Job Discussion Forums

[Capergirl]

I've been wondering if the fact that so many English language teachers are getting (or thinking of getting) Master's and PhD's - not to mention all the TESL/TEFL/CELTA/DELTA certificates and diplomas - will gradually give this "profession" a better reputation in future years. At the moment, it seems that there is a prevailing opinion that this career is nothing more than a hobby, a way for people to travel and avoid real responsibility and a real career. I personally am hoping that when I get my Master's in TESOL (planning to start in 2004, with any luck) that people may then begin to realize that I don't think of my career choice as a joke or a way to pass the time and neither should they.

Currently, many countries still employ native English speakers with any Bachelor's degree and often it is not necessary to have other qualifications, even teaching experience. In the future, however, it may be more common to ask for ELT-specific qualifications, teaching experience, and possibly even graduate degrees and diplomas (some places already do require these things, of course). This may help to eradicate the backpacker image of ELT and will (IMHO) greatly benefit those of us who take this "career" very seriously.

Thoughts?

[leeroy]

Yes, the image of ELT at the moment isn't exactly rosy is it? But an industry that allows scum like me to work in it shouldn't necessarily blame the teachers for the image it has.

I have a feeling there are so many under-qualified "teachers" because that's the way economics has made it. A lot of students aren't too bothered about having qualified professionals - some (shock horror!) may even be bored teenagers who want a westerner to sing and dance for them. Perhaps, for positions like this, a Masters isn't really necessary.

As the world globalises even more, I think the need for English will become a little more "real" - as opposed to the "good idea" as considered by many at the moment. As the need for real communicative competence in English increases, the need for Teachers Who Know What They Are Doing will increase. All of a sudden, the downtrodden academics (who know what "anaphoric referencing" is) can jump out of the shadows into jobs that afford them the pay and professional recognition that they deserve.

Maybe I'm just being over-positive, with my rose-tinted glasses though...

[dyak]

I�m wondering if making ELT harder to get into or it taking longer than 4 weeks will make it more professional. To teach in an English Secondary School you need a degree plus a post graduate (year long CELTA type) course which really is a bench test to see if you�re serious about teaching or not. There�s no real equivalent in ELT, and having this would certainly weed out the backpacker element� <passes rose tinted glasses back to leeroy>

I agree that degrees should be subject specific at least; I�d rather take on someone who�d been studying English or a language for 3 years than someone who hadn�t. However� you can have a suitcase (or backpack) full of degrees, masters�, CELTAs, DELTAs and PhD�s, but can you TEACH? I would love to see more quality control of actual teaching� can you communicate this vast amount of knowledge you�ve acquired?

[SweetOne]

[nomadder]

I think in the old days in Canada(and other places no doubt) all you needed was any degree to teach and it seemed that any unmarried woman could become a teacher or secretary no problem. After marriage they quit. So perhaps it's a supply and demand sort of thing.

[dduck]

[Jess_Laoshi]

I see it as supply and demand. In places like China, there's a huge demand for English teachers. There just simply aren't as many qualified MA/PhD holders willing to pack up and move to another country (and possibly work for a fraction of what they could make at home) as there are positions to be filled. From the school's point of view, if they can't get these people to teach EFL, isn't a less qualified person (who could still possibly be a good teacher after all) better than nothing? Having employers require those degrees doesn't mean that more people with degrees will teach EFL. The low standards of for EFL teachers are a direct result of the huge demand. As long as the demand remains high, the standards will be relatively low.

[Capergirl]

[guty]

Wasnt productivity/standards/professionalism in other industries raised by the creation of unions?
EFL is so fragmented that the organization of labour is impossible, depending on the market in the countries at any given time, schools take or pay what they can get away with.
While the school owners see profits to be more important than quality, it is in their interests to keep the costs of employing native speakers low, and if a backpacker fills as many seats as an MA and expects less in return who will be employed?
We need to globalize, organize, mobilize and payrize.

[SweetOne]

[SweetOne]

I still don't know how to do the quote thing, so please forgive the confusion in the previous post.

[Wolf]

[Capergirl]

Uh...what Wolf said.

Very well-put, Wolf. You just saved me a lot of typing and you said it much better than I would have. But...um...5700 GBP?

[Cleopatra]

I agree with Capergirl that the problem lies with both teachers and employers.

Many EFL institutions are strictly for profit businesses and they couldn't give a monkeys' how well qualified you are so long as the students keep paying their fees. Of course, this varies from place to place and country to country. Obviously, these institutitions - and I'm not only talking cowboys, but the 'reputable' schools too - want to pay their staff as little as they can get away with to maximise profits: it makes business sense. If they have a choice between an MA grad with 10 years experience, who wants say 10,00$, and a fresh CELTA grad who's happy to accept half that, they'll go for the latter any day.

On the other hand, there are plenty of teachers out there who moan about how they're not respected and well-paid, and yet they won't bother to take the time to upgrade their qualifications. Then again, with the market being as described above, can you blame them?

Bit of a 'chicken and egg' situation.

[spatrick]

Cleapatra wrote:

<Bit of a 'chicken and egg' situation> (I, too, have no idea how to do that quote thingy)

I agree that it is mainly a problem with economics -- and whoever said that ELT should unionize is absolutely correct (and correct that it is impossible). Yet, the best thing to change the situation is for the professionals simply NOT work for sh..ty companies.

I just got done looking for work in a new city without the least bit of knowledge of the environment. By speaking with anyone and everyone I could I found what is the minimum pay to be expected by a professional -- and I stuck to my guns. I had several offers for work -- at a time when I was getting nervious about finding any work -- and turned them down as the pay rate was too low. Let the backpackers teach those students.

In time, I believe, the students� future employers will notice that the students who didn�t have professional teachers don�t speak or write or use English, but some backpacker mixture of psydo-English. In time, hopefully, the employers won�t employ students from those schools, essentially closing them down -- OK, I�ll take off the glasses now. (I had the unfortunate chance to teach a pair of private students who learned English from XXXX school here in Buenos Aires whom I would have thrown out of the advanced level they were in and sent them back to low intermediate -- they could speak, fine, but with a maturity level and sophistication of rap artists (no offense to rap artists -- they�re native speakers, usually, doing what they do). These two students were on their way to the US for BS degrees, and all I could think about was the amount of time they will spend in remedial English comp classes, if not worse.) <side note: this may be the worst paragraph I�ve ever written. Good luck understanding it>

Back on track here -- another thing professionals could do to make ELT more professional is to make a distinction between the unqualified teachers (who may, yes, be good teachers, though I find that a rather difficult assumption to believe) and professionals -- I went to a conference in XXXXX where I spent the first hour disdaining the people who didn�t know what a CELTA was or who Krashen is. I made it very clear to them that I didn�t consider them to be very good teachers (they didn�t like me). It may sound rude, but this is how academe works -- you don�t see the Chemistry dept in major univs having ELT�s reputation problems.

To end this rant of mine, let me say that in my opinion, good teachers are made, not born. The theory, the knowledge of theory, let�s say, is what makes one�s lessons work -- that coupled with actual classroom experience (which, to me, is just more theory -- trial and error of theory in practice). I also started out as the token native teacher in Madrid, but I wouldn�t have let me near a professional classroom: the director let me teach _The Wall Street Journal_, which is fine for a punk like I was.

Sorry this is so long. Please send all hate mail to my current director.

Patrick