Job Discussion Forums

[keith.colella]

Hello,

I am relatively new to ESL and considering completing a certification course that would give me TESL Canada Standard 2 (CELTA is at Standard 1 and an MA is at 3; http://www.tesl.ca/), but I have a few questions regarding it's recognition worldwide.

First, my current qualications:
-BS Writing/Print Journalism
-BA Political Science
-two years teaching experience at a middle school (though I'm not a certified teacher)
-currently enrolled in Americorps program teaching ESL domestically
-hopefully another year of ESL teaching domestically with Berlitz
-High intermediate speaking/reading/writing skills in formal and colloquial Moroccan Arabic

I hope to spend about two years teaching EFL in Egypt/the Levant/Morocco/somewhere where the qualifications are not too high. I figure the TESL Canada 2 will qualify me enough to find liveable work in these countries.
What I'm wondering is, once I've finished teaching in these countries, might I be able to find work in places with higher demands, like Europe, Latin America, or the Persian Gulf states (at least those jobs that don't require an MA). Would TESL Canada 2 be accepted as a legitimate TEFL cert? I understand that even though this course (250 hours instruction, 20 hour practicum) exceeds the requirements for most TEFL certs, it doesn't have the name recognition of CELTA/Trinity. But might it do the trick in this situation?

Thanks!

[santi84]

I have level 2 as well.

You will not have a problem with your TESL Canada certification being recognized (although I can only speak for Cairo personally).

The issue here, is whether or not you can find sustainable work to keep yourself afloat in those countries. If you had the teacher certification, I'd say go right ahead (as you would qualify for international schools) but there's no real in-between, at least in Egypt.

Latin America will not be a problem. Europe, that depends on what you mean by Europe Western Europe is out. You probably will not want the kind of jobs in the Persian Gulf that will hire you without related degrees.

I'm in a similar predicament and going back for teacher certification. I highly suggest that (or an MA in TESOL) if you plan to continue this long-term because you have some decent experience and with a little higher education, could probably do a lot better long-term, particularly if your interests lie in the Persian Gulf (only guessing since you seem to have an interest in Arabic).

[spiral78]

I can only speak for Europe.

In the countries where non-EU member citizens can get legal work permits (Czech Rep, Poland, Slovakia, etc - the 'new' EU countries, basically, of Central/Eastern Europe), and points further East, your cert will be fine.

Because it doesn't have the immediate name recognition, you'd need to highlight on your CV the number of on-site hours and hours of practicum to be sure that potential employers know exactly what you've got.

Western Europe isn't about quals, but about your country of origin, so it wouldn't matter what you had, basically; it's near-impossible for a Canadian (or US/Australian/New Zealander etc) to get legal work.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

"TESL Canada" will likely not be recognized outside of Canada at all (nor will "TESL Ontario" etc). What either will or will not be recognized is the training program that you do in order to obtain the certification.

For example, TESL Ontario requires a one-year post graduate certificate from an Ontario college or one-year certificate program from a university (they have a list of which universities and colleges offer them. It's a pretty good-sized chunk of ALL the universities and colleges in the province, so these are considered serious training in the province [or at least a good cash-cow for post-secondary institutions in the province]. They require you do X number of hours of practicum in observation and supervised teaching. Note: universities and colleges included on TESL Canada's list for standard 2 are also on TESL Ontario's list (like the UofT Woodsworth program). As in, I'm talking about the same programs, but some of the Ontario university programs have disappeared from TESL Canada's list but are still offered and are on TESL Ontario's list for some reason (maybe they don't want to spend the money to keep their name on the TESL Canada list as well).

If you are not teaching in Canada, then in all likelihood not a single person you meet will have heard of TESL Canada or TESL Ontario, including other language teachers, even ones from Ontario or Canada, unless they happen to have done a one-year TESL certificate from a university or college in Ontario.

What IS recognized almost universally is that you spent an academic year in a real university or college (as opposed to some private 'career college') learning to be a language teacher and were actually in ESL classes almost the entire time either in observation or practice teaching. And because of that time spent, you'll be able to talk intelligently about language and language teaching. But you will have to actually take the time in your cover letter and resume to explain what exactly you did in the program, because otherwise a 'certificate' could mean just about anything at all what with all the three day courses offered by private language schools etc. (Because of this problem one university used to call their one-year certificate a B.Ed (TESL) [a teaching degree in Ontario is a one-year program to teach in one of three levels in the k-12 system that you do AFTER your degree, but you do it in a faculty of education, not a linguistics department. And so it's not a greater amount of study at all, and faculties of education that have M.Ed in second language education require you to have either a one year b.ed or a one-year TESL certificate as a prerequisite]. The Faculties of education put up such a stink that the university had to change the name to a 'certificate'.

What you very often WON'T get is access to jobs that require a masters degree in language teaching. And that's a shame because the amount of work you do for the university ones in Ontario is equivalent to the amount of work you do for a masters degree in language teaching outside of Ontario (if you go to a university in Australia with a four year degree, then you can finish a masters in TESOL in one regular academic year of two out of three terms. And that's exactly the length of time that you spend in an Ontario university to come out with a certificate, except that you will have had to do a long practicum for the Ontario certificate, and you will not have had to do any practicum at all for the masters degree. The programs themselves have differences in that Ontario certificates tend to be from the formalist perspective [they are very strongly in the linguistics department of the university so electives are from a list of Lingusitics courses, so you may take an entire term course just on 'phonetics', or 'speech and language problems'] whereas in Australia they tend to be from the functionalist perspective [they are housed in the education faculty/ department, and so electives will be from a list of education courses like 'Leading and Managing Learning Organizations', or 'Internationalising the Curriculum'].

And so if you do do a one-year certificate in language teaching in Ontario, but teach outside of Canada, then in all likelihood you, like me and most everyone else who does that and decides to actually make language teaching their career, will end up doing a masters degree in language teaching from an Australian or British university via off-campus learning [a few go to universities in the US. Canada has very, very few off-campus programs in TESOL or applied linguistics and only one in Ontario, but it seems to be triple the length of the programs from anywhere else in the world], or by going back to Ontario and doing a masters from the same university that you did your certificate in. (I went the off-campus route and did mine through a university in Australia.)

[santi84]

Great post, Gambate.

I agree 100%. I have "TESL Canada Level 2" certification but that was obtained by sending in some forms to the head office in Burnaby. On any resumes and job applications, I make it clear that I have a full certificate from my university. Canadian employers know that this is equivalent to 30 university credits in TESL, but I would need to make that clear to non-Canadian employers.

So Gambate, you did the MA right How was that compared to your level 2-equivalent certificate I have 45 upper-level credits in TESL and about 2-4 months worth of full-time practicum teaching as part of my degree and certificate. Is a lot of it just a repeat

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[keith.colella]

Wow, thanks for all the info. Basically what I'm getting from all this is that most employers will NOT recognize the "TESL Canada" name, BUT if I explain the requirements of that standard and the coursework I completed, I should be deemed qualified for CELTA-level jobs. That seem about right?

I should also say that while I have considered getting an MA/teacher cert for better long-term work opportunities, my current goal with teaching English is really only to spend time abroad to better learn the Arabic language and Arab culture. I'm holding off on an MA in Arabic/M.E. Studies to learn the language and culture more and be sure I want to continue studying it.

If my understanding above is correct, I'm going to move ahead with the course in the hopes I can move abroad and find enough work to at least break even (maybe not in Egypt, but hopefully somewhere nearby).

If all goes well, I may spend a bit of time in other parts of the world (Latin America, Eastern Europe) just for the experience, though I'm fairly certain TEFL will not be a long-term career for me.