Job Discussion Forums

[Sheep-Goats]

L1 teachers serve one very important function that us native speakers will never be good at -- getting the little runts to pass the English portion of their university entrance exams, which will be almost totally about abstract grammar points and often phrased in the If + V1 + Then + _____ variety.

In a classroom where practical English ability is the end goal, I generally employ an assistant (if provided) in three ways: 1) As a pair model for difficult activities that the kids haven't seen before 2) As a resource production and collection device since she'll know a lot better than I will where to buy velcro tabs and 3) As a homework corrector, generally while I'm doing the warm up portion of class. All there of these things are very valuable and I don't look on them as a secondary role. With small kids (kingergarten or preschool) a L1 assistant is also very valuable for discipline and as a touchstone of familiar activities for the kids -- young children preferring to redo old activities to trying to figure out new ones, and often learning more that way anyway.

I'm not affraid to do my job, and I'm not afraid to view an assistant as exactly that. When they want to become "co-teachers" things become much more problematic -- often you have a person who has an Education degree and so looks down on my BA English / CELTA, but their Education degree isn't worth the paper its printed on and the theory they bandy about is either typically 20 years old or else is more concerned with perpetuating whatever idiotic cultural dogma they're comfortable with in as far as education goes -- often betraying stated governental goals in countries of producing active learners and critical thinkers.

But thems the shakes.