Job Discussion Forums

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

This is why it's important to focus more on the program's content and less on the degree's major/subject. In other words, to ensure your educational needs and interests are met, choose your degree program based on the relevance of its coursework.

kona · Joined: 17 Sep 2011 Posts: 188 Location: USA

I'm making the most of it. The material is really interesting (and really challenging) but I was hoping that I could get more pedagogical instruction. Oh well, i guess being a teacher will give me that pedagogical application. For now I can ponder the validity of Chomskian Universal Grammar and whether its utilized in advanced language learners differentiation between when they can use wanna contractions in object extraction wh-questions or subject extraction wh-questions...

Master Shake · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA

kona · Joined: 17 Sep 2011 Posts: 188 Location: USA

kurtz · Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 518 Location: Phaic Tan

Apart from being a DOS in a language mill, what other kinds of jobs can you put your hand up for with a DELTA? Also, does anyone know if you have to have 2 years post-CELTA up your sleeve to be allowed to do it?

I'm thinking of doing an MA so I can get employment in my home country should the Asian dream turn sour, but my school is offering a good deal on the DELTA and I'm tempted to have a go at it.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I haven't got a DELTA, but I have work colleagues who have. I believe it's useful for teacher training and a range of management jobs (a bit more wide ranging than DOS in a private language school). Also, some MA programmes will give you some credit for a DELTA. So, it's not equivalent to an MA (again, depending what you want to do with it), but is considered pretty respectable on its own.

As for the two years experience, I think that's fairly strictly required, but perhaps others will have more info on that.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:33 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, the 2 years' experience is actually up to the discretion of the training centre. Though, I'm not sure of that. However, I am sure that you can dress up a year of part-time classes and pass it off as a year of full-time work. Has been done on more than one occasion...

As for opportunities, it won't open university doors, as far as I know. It's real value is that you'll be able to teach most adult classes going with far more in-depth knowledge than just the CELTA. Planning, course design, materials analysis etc. all become much easier to deal with, so it saves you time (and money) in any job. DOS observations? Never worry about anyone giving you feedback again.

Agree with most of what was written below, but I have always had reservations about the management job bit. It is true that the Delta is sometimes a requirement for management positions, but apart from preparing you for teacher support, there is next to zero management training on a Delta course. So an advert for a management position based on a Delta strikes me as a strange conflation of competencies. But maybe that is just me...

kurtz · Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 518 Location: Phaic Tan

FunGus · Joined: 10 Jun 2008 Posts: 34

I was in a similar situation (MA TESOL + 6 years experience) and I jumped directly into the DELTA with a generic, shitty TEFL certificate but no CELTA.

Like some of the other posters here, the DELTA tutors were skeptical as to why I wanted to do the DELTA as well, but from a hiring point of view, an M.A. is no guarantee that you are able to teach whereas having a DELTA half-guarantees that you are halfway decent in the classroom.

After I completed the DELTA, I landed a pretty good job at a university in the middle-east. During the interview stages, they were more interested in the fact that I had the DELTA and I now know that the combination of the DELTA + MA TESOL really helped land me the job I have now.

So, in short, for university jobs in the ME an M.A. in TESOL is the minimum HR requirement for the job, but the DELTA did (at least in my case) help me to actually land the job.