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Big Worm
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
Posts: 171
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 Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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| No, there's basically no difference. |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| Sashadroogie wrote: |
| Oh, I dunno!!! Where's our OP to help us out?! |
I'm here, Sasha! I was in transit the past few days and had intermittent Internet access. 
| Big Worm wrote: |
| No, there's basically no difference. |
I agree that the acronyms have become interchangeable since on the surface, the main goal is to help improve the learners' English language skills. (By the way, I've noticed some Brits and Canadians also use Teaching English as an Additional Language---TEAL.) However, as others have mentioned, the distinction between the two---whether at home or abroad---is on how English as a language is taught within the particular content (objectives) and cultural contexts relative to the learning environment/setting as well as the demographics of the learners.
That said, acronyms aside, if you've taught in both contexts (at home and abroad), did you feel you had to greatly adjust your teaching style/strategies and if so, did you find it challenging or a breeze? Also, upon returning to teach ESL in your home country, did you experience 'bias' during your job hunt? In other words, did you sense prospective employers were hesitant to hire you because you'd been teaching overseas for a number of years? Or... Perhaps they considered your TEFL experience a plus and you were quickly hired. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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| Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 5:05 am Post subject: |
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Good to hear back from you, Nomad Soul.
In answer to your questions, I cannot say I experienced any bias either way. I had no problem getting hired in home countries, but that was based mainly on qualifications, rather than the length of experience I had or where. As for the teaching itself, I think it was a little different.
Aside from the obvious multilingual classroom difference, a big change, for me at least, was having to consider continuous intake of learners into groups. Language schools can very often accept students for just a couple of weeks or months, and new intake just gets placed into any available class. So things like learner training tend to go by the wall. Longer term aims become meaningless, for the most part. Overall, lessons become very much stand alone, even when following a set course book.
At least that was the way in the couple of places where I worked. Maybe others' experiences will differ. |
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