Job Discussion Forums

[Faustino]

I found this article on the Guardian's website. I found it quite interesting.


http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/courses/story/0,15084,1369120,00.html

Delta shock

Mathew Brigham on what you might not know about the highest ELT teaching qualification in the world

Wednesday December 8, 2004

It may well be a myth, but the Delta - or diploma in English language teaching to adults, to give it its full title - is still regarded as the highest practical ELT teaching qualification out there. Having recently completed one, I feel it is time to examine this claim a little more closely.

I took the Cambridge Delta, which is taken by the majority of teachers and is, rightly or wrongly, generally regarded by employers as being superior to the Trinity diploma.

To begin with, let's look at the exam that has to be sat as part of the qualification. It lasts three and a half hours. Yes, you did read correctly - three and a half hours. How many teacher training courses do you know that examine teachers in this way nowadays?

In the exam, teachers are assessed on their abilities to evaluate a student text, an authentic text and a piece of ELT coursebook material against the clock. Teachers have to complete nine tasks, which include three lesson plans. How can this possibly be a reliable measure of whether the teacher can do these things in real life? In the real world we are encouraged to spend time assessing students' work, analysing authentic texts we might use in the classroom, as well as lesson planning. Restricting time to do these tasks seems to serve no purpose other than seeing how teachers react under pressure - although you could argue this is a fair thing to measure when you consider how hard ELT teachers have to work.

But to set such tasks in an exam implies that teaching is a solo effort. Teaching is never a solo effort. In the classroom we can have notes, a lesson plan, a reference book and whatever else we might need to help us. We can even use the students in front of us to negotiate meaning and discuss language points. Outside the classroom we can consult our colleagues and exchange ideas. While language awareness and teaching skills should be assessed, this way of doing it falls far short of what the exam claims to test.

And after you've taken the exam you have to wait up to three months for your results. If you fail(and some centres have a 50% failure rate) you have to wait another three months before you can have another crack at it. Pass or fail, neither way sits too comfortably with the mobile and transitory existence of the intrepid ELT teacher. Having to wait so long for your results may mean missing out on a plumb job. It may also mean that months after taking the exam you find yourself in another country teaching in a completely different context, with the exam becoming nothing but a distant memory.

So, what are the solutions? Scrap the exam? Yes. There are rumours that the exam will, eventually, be scrapped, but in the meantime why not simply make the exam an open book test, ie let candidates take reference books into the exam? This would better reflect the day-to-day reality of using other resources to help us teach. Or Cambridge could make the exam a one-day assessment where the candidates can have more time, and can talk and help each other with the various questions. This would be even better as the pressure would be off and, again, it would reflect what we do on a daily basis.

Delta recognition
According to the Cambridge website: "Cambridge Esol also works with international ELT organisations to ensure the acceptance of Delta globally." What this means in practice I don't know, but I do know the following ...

A Delta may open the necessary doors of the British Council, some universities and private language schools, but you are certainly unlikely to be rewarded financially for your efforts. In many private language schools sometimes the difference between having the qualification or not is as little as 50p per hour, which would mean three years until you have paid off your course fees. I don't think you need reminding about the low salaries paid in language schools, even in English speaking countries.

As for overseas universities, a Delta may make little difference as these institutions often follow the American system, favouring an MA in Tesol. This is despite the fact that these universities will often be employing people for the sole purpose of teaching, not any higher level work. It's true that many masters degrees do now include a teaching component, but the lack of standardisation means they can vary enormously. More alarmingly, many MAs don't actually include any practical teaching component at all.

So what can we do? Not a lot really, at least not in the next few years. But I hope in some way I have shed a little light on what fate may await any future Delta candidates, and, if not, at least writing this article passed the time while I wait three months before being able to apply for a job.

[molly farquharson]

How can he compare a masters degree with a DELTA? The masters degree is 2 yrs of graduate study and the DELTA is a short course. I know that the DELTA is fairly useless in the US, where the MA is required for teaching in universities or community colleges (and the latter is where the best salaries are). And as he commented, there are MA courses that are weak in practical topics. So, shop around. You need to decide what market you want to get into and then decide.

[31]

So what qualifications would be ideal for working at ET?

[Faustino]

Unseasonably warm weather we've been having, don't you think?

[monkel]

i have an m.a. in applied linguistics which (true) had no practical teaching component but i was nevertheless very surprised to find that it was considered by one Istanbul language school's d.o.s. to be somehow inferior to a TEFL certificate!

delta, celta, masters in tesol.etc etc.....am i wrong in saying that most language schools in Turkey are paying teachers with advanced qualifications exactly the same as teachers with a b.a. in basketweaving plus a TEFL done with the joe bloggs school of TEFL-ing? so my question on this thread is: what does it matter which one you have if there's no recognition financially for it?

there doesn't seem to be a policy at anywhere i've heard of to pay new teachers with more experience or higher qualifications any more - a shame if it really is the case, and not just my bad luck!

[FGT]

In my experience DELTA coupled with appropriate teaching experience DOES generate a higher salary scale. This is usually considered more useful than a purely theory based qualification as lessons are assessed in addition to written work.

[dmb]

I know of at least one university which puts an MA and DELTA on the same salary scale.

[Faustino]

I'll see your one and raise you two. I know at least three. Who'll raise me?

[dmb]

I'm out.

[monkel]

i think maybe it's fair enough to put a delta and a masters on the same salary scale as each other (depending, depending: it IS a "higher" qualification), but my gripe is that i don't think it's fair to put delta and masters degree holders on the same salary scale as holders of less advanced or relevant qualifications, which, for economic reasons, language schools are doing here, no?

the masters i took was a one year totally online gig, and (before anyone sneers at the "online" part) one of the most totally relevant teaching aids i've had, because it put working efl teachers all around the world together to, in a nutshell, discuss the theories of language learning. yes, it was all theory but in order to make it real and relevant for ourselves and each other, we found ways to relate the theory to the practice as we went. it had zero practicum hours but then, as we were almost all teaching as we did the course, that really became our prac teaching.

[Faustino]

I know Bilgi values them equally. I'm also pretty sure Isik and Sabanci do too.

[vre]

True.

[justme]

I have a TESOL Master's (American), and I encountered a bit of snobbery from British (dershane, of course) employers like, 'Well, that's an American Master's and we don't know what all it entails so we'll pay you the same as the CELTA teachers.' It wasn't just the short-changing on pay that was frustrating, but also being excluded from program planning and test writing although I was well qualified and willing to do these things.

An Australian friend ran into the same thing with her TESOL Master's from Australia. As though these things aren't internationally accredited, and information about the degree program and its requirements can't be found on the TESOL organization's website.

Out of curiosity, how many hours are required for the DELTA-- observations, practicum, and being observed?

[molly farquharson]

I'm pretty sure at Koc Univ you have to have a master's degree. For sure in the Comm dept, probably in the hazirlik (the director is American). I don't think the DELTA and a masters are the same and they should not be paid the same. The masters is more valuable, bana gore. And I mean a masters in TESOL or linguistics. Of course some of those are better than others, but the theory is important, and as we know from teachers with the one-month TEFL, people learn a lot in the classroom.

[FGT]

I agree that teachers can learn a lot in the classroom and they can definitely develop as teachers; the value of the DELTA is that this is assessed against a universal band. (You can't take the DELTA without teaching experience - only the best get through)
Teachers with the Dip. are recognised as being at the highest level. Everything else is just hearsay- teachers should develop/improve with experience but we've all met the exceptions!