Job Discussion Forums

[richardavie]

Hello Everyone,

I'm conducting a very quick survey to get a snapshot of the working conditions for TEFL teachers in Saudi Arabia. The aim is to build up an accurate picture of TEFL teacher salaries from country to country.

The survey is completely anonymous, contains two very simple questions and will take about 30 seconds to complete.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1888678/TEFL-teacher-work-conditions-in-Saudi-Arabia

I'd be forever grateful if you took a moment to complete it, many thanks in advance!

Richard

[nomad soul]

This survey isn't likely to yield accurate results given that gender; qualifications; hiring situation (contracting company vs. direct hire); teaching situation (university foundation year, military contract, oil contract, k-12, etc.); location... aren't considered.

In advance, the two survey questions are:

1. What is your monthly, take-home salary? Including academy, private and business classes.

2. How many hours per week do you work? The total, including all academy, business and private classes.

[spiral78]

That's not going to work anywhere in the world, given that it doesn't recognize qualifications or experience.

Those of us who have paid some dues inevitably have (far) better working conditions than newbies.

Come ON.

[hash]

There are several flaws to this "survey". Some of them have already been pointed out. Here are a few more:

1. Who should fill out the survey? Anyone on this board? It's not clear that this survey is intended ONLY for teachers currently teaching in KSA. One could surmise that it is, but surveys should be explicit about this sort of thing and not assume it's "understood" by everyone.

2. Question #2 asks how many hours per week the teacher "works". Does this mean only "contact" hours in class? Or can we include the huge amount of time teachers spend at home in "preparation"? In my case, I could answer "under 10 hours" or "over 35" depending on what exactly the question means to include.

3. There's a red star at the end of question 1. Is this significant? Why is it there?

4. Embarrassingly, both questions are classic examples of poor and incorrect English usage. They each contain a "sentence fragment". The first sentence should read:

"1. What is your monthly, take-home salary? Please include (pay for) academy, private and business classes. OR 1. What is your monthly, take-home salary, including payments for academy, private and business classes?"

Question 2 should also be re-written as it contains the same error as question 1

It’s also not clear what is meant by “academy”. And technically, the term “salary” is not what you get for “private” classes.

[sicklyman]