Job Discussion Forums

[oich]

Hello,

I have an interview with ECC coming up, and I'm looking for any guidance/tips from anyone who has gone through the process before. I've searched the forums, but previous threads on this topic have tended to be by people who went through the process a number of years ago, with no more recent experiences. The tips from people who went through it a while ago have been helpful, but any more input would be most appreciated.

I understand that the first part of the day is an intro to ECC; the second part an English Test; then a Teaching Demo; then an interview. The most daunting part of the schedule is that the English Test occurs early, is an hour long, and must be passed to continue on with the rest of the day. I have been revising my grammar, but any input on the types of questions that I might expect to show up would be a great help (examples would be great, however, I'm not looking to be provided with answers). I feel I'm a pretty good candidate, and I'm not overly worried about the teaching demo, but I'm paranoid about how poor my grammar (especially in terms of knowing the terms used for words - nouns, adverbs, etc., although my everyday grammar usage is fine) is, and that I won't even get through to the teaching demo stage. I'm pretty certain I don't know enough about technical grammar terms to fill an entire hour answering questions about it.

Thanks in advance.

[Jax]

You don't happen to have it in London tomorrow, do you

That's when I have mine.

I'm really worried about the grammar test too - I know basics but get a bit mixed up over some more 'fiddly' aspects.

I'm revising from an old TEFL course I did a few years ago which had a 'language awareness' component. It is basically in four sections - word classes and parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, determiner, conjunction, interjection and number); verb classes (main and auxiliary) /past and present participles/ active and passive voice; tenses/verb phrases and their functions in sentences and intonation.

I've no idea if these are relevant or the right things! I've only done one section so far and can't believe how much I've forgotten. I can send you some quick examples from the book if you like - but I've no idea if they'll be useful or not.

Do you have any teaching tips? Are you going to prepare a lesson beforehand? It's not clear if we should do that or not.

If anyone who actually knows about the ECC process is around, then PLEASE post something relevant here to help us out!!!

[Glenski]

The ECC test consists of 100 questions. You will be asked to identify parts of speech in sentences and mistakes in grammar. The test also has a vocabulary/definition section. It also has a section where you have to know (match) various teaching methodologies as they are explained with examples.

[oich]

Jax: no, they're having interviews every day this week (mine is on Friday). I've done a TEFL course, but we did no grammar at all: we were expected to go off and learn it ourselves as and when it was needed. I emailed ECC about the teaching practice; no preperation is possible for it. Let us know how yours goes tomorrow.

Glenski: could you explain what the "vocabulary/definition section" is? Would that be a list of words, where you have to provide a definition of what each word means? I assume the teaching methodologies would be things like suggestopedia/communicative method/silent way and things like that - is that right?

[meteoreo]

The test is 100 questions multiple choice. I think there were 10 questions at the end dealing with teaching terms. I didn't know any of them but still passed the test. Part of the grammar section was given in passages with words and phrases underlined and you had to know the term for it. Just study basic grammar and parts of speech for that.

For the presentation part, we went around the room and selected topics like: colors, numbers, animals, etc. We had about 7 minutes to come up with a plan and were given blank sheets of paper for props which we could draw on and which left little time for really thinking about what to do. They want to see lots of energy and a naturally outgoing personality. The interview process was a piece of cake.

Good luck.

[Jax]

Thanks guys - seems like it should be ok! Not sure about the teaching terms though. What ARE teaching terms? Do you mean like 'target language' and 'concept checking' or more specific stuff?

Oh well, too late now I guess - I'll stick with what I've got at the moment and I should do ok.

I'll post something tomorrow night about what happens, Oich. And any stuff I remember from the grammar tests so you know what sort of things to revise.

Wish me luck!

[oich]

[Jax]

Ok, I'm back from the interview!

First thing to say is relax. It's not at all scary or horrible!

The grammar test is 100 questions and the pass rate is 70 so there's a big margin for error. It's broken up into 5 sections. The first consists of sentences with different parts underlined. You have to say which of the underlined parts is incorrect or needs changing. Even if you don't know why, it's instinctive. It's just things like a verb in the worng tense, or a word spelt incorrectly. The second section consists of typical problem words spelt two different ways - eg vaccun / vacuum. You say which is the correct spelling, a or b. The third section consists of a word followed by five definitions. You have to choose which onre goes with the word. The fourth section is the most difficult. A paragraph has about 15 words / groups of words undelined. There are an equal number of terms at the bottom (adverb, past progressive tense, preposition etc.). Just match the terms to the right parts of the paragraph. Even if you only know a few, it's basically a process of sensible deduction.

The final part consists of about 10 teaching terms like 'introducing a roleplay' and 'realia' and there are 10 different examples of things a teacher might say to a class. You just match the two up. It's common sense, even if you're not familiar with the terms, you'll work it out!

The teaching demo was relaxed - you got 15 mins to prepare a 5 minute lesson and were given guidance. The skill evel was complete beginners so you just need to teach 6 or so words of vocab. Topics chosen were colour, animals, fruit, numbers etc. I did body parts and taught 'head, shoulders, knees. toes'. I think it was a good choice - the interviewer complimented the choice and said my demo had been good during the interview itself so I was pretty pleased. Just have a quick think about it beforehand if you're worried.

The interview was breif and friendly with the usual questions.

Good luck! Just let me know if there's anything else you want me to tell you about!

(In a rush so can't proofread the post - apologies for typos!)

[oich]

Glad it went well for you. I'm feeling better about the English Test now, but less well about the Teaching Practice. I'm not used to just teaching a few words without a lexical chunk to go with them...I fear I might over-complicate things.

[meteoreo]

The idea for the presentation is to act as if the audience understands ZERO English. So practice using short, catchy phrases. If you can sing or say things lyrically, it will come off well. Keep it very simple but try to fit in 2 or 3 little activities. Get the group to talk, with you only talking a little bit. Get them to stand up and wave or jump or walk around. That is what they'll advise you.

[Jax]

Yup! What meteoreo said is exactly what they told us before we did the preparaion. The only mistakes people made were to give long instructions in english which, of course, the children would not have understood. Back up anything you do with gestures. Keep it simple. They said they were interested in seeing people being enthusiastic and getting the 'students' to join in.

I was really worried abut it but you'll be fine. And if you don't go first you can see what the others did well / didn't do well and that helps too!

Let us know how you get on!

[guest of Japan]

Always try to go first. It shows confidence and you tend to be scored higher for doing it without seeing other models. I've never worked for ECC, but this is a pretty universal truth. Of course don't appear to be too over-eager.

Also a benefit of going first is that you don't get the opportunity to over-think your lesson. If you are not well prepared, don't go first.

[Guile]

thanks a lot for the info guys... my ECC interview is tomorrow

[Jax]

Good luck! No-one ever seems to post about ECC - it's good to know other people are doing interviews too. Not alone! Hooray!

[Guile]

...just got back from my ECC interview... it was a pretty long day (11 am till about 6:30pm). Everything went pretty well I think. Had to teach a kids lesson for 7 mins... the way he introduced the task and explained his expectations made it pretty stressful during the 15 minute prep time... seemed like he was going to be expecting a lot, but we realized later that that wasn't really the case. The demo was ok, aside from the fact that I had to go first (since I was the only one with previous eikawa experience). The grammar test was right at the end, as were the personal interviews (which were only 9 mins each). The test was a lot more difficult than I expected, but I think I did ok... If all goes well I'll be on a plane to Tokyo by the end of September