Job Discussion Forums

[seyz]

Hello everyone,

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate and am almost finished with my degree in a humanities/social science field. However, I am looking to potentially make a change to a more ESL focused academic arena. I am hoping to go to Japan for at least the next year or two to teach. Ideally I would like to find some sort of position that would allow me to teach non-ESL courses along with ESL courses if that is possible. I would also want to do everything possible to work at a university since I plan to remain engaged in conducting research activities. Eventually if this goes well I would like to engage in ESL based research in a university setting since I am trained as a researcher and am very interested in conducting research as well.

I have experience instructing in Japanese and Korean language, and literature and some other particular humanities oriented courses. I have also taught ESL about four years ago and have worked with ESL students in a different context since.

I was wondering what my job prospects of landing in such a position would be like? Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to search that I might be overlooking? I have been looking around the usual places - this site, gaijinpot, ohaiyosensei, etc. I've also seen ads for things like Westgate and Baba but I haven't filled out an application with them yet.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you

[rtm]

If your degree is not related to TESOL/Applied Linguistics/Linguistics, it will be difficult to find a position teaching English at a university, though this would probably depend on how unrelated it is.

I suppose I'm also a bit confused about why you are turning away from your field of study. Is it out of necessity because of the job market, or are you not interested in it anymore? I'm sure you are aware, but once you leave your field, it will likely be very difficult to reenter it.

You mention that you would like to teach in your area of study. You say that you "have experience instructing in Japanese". Are you able to teach your field of study fully in Japanese? If so, there might be opportunities, depending on your field of study and how competitive you would be compared to the Japanese candidates for the same position. If you can only teach your subject area in English, your options will likely be limited to the couple of English-medium universities in Japan.

If you are interested in university jobs in Japan, you should search JREC-IN. Use the Japanese version as it has MANY more listings than the English version.

[kzjohn]

Stick with your present degree program. Finish it.

Add some ESL on the side if you can/want, but finish your program. I'd disagree somewhat with rtm--if you have a phd in what you have in place, most universities will likely take you as able to teach ESL courses.

Look at the JREC site, and JACET, too. With a PhD your sights should be higher (much higher) than the language schools you mention.

http://www.jacet.org/kobo/index.html

[seyz]

Thanks both of you for your helpful replies and links.

rtm,
There are numerous why I want to give ESL teaching an opportunity. The most prominent being that I want to spend time in Japan for a year or so. I do not intend to completely abandon my field, as I will remain active in publishing and conducting research. Rather that post my entire academic teaching history, basically as a graduate student and advanced undergraduate I have instructed and TAed for Japanese language, Korean language, ESL writing, English academic and professional writing, and numerous other similar courses. Therefore, I have experience teaching and working in an ESL and language learning setting.

kzjohn,
I definitely intend to finish my degree. My plan was to finish the degree and then move into ESL jobs after finishing. Would you say that I have decent chances of getting something other than a language school or something a bit better? A university setting would really be ideal because then I can keep a university affiliation, which thus means a much more detailed support network.

I do want to and plan to continue engage in scholarly research while I am teaching ESL courses. While a complete abandonment of my degree field would likely make it impossible to transition back into it, by continuing to publish, present, and do all the things scholars in my field do, transitioning back in if I decide to shouldn't pose a major challenge.

Besides JREC-IN and JACET, might there be any other good sites for job postings that I should definitely be aware of? I have checked this site and it definitely has some good ones. Others I have seen like Ohaiyo sensei seem to be hit or miss and most on Gaijin pot request the applicant to already be living in Japan.

Thanks again for all of your insights.

[rtm]

Like I said, your chances at a university will be influenced by how 'related' your degree is to English teaching. Most ads say something like "英語教育及び関連分野". How well can you spin your degree as being EFL-related? You said that your degree is in "a humanities/social science field", which is quite broad. Some H/SS fields are more related to English teaching (e.g., communication sciences or linguistics) than others (e.g., archaeology or law).

Of course, there is the question of whether most applicants actually have the qualifications listed in the ads. I believe some don't, but more and more do. I think you'd really need to stress your previous language teaching experiences in your application. You might also want to stress any academic publications you have and your Japanese language ability.

I would recommend reading through the ads on the JREC-IN and JACET sites to see what qualifications they specify. Those two are the main sites for university listings. Another one is at JALT.