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Wigwam · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 93 Location: Abu Dhabi

AS far as I have seen, it is three stages - Certificate, Diploma and then MA

stoth1972 · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:30 pm Post subject:

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

If you're a native speaker of English, it is possible to get a teaching assistantship within an MATESOL program in the U.S., especially in some of the large, midwestern state universities. In my program at Southern Illinois U., the paid assistantship was actually a required part of the degree program. We all taught 7 to 10 hours a week in addition to doing our normal full-time coursework. In return we got free tuition plus a small salary that was adequate for local living... it was enough for expenses and sharing a comfortable apartment with one other person. When I was there we had several British MA students and even some Malaysians and Chinese on assistantships. (The non-native speakers had research assistantships, not teaching.) I am sure there are still several universities that offer this type of situation. I was also recently accepted, with full assistantship, into the MFA program in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University...the MFA is a terminal degree, which, if you also publish a book or two, qualifies you to teach writing at the university level to Americans, in case any of you EFL people who are frustrated writers have not thought of this option. I chose not to go, for personal reasons, but I'd like to go later.

So think about going full-time to the US, on assistantship, for free, enjoying the camraderie of your classmates and all the other benefits of a full-time program. I'm so glad I never had to do some part-time correspondence or online thing!