Job Discussion Forums

mortilap · Joined: 29 Sep 2013 Posts: 16

I am a recent US graduate with a combined TEFL cert (100 hours online/20 hours in class) and will have 1 year experience teaching elementary students in Korea by the end of August.

Teaching kids is fun, but not very rewarding. I want to be able to have good conversations with my students and form a deeper relationship with them. Is this possible with adults? Or is their language ability (in most cases) not high enough to have critical discussions about current events, the world, etc.

Is a CELTA really necessary in order to teach adults? What places would require a CELTA to teach adults and what places wouldn't require the CELTA?

I'm still not sure if I want to do TEFL long term. I just want to give teaching adults a shot though, try it out and see how I like it.

I think I would rather not do the CELTA if possible- I had a friend that did it and he said it only resulted in a small pay increase and didn't improve his teaching enough to justify the cost/effort that went in to getting it. Or is this wrong?

Any advice? Thank you!

EDIT: would prefer to be in more of a warmer climate if possible. So far I've only looked a little into Vietnam, Colombia, and Taiwan.

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

You didn't state where in the world you want to teach, but that could determine whether or not you'd need additional teacher training.

mortilap · Joined: 29 Sep 2013 Posts: 16

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

mysterytrain · Joined: 23 Mar 2014 Posts: 366

Tips for teaching adults: Bring a box of tissues. Sometimes they may get snotty, or even start to cry for no apparent reason.

Remember that adults are really just children in bigger, older bodies, and children are really just adults in smaller, younger ones.

Honestly, I haven't taught adult students (other than a bit of "teacher training" and ESL for teachers), but I'm serious about what I said above.

If Korea is too cold for you, draw a horizontal line on the world map (is that latitude or longitude?) anywhere around, say, Kunming in China, and any place south of that line should be more to your liking. If you really want "significantly warmer", make the line around Hanoi or Taipei instead. Once you get south of the area of Central Vietnam, almost all of Southeast Asia will be quite warm and humid year-round: Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. Northern Vietnam and far southern China, Taiwan, etc, are in the moderate range, definitely warmer than ROK.

faceofcircumstance · Joined: 11 Nov 2013 Posts: 8

If you feel at all 'serious' about teaching ESL, then I would say that a CELTA, or even DELTA these days, is very useful. The more reputable places usually require it and it is also very beneficial - generally - for teaching well.

I prefer adults to children for the reasons you mention, but there are regions where young learners dominate.

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

I teach adults (ESL) and children (French immersion). I find children more rewarding, but I work with the initial literacy skills. It is a matter of opinion really, some find the opposite.

I wouldn't bank much on deep discussions just because they are adults. Keep in mind cultural norms before choosing a location.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 9:12 pm Post subject:

Deeper relationships and critical discussions?