it together. There are a few teachers who I work with, who I suspect aren't very competent, but he certainly isn't one of them.

In any event, it is my understanding that, in the public schools, most of the English teachers are from the subcontinent. Considering that, by the time the students get to us, they have had something like five years of English instruction, I can't say, judging by the results I've seen, that I'm overly impressed. It was the same in Vietnam when the English school teachers were Vietnamese but, at least I'll give those guys one thing. They made sure Vietnamese students were hell-on-wheels when it came to grammar . Reading, speaking, listening and writing weren't so good, but their grammar was fantastic.

Anyway, I'm not necessarily blaming the South Asian teachers for the state of English in the high schools, (there could be any number of reasons for that), but, one thing I will mention is that many of them are probably terrified of losing their jobs. Given their circumstances, and where they come from, I don't blame them. Literally, millions upon millions of their countrymen would kill to be a teacher in Oman. However, I'm not sure that this concern coupled with the extent of 'student power' that exists here is a good combination. It would certainly help explain the grades. I've had first-semester Omani students, who scored 90% in their final year in high school for English, and they could barely say "I like football."

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[veiledsentiments]

No... not directed at you or anyone else on this board... it was actually addressed to the fact that at the better universities they were able to employ professional teachers... from various countries and also those whose first language wasn't English.

The cost cutting that has been happening all over the Gulf has meant that there are fewer and fewer native speakers who are willing to teach there.

I had heard that most K-12 schools in Oman were now staffed by Omanis rather than expats. Of course, they may not have been able to produce enough English teachers to fill all the schools. I know that the males with good English can get a better job outside education.

VS
(and yes... the pretentiousness of the field has been getting worse with the passing years)

[sirius black]

What is the salary range for foreign teachers at this institution?