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workingnomad · Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 106 Location: SE Asia

I read on another branch that it might be possible to use your business background to teach English and find some sort of niche.

I have over 10 yrs in. IT from programming, project management to business analysis and was wondering whether there are many opportunities out there for more specialist skills other than 'Business English'. Perhaps technical English?

If so are there any particular geographic locations where this background might be more applicable? Are there any online resources or job opportunities that are specific to Information technology and TEFL?

In guess the demand might be stronger somewhere with a big technology industry like East Asia, india and Europe of course. Perhaps less so in SE Asia I would imagine?

MELEE · Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 3:08 pm Post subject:

The demand is everywhere in the world.

In Latin American, depending on your qualifications and experience, you could get a job teaching English to IT majors at universities that have English as a degree requirement. There is a growing trend in universities in Latin America and other parts of the world to offer content classes in English as well--which either means training up the regular instructors of those courses to be able to deliver them in English, or training the English instructors to deliver the content.

Also most scholarly articles these days are published in English. More than once I've been asked to translate or clean up an article I can barely understand. So there is also a demand for universities to have someone on hand whose job is to do just that.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

There is business English, where you actually try to teach English terminology or business customs in English, and there is ESP (English for Specific Purposes), where you may have that "niche" to teach English in a very special setting, whether for IT engineers, biotechnologists, medical doctors, hotel managers, shopkeepers, etc. Do a Google search for more info.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I have a B.Sc. in Computer Science and worked in IT for about 12 years before getting into EFL. I'm going to differ from the previous two responses and say that such specialized jobs are not that common, or at least not in my experience. Do such jobs exist? I imagine there might be a few scattered here and there, but you'll need some luck and some connections to find them.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Just a smidgeon of links mentioning computer science and the use of ESP. The jobs are definitely out there. Maybe it depends on where you look.

http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/teaching-english-special-purposes.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~l630tesp/
http://www.esp-world.info/articles_6/Corpus.htm
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa092598.htm

MELEE · Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject:

LS as you know I work at a techonogical university. I don't see many resumes from teachers whose first degree was in one of the fields my students are studying, but when I do it always attracts my attention. Usually, the few times we do get people who studied engineering applying to us, they usually lack the English teaching qualifications we require and we end up giving the job to someone else. We do not have specific positions for people with an IT background, but we have positions where an IT background would be a big asset and would set you appart from the droves of Spanish or International Studies majors we recieve.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

I just got back from a JALT CALL conference. In case you don't know, CALL = computer-assisted language learning.

There are obviously 2 camps of people (in one sort of classification scheme, anyway) teaching CALL courses these days:

those that know enough about computers to feel comfortable tinkering and experimenting and advancing the technology as well as putting it to use in the classroom

those that have weak computer skills and who practically need the other group to help them along.

If you have strong IT skills, you don't necessarily have to teach business English, but you might consider how you could be one of the first group helping the second. Most people in the first group that I met were extremely nice people, but they had a hard time laying things out simply enough for the other group to follow. Some just replied with, "Oh, just jump in and fool around. It'll eventually work out." Not a comforting thought to some.

tedkarma · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:43 am Post subject:

There are a lot of "tech" colleges and universities that would give preference to an IT-experienced EFL teacher.

You know the vocab - you have similar interests as your students - you know how things work.

I taught a Intro to Computers course in Saudi Arabia for several years - a HUGE textbook in English far above the students - and it was a perfect fit.

Biz English is not really related - look for IT schools - there are many out there who will value what you have to offer.

In Thailand, for example, King Mongut University of Technology - would be a great place to start - as well as the six Rajabaht universities of technology.