Job Discussion Forums

[canuck]

[abufletcher]

[PAULH]

Temple is an american university with a branch campus in Japan. its not a Japanese university degree. i was referring to a TESOL degree from the Seoul or Suwon University. i have seen people ask about TESOL degrees from universities in Thailand. they may have eminent and famous people on their faculty but they are still homegrown universities. That said, one of my friends did his phD through Nagoya university, all in English and I think had it translated into Japanese.

Temple and Columbia and one other are American universities with campuses here. the Brit and Australian degrees are done by distance. Im currently enrolled in the Birmingham course.

[mrjohndub]

[gaijinalways]

I would agree with Abu, except for a few cavets. Even if you're teaching beginners, depending on the culture, they might be very disappointed if you the teacher can't explain even simple points related with the language. Remember, many learners are not absolute beginners, either being false beginners or having some knowledge of a second language they are studying.

[abufletcher]

One idea I try to get across in my Second Langauge Teaching course is that there are varying ways of being a "GLT" ("Great Language Teacher") all involving differing balances of three basic elements: G) "Good preparation" L) Language skills and T) Technical expertise in education and linguistics. As long as it all adds up to 100% you can be a good teacher.

Many NNS teachers can compensate for weaker language skills with superior technical awareness of features of the language and/or better preparation. On the other end of the stick you have novice NS teachers, often with very little technical expertise, who by by adding some hard work to their native language skills can be a pretty effective teachers. I suppose this is the idea behind pairing up a Japanese teacher with an ALT. Well, in theory at least.

The long term goal should be to have an equal balance of each -- and ultimately to keep expanding in all areas.

[abufletcher]

...deleted by poster (didn't seem appropriate to our discussion here).

[abufletcher]

[PAULH]

[taikibansei]

[gaijinalways]

Good points Abu, sometimes the explanations asked for are unnecessary for the level, but adult students still often have them. When it comes to 'arcane' grammar, I might answer later privately, especially if the explanation will take lengthy examples and drag us away from our main purpose. Some things though can be taught as examples, and try and let the students reason it out (deductive reasoning), or at least to understand which is the usual language approach used by native speakers.

As to whether it reinforces the hierarchy, is a good question. Good classes have me learning more than my students! But remember, the students are taking the class for a reason (hopefully beyond the fact that it is a mandatory class) and if that reason includes a need, we need to satisfy that need (or at least in Japan, appear to satisfy that need).

I like your example of the GLT= good preparation, language skills, and technical skills in linguistics and education. You might also want to add understanding your students' culture, which of course is more difficult in real ESL classes versus the EFL classes one might teach in Japan {I have two exceptions in Japan; two classes of international exchange students (Russian, Eucuadorian, Chinese, and Australian) and Japanese students}.