Job Discussion Forums

[ntropy]

Oxford often runs their 100-hour teacher training certification courses across varies cities.

How are they to work for?

[spiral78]

I interviewed with them once years back and declined the job.
The course at that time was mostly about 'how to get a job' and 'how to live in a foreign country' as opposed to 'how to teach languages effectively.' I can't comment on whether the program is well or badly managed, but I wasn't personally impressed with the content and didn't want to be associated.

[nomad soul]

I know of one person who has consistently taught for Oxford Seminars for the past 6 years in addition to her regular TESL job at a vocational school. She finds it to be easy work. No surprise there.

[esl_prof]

[Global_Nomad]

Management is easy to deal with, no politics and there is a fair bit of how to teach a language. Good way to supplement your income on weekends.

[fraup]

I've taught for Oxford in the past and found the materials to be good--students get Harmer's How to Teach English and a pretty comprehensive teacher's manual which includes a useful section on classroom management along with a few short "what-if" situations for discussion. They've added a 40 hour online component (extra grammar) and a text to go along with that as well.

There are a few minor issues I have. The effectiveness of the course depends to a great extent on the individual instructor, who will need to use a variety of methods (lecture/group work/videos etc.) to counter students' exhaustion late in the day. The big drawback, in my opinion, is that practicum lessons must be done in an artificial environment, with other native English speakers as "students". I've encouraged my classes to imagine they're just learning the language, and to make mistakes so that the student teacher can practice correcting. This works at times--some "students" have enthusiastically developed Russian, Spanish, French, and other accents, with often hilarious results. But a lot of my students had already gotten some experience with ESL learners, and were in the class to improve their teaching (and job prospects).

In general, I can recommend teaching for Oxford. I'm pretty sure they are fairly selective in hiring, since there's an ever-growing pool of experienced people to choose from.

[Global_Nomad]

I've been working for them for a few years now and echo everything fraup has said.

[ntropy]

Thank you, everyone, for your replies.

How nice to have a thread with thoughtful and useful replies, was civil and didn't get hijacked.