Job Discussion Forums

[goat_power]

Yes, yes, I know. The title of this post is both confusing and dumb.

So, I've sort of come to the conclusion that spending money on a TESOL Certificate to teach in Japan is, well, a huge waste of money. Surely, I could be saving the $1300 tuition to use as start-up money for Japan. But the thing is, I don't want to show up totally green and clueless.

My plan is to buy a few books on TESOL and study by myself. The ones I have my eyes on right now are Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener and Planning Lessons and Courses by Tessa Woodward.

HERE'S my questions.
1) Are there any texts that concentrate on teaching English to the Japanese?
2) Do you think that TESOL is the sort of thing that you can teach yourself?
3) How's the dating scene there in Japan? (I'm kidding... I'm kidding)

[goat_power]

anybody?

[partialtone]

Well, I haven�t taken any TESOL classes but I'll give the best advice I can. I'd dive right in and skip the TESOL unless it was required for a specific job. It's been my experience that taking classes on teaching gives you about 1/20th of the knowledge you'd gain by actually being in a classroom and teaching. I think all reputable teaching jobs have a curriculum outline and will give you basic materials you can use to go about your day, so I wouldn't worry about starting completely fresh.

For you specific questions
1) I don't know
2) Yes, if you can adapt to your students quickly enough (and make your students adapt to you).
3) Just ask Ms Universe!

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Because so many of the TESOL courses teach you almost nothing, I think the answer is "Yes, you can definately teach yourself a lot about this". The way to go about it is to go to a university bookstaore where they actually have an MA in TESOL, and start buying books. Teaching Japanese people in particular- learn a bit of Japanese language and read up on Japanese culture.

Of course learning about something and getting a job doing it are two very different things. If you need formal training to get a particular job (and for the better ones you usually do- but you also often need contacts to find out about them!) then you will be SOL.

It's all about appearances. If you have no qualifications, then how are you going to convince people that believe nothing but test results that you know what you are talking about, unless they give you a test (and that's not likely to happen because everybody else will be showing up with formal qualifications for jobs that require formal qualifications).

[goat_power]

[partialtone]

What kind of teaching job are you looking for?

[goat_power]

[Glenski]

If you're shooting just for the big four or JET, forget the TESOL reading.

[partialtone]

[canuck]

[fluffyhamster]

Like GBBB says, initial training actually gives you very little; you can of course start with stuff like Scrivener, Harmer, Woodward etc if that will help you get your bearings better and feel more comfortable, but if you really are wanting to get more serious, then the sort of reading that I recommended on the following thread (in roughly decreasing order of 'immediate relevance to ESL teachers') might prove of interest:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=547851#547851

Then, Canuck has linked to some free downloads at OUP.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?p=21741#21741

Books about teaching the Japanese specifically, hmm...you could do worse than picking up Bruce Feiler's Learning to Bow (ultimately of less relevance though if you don't end up AETing). Most of the books that I've seen over the years have been pretty lightweight as far as the teaching is concerned, though (e.g. John Wharton's 'Teaching Tactics', Jerry O'Sullivan's 'Teaching English in Japan', Peta Gray and Sue Leather's 'Safety and Challenge for Japanese Learners of English' etc etc).

[womblingfree]

You don't need the TEFL for Japan, you might need it when you leave though if you decide to continue teaching.

As far as TEFL books goes there's one by Scott Thornbury which I think is brilliant called About Language, although it's more a teachers guide to language than to actual teaching.

Best to read up on different teaching theories if you fancy learning stuff. Behaviourist, cognitive & humanistic theory should keep you going. There is no one 'right' way to teach, but there are many wrong ways.

On TEFL courses they tend to teach you communicative language teaching (CLT) methods, which can give you initial confidence.

Having said that you may as well not bother if you just want a gap year, you won't need to know anything like that at an eikaiwa and they'll teach you their dodgy 'method' anyway.