Job Discussion Forums

[Jyulee]

I've been an ESL teacher for 6 six years (which, relatively speaking for ESL teachers, is a long time! I suspect that for many posters here, however, it is not...)

It's been lots of fun, but very soon I am crossing the line to being a "school teacher". During my years as an ESL teacher, you see, I had harboured many theories about my mysterious "school teacher" cousins. Now, as I am working in a high school, I have had the opportunity to check these out for myself... My evaluations of these theories follow, for those who are interested:

1. School teachers are far more professional than their ELT counterparts.

Yes and no. I have seen ELT teachers drinking and smoking joints before class, not something that would be done at my school here. There are plenty of professional ESLers out there, of course - but I suspect that "crimes of unprofessionalism" are committed more by ESLers than school teachers.

That said, ELT teachers seemed to spend more time preparing classes than the teachers I work with now. I remember ELT staff rooms full of teachers frantically laminating and cutting - the staff room here is full of people drinking coffee and chatting. I have never seen anyone "prep" a lesson here, as such. ESL teachers seemed generally to care about what their students thought - high school teachers couldn't care less.

2. School teachers are all "in it for a career", ELT teachers are much more likely to be doing it temporarily.

Pretty much - most of the people I work with here have been teachers for 7+ years. Most of the ESLers I worked with had been at it for 2 years tops. There were the occasional "in it for life" settled career types in ELT, but not many.

3. School teachers are paid more

Yes. Definitely. I earn more here than I have ever earnt doing ELT. Plus I get a pension and all sorts of other benefits that I never had in my ESL days.

4. ESL teachers are transient, backpacker types - school teachers are more permanent, more likely to be married, settled, etc...

Again, most of the teachers I work with now are married and settled. Most of the ESL teachers I have known were quite the opposite.

5. School teachers do a completely different (and ultimately more important) job than ESLers.

Actually, the basics of classroom management and lesson structure do not differ too much between ELT and other school-based academic subjects. Schools, of course, have a far wider range of "things to cover" in terms of education - not only academic subjects (geography, history, and the like), but the personal and social development of the children in question. I don't think that many TEFL academy teachers could seriously argue that they do all of that.

Despite all of the above, I think that (on a day to day basis) the TEFL teachers cared far more about the daily quality of their classes than the school teachers I work with now.

6. TEFL teachers are "cool", school teachers are "geeks".

Back in my ELT days, I met a lot of characters and had a really fun time. There are not many members of my current staff room that I would like to go out for drinks with.

7. School teachers have sweet holidays.

There's no denying it, the holidays are plentiful.

8. School teachers are respected (perhaps only marginally) more than ESL teachers.

In Colombia, "ESL teachers" don't exist by the bucketload - so the locals don't have the opportunity to compare the two very much. "School teacher" here, however, implies "profession". "TEFLer" in Spain, implied "Young (British) person in Spain for a good time". Generally speaking, are school teachers respected more? Yes, I think so.


My intention, of course, is not to blow a raspberry at TEFL teachers, nor to imply "Now I'm better than the rest of you!" - rather to give a (admittedly subjective) comparison of the two sides of the fence.

So why don't more TEFLers move over to International Schools? Seriously! Why not?

1. You still get to live and work in a foreign country.
2. An M.Ed will be, in many places, enough. It's not that bad! You can do it distance learning while still doing TEFL...
3. The money and conditions will generally be better.
4. Time spent as an EFL teacher will not be completely ignored nor disregarded by employers in international schools.

[Glenski]

[Jyulee]

It wasn't a carefully worded post - I fully expect to get "blasted", but it's OK, I can handle e-criticism .

I know of 3 ex-EFL teachers in 3 separate countries who work as high-school teachers in international schools without QTS. Indeed, my school are offering to train me as an IB teacher and deal with QTS later. While I imagine that the vast majority of "school teachers" (rightly) have PGCEs, international schools will sometimes make exceptions for teachers with other teaching qualifications and experience - at least on an "at first" or "temporarily" basis.

Whether or not this is "bad" or "okay" could be argued until the cows come home, the fact of the matter is that it is how it is!

"School teachers", in the OP, refers to foreigners working in international schools. That is to say, high schools in non-English speaking countries that hire native English speaking teachers in the name of bilingualism.

[John Hall]

I've never applied for a position at an International School because the job advertisements, in Costa Rica at least, always request that applicants have a teaching license, which counts me out.

There are some Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages who do very serious work. For example, those who teach refugees who have recently arrived in English-speaking countries. These students often arrive in their new country without knowing a single word of English, and yet they need to learn how to buy things at the supermarket, ask for directions, answer the phone, find a job, handle a job interview, etc. For these students, their English teacher is their first friend and most important source of information in their new country. Strange then, that these teachers are paid far less than "regular" teachers.

I would also say that teachers of Business English can be pretty important to their students. Many of my students are professionals who are studying English because their salary will triple once they can prove that they are professionally fluent in English. I wish I were making more than I actually am, but the problem is, I guess, that I am replaceable...

However, I shouldn't complain. My annual income is greater than the annual income of a Costa Rican public school teacher. But they do get better benefits!

[TravellingAround]

[fluffyhamster]

ELT/EFL/ESL/ESOL is linked to (Applied) Linguistics, and there is the expectation that the students will not only need but also want to "push the envelope" (helps if it's stuffed with cash). It's hard given all that to not feel the compulsion to keep up with research, often whilst at least informally studying a bit of the languages of whichever country you're teaching in. Actual school teachers, in comparison, can relax into a routine (sink into a rut?), dealing as they do with a usually quite strictly limited school subject (don't envy them the paperwork), and if some of the JTEs I've met in Japan are anything to go by, their limited bag of teaching tricks and activities is mirrored by (yet nicely complements) their inability in (or at least rustiness with) English.

[Glenski]

[dmb]

In Turkey to work at the BIS (British international school) you need a PGCE from the UK. However there are other international schools. Very expensive usually but they don't follow the British system. However, teachers there do go back a month before the kids(after summer) and plan for the whole year(you get your two classes and you have them for the year) Maybe why the teachers you refer to aren't planning before every class is because they plan for the year.

[TravellingAround]

Glenski - Actually I agree with you...I was just making a general point.

The non-EFL teachers are probably more likely (on the whole) to teach at the same school for a long time. With their salary package it makes sense sometimes to keep on in the same job. As most (but not all) EFL teachers don't receive pension payments, tenure etc then it makes more sense to look around for something better or move onto a new place. Less chance of becoming stale.

Then again, and this is just on the whole as with all points on here, I'd expect school teachers to be in their job longer than EFL teachers because of the nature of ESL teaching itself...it can be very transitory and the world is literally your oyster with some basic qualifications behind you. There are lot of teachers in various countries just doing it for a few years (or so they tell themselves) before they go back home and get a "real" job. Of course many are still saying that a decade or so later...

[The_Hanged_Man]

I used to be an ESL teacher, but have made the transition to teaching math at an international school in Kuwait, so I want to comment on some of your points.