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Deano1979
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Posts: 34
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 Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:52 am Post subject: Newbie questions |
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Hi
New to the forums, I hope these are not stupid questions
1)What are the differences between the TEFL, CELTA, TESOL etc? Which one is the best one to gain employment, or are employers generally not to fussed about it?
2)I would be interested in doing the course in Russia (St Petersburg over Moscow) or Prague. I have found a few schools for Moscow, can anyone recommend any for St Petersburg? The only one I have found with decent reviews is http://www.visarus.co.uk/directory/school/view/7/American%20Language%20Master_Saint%20Petersburg/view.htm
3)How long is a typical contract with a school? Ideally, I would like to travel a bit, and would like to spend some time in Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and South East Asia. Is it possible to secure shorter 6 month contracts? Im not to concerned with western Europe, although shorter stints there could be quite fun.
4)How difficult is it to secure work teaching English to business people, and is the pay better?
5) Do you need a degree to do the CELTA in particular?
To give you some background. I am an Australian living in South Africa currently employed as a Business Development Manager at a leading ISP in South Africa. Money is great, but I am fed up with pressure, deadlines, targets, KPA�s and work that is utterly meaningless to anyone but my bank manager. Teaching might not pay a quarter of what I earn now, but I think I would enjoy it more without being tied down, allowing me to travel and see the world a bit and hopefully make a bit of a difference on my 3-4 year career break.
I do not have a degree, will this be an issue considering the level of work experience I have?
Why I have decided on Russia I just dont know |
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mlomker
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:46 pm Post subject: Re: Newbie questions |
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The CELTA definitely has the most brand recognition but the Trinity certificate is also well regarded.
I've heard a lot of good things about the schools and the work in Prague. The pay isn't as good as other places but I've read enough upbeat blog entries to know that people enjoy it (can't say that about every country, that's for sure).
The lack of a degree will limit your options a bit. Some countries insist upon it for legal work but you can probably find a neighboring country in every part of the world that won't care as much.
Perhaps you should find a school in another country and be a student instead? If your finances permit that then it'd be a good choice. Being a student will get you a visa in almost every country and you could always work on the side (rarely legal but often done) and travel during the frequent breaks that students have. If you pick a school in a less expensive country then your savings could go far. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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| With no degree, I'd say your options are limited more than just a bit. Depending on whether your country of choice has a working holiday agreement with Australia, you may not even be able to get in at all, and WHVs are only for 12 or 18 months anyway, no renewals. |
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mlomker
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:17 am Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| With no degree, I'd say your options are limited more than just a bit. |
For every naysayer on here you'll find someone without a degree that is doing fine. It sounds like the original poster is quite flexible regarding what country they go to, so it shouldn't be a problem.
I'm most interested in Asia and any rural part of China and most of Vietnam is available to someone without a degree. Most countries are gradually cracking down, though, which is why I always suggest that people become students. Why not study Chinese in China or Vietnamese in Vietnam? It'll net you a bachelors degree and tuition in these countries is dirt cheap. Degrees from third-world countries aren't as well recognized by Western countries but it'd pass legal muster for work in ESL abroad. If studying a foreign language isn't your thing then the Uni's in South Africa are also very inexpensive.
If someone has a burning desire to see the world then there's more than one way to make the journey. I think that a lot of people end up on this forum just because teaching English is one of the more 'obvious' ways of accomplishing that goal. |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| mlomker says from his home in Minnesota |
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mlomker
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:52 am Post subject: |
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| spiral78 wrote: |
| mlomker says from his home in Minnesota |
That seems better than offering posters nothing or, even worse, making a personal attack. Need I point out that you don't even list a location? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:51 am Post subject: |
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My response was to the Australian poster Deano, not to my fellow Minnesotan mlomker. Perhaps that was what confused spiral.
mlomker wrote:
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| For every naysayer on here you'll find someone without a degree that is doing fine. |
I don't know where you get this notion. Most people posting here will agree with me that having no degree is a pretty severe limitation on one's TEFL career.
Are there exceptions? Sure. But it would behoove you to expound on them. In my mind, exceptions are people who have dependent visas, spouse visas, student visas, cultural visas, or working holiday visas. But even in those cases, they face the reality that there are plenty of people out there with degrees, and employers (and often immigration) prefer that, even if the degree is unrelated to teaching. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:15 am Post subject: |
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| mlomker wrote: |
Degrees from third-world countries aren't as well recognized by Western countries but it'd pass legal muster for work in ESL abroad. If studying a foreign language isn't your thing then the Uni's in South Africa are also very inexpensive.
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uuuuhhh...no. If your degree -especially an initial undergraduate one- isn't from an English speaking country, then it won't be very well liked by a lot of potential employers. In fact a lot of people will assume that it was either done by distance (not liked at all) or bought on Khao San Road in Bankok. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:06 am Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| mlomker wrote: |
Degrees from third-world countries aren't as well recognized by Western countries but it'd pass legal muster for work in ESL abroad. If studying a foreign language isn't your thing then the Uni's in South Africa are also very inexpensive.
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uuuuhhh...no. If your degree -especially an initial undergraduate one- isn't from an English speaking country, then it won't be very well liked by a lot of potential employers. In fact a lot of people will assume that it was either done by distance (not liked at all) or bought on Khao San Road in Bankok. |
What makes you think distance degrees are not liked? |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:45 am Post subject: |
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I meant initial undergraduate degrees more than graduate certificates and degrees, but when I interview with people who know anything about Canadian geography and post-secondary institutions, every single time I get questions about whether I did my TESL Certificate by distance because the TESL certificate is from a university far from where I did my undergraduate degree (I moved to do it).
It's pretty clear from the way the question is asked that if I had done it by distance (which isn't even possible) then that would be put in the 'negative' column. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| I agree about tefl certs shouldn't be done by distance as it lacks a practicum, but I think a university like Athabasca is as good as most other traditional Cdn universities. I took a course from them once to upgrade my degree and thought it was on par with SFU. Certainly most "distance" undergrads are a bit dodgy, but not all have to be. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:53 am Post subject: |
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| Gordon wrote: |
| I think a university like Athabasca is as good as most other traditional Cdn universities. I took a course from them once to upgrade my degree and thought it was on par with SFU. Certainly most "distance" undergrads are a bit dodgy, but not all have to be. |
I totally agree. I have actually looked into doing their MAIS programme in the past, and I also had plans to do a few courses in history with them in the past.
I don't mean to say that I don't think they can be as good as on-site programmes, but I think that the number of dodgy ones make people a little wary, especially in a field where the likelyhood of them having even heard of all of the commonly attended post-secondary institutions in each area of every country that people have attended is very slim.
Although Ontario has a system for ESL teacher training where you do the one-year TESL certificate which includes the practicum, and then you do a three term MA in Applied Linguistics without a practicum, still not a single university in the province offers it by distance, because the chances of an Ontario university hiring you after doing it by distance is slim (according to the head of the TESL programme at the university where I did mine, "no one's going to hire you" with a distance MA- she meant in Ontario).
It's not the way it shoud be, but I really think it is the way it actually is. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:28 am Post subject: |
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| I have looked into teaching at plenty of colleges in BC and none of them cared that my masters was by distance, especially since I have the experience to back it up. I can only see distance as a problem if the person doesn't have any teaching experience. When I took a graduate course on lesson and curriculum planning, it was a snap. Others who were doing the course struggled so much because they hadn't done it hundreds of times already. |
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mlomker
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| I get questions about whether I did my TESL Certificate by distance because the TESL certificate is from a university far from where I did my undergraduate degree (I moved to do it). |
That's a different story than an undergrad degree because the TESL cert requires a practicum to be worthwhile and that can't be done at a distance. There was nothing in my BS in business that couldn't be learned by reading a book and writing papers (papers are as easy to email as they are to print and hand in).
I've had no problem maintaining a 4.0 GPA at my on-campus graduate school after doing my undergrad online. Graduates of legitimate (undergraduate) online schools tend to be better writers since most assignments are written, unlike on-campus undergrad programs (more quizzes and final exams than written work).
There are a few online graduate schools (www.walden.edu is one) that offer an APA certified PhD in psychology. The coursework is done online and the practicums are done during two-week stints in the summers. |
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