Job Discussion Forums

[desert date]

To start off, I just want to say that I enjoy reading your many thoughtful and informed posts (yes, even 007's). Some are very intelligent, and certainly dispel the stereotype that ESOL teachers are in it because they can't do any better. I don't really wish to single anyone out but Cleopatra in particular strikes me as someone who would have been just 'at home' in law or academe as she is in ESOL.

That brings me to the crux of my post. Do you 'smarter' folks derive any intellectual satisfaction from ESOL? I know the money in the Gulf goes some way towards redressing the shortcomings of working there and of TESOL generally but do you sometimes feel that you're not making full use of your potential and abilities?

I've been told that military gigs pay very well (how well?) and one can save a lot from a stint in the military but the cadets are not exactly the most motivated lot and one will only be teaching them very basic English skills. Is there a branch of ESOL that is more intellectually challenging than others (IELTS preparation perhaps)?

I'm now at a crossroads in my life. I'll be leaving for the Mid East in July for my belated gap year; I'll be taking up Arabic and travelling around the region. By then, I would also have completed my MA in applied linguistics and would thus be in a position to scout around for a job. My experience to date has been teaching English language and literature to bright and enthusiastic secondary school students. My students constantly challenge me and keep me on my toes. I like that. But I also feel that I am terribly underpaid for what I do when I have the ability and the opportunity to venture out into law or something equally lucrative should I want to.

Ideally I want to make lots of money doing something that stimulates and challenges me (don't we all). I know we can't always have our cake and eat it too and that I'll have to make a decision at some point. I'll be 31 this year. Your views, please.

[veiledsentiments]

For me, TEFL was a second career. My first was in accounting, which can be more lucrative, but after 15 years was a bit dull. I had my own business so one ends up working 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

I entered the field with an MA and only taught at university level. The challenge was finding a system that worked for me and the students. But, I loved every minute of it while I was in the classroom or working with the students. Personally I wouldn't consider it an intellectually challenging job... if that was primary, I would have stayed in business and accounting. I decided to concentrate on teaching writing, and that did add the challenge of motivation along with covering all their grammar deficiencies and lack of English organizational skills.

But, what brought me the most intellectual satisfaction was the time to study and travel. Having the long summer and regular breaks of education allowed me to do those things that a job in business did not.

VS

[scot47]

Gap year ? At 31 ? I see you are a late developer. Teaching EFL is no worse than teaching anything else. Rememeber that it is a job - something they pay you for. So do not expect a bundlke of laughs.

As for getting rich ? I think you are in the wrong business.

[mishmumkin]

Intellectually stimulating? Not so much, but rewarding in many ways. I found teaching young learners very rewarding-if you're up for the challenge of working with kids (never thought I was until I did it).
I still get emails from former students I taught at the university level...young Emirati woman and other Gulf nationals who are finding their way in the business world...it's great to hear them talking about focusing on a career, going back for a higher degree, etc. Teaching does provide for a personal connection that other careers do not.


I agree w/ VS...it's partly the classroom experience and partly the lifestyle that has me returning to the classroom after almost 4 years in corporate America (in, btw, two separate job roles that were not remotely intellectually stimulating).

[Neil McBeath]

I have to be careful here. I once let it be known on an IATEFL board that I had found a career in TESOL intellectually, financially and emotionally satisfying, and got flamed by some cretin whose idea of fun was to send abusive e-mails to total strangers.

At the moment I'm teaching students on the foundation level at SQU, and I have been given some release time to develop supplementary materials that will run parallel with a new course in Academic Writing. This is a new venture for me and so, yes, I find it stimulating because I can try to write materials that the students find interesting and at a suitable level of difficulty.

I did the same thing when I was working for the Royal Air Force of Oman. I wrote courses for officers in the Ordnance Service, military medical assistants at the time of the first Gulf War, junior officers in the Armour Brigade, materials for RAFO Search and Rescue personel, RAFO Firemen and RAFO aircraft engineering technicians. All ,of this wok was intellectually rewarding.

So far as money is concerned, RAFO pay was minimally better than at SQU, but the facilities, to be honest, were not. A room with a loo and access to Mess Facilities was fine, but a three bedroom flat is FAR better.

In Saudi Arabia, the living conditions were fine, and the pay was wonderful. The RSAF cadets were not so much demotivated as deprived of sleep. This meant that for long stetches of time you were not using energy to teach. All your time was spent trying to prevent the cadets from falling asleep. There was some intellectual challenge, but the Royal Saudi Air Force liked the PPP style of teaching and it would have been too easy to just fall into a rut and repeat lessons. Had the cadets been given sufficient rest, some of them could have done very well indeed.

In Oman, where military personnel are permitted to sleep at night, and where their basic training involves FAR more than just learning to march and salute, motivation was never a problem. The men wanted to learn. English was important for their future careers and theyt welcomed any additional effort that you made.

My problems in RAFO stemmed almost exclusievely from time-serving expatriates who were terrified tat their own inadequacy would be exposed. Unfortunately, several of these people managed to ingatiate themselves with the then Director of Education and Military Culture, with the result that valuable people left and the standard of education provided by RAFO suffered - and is still suffering.

I am happy to be back in Oman, and perfectly content at SQU. What is interesting is the number of Omanis who also seem to be pleased that I came back. Only two days ago, I was enthusiastically hailed in the street by a man who had been in my class at the Armour Brigade nearly ten years ago.

[Insubordination]

Language has always excited me. I get a buzz out of teaching students that you can omit the relative pronoun in object clauses. I can't see how teaching could not be intellectually stimulating.

[denise]

Yes, I do get intellectual satisfaction from the job. I am always thinking of new ways to present things, new activities to try, ways to modify past lessons, ways to change unsuccessful lessons, etc. My current working conditions are less than ideal, but whether or not to switch on my brain and try to improve myself is a personal decision, and I choose to do it.

d

[expatgirl]

Your post asked a few questions which from my experience, I'll answer as such:
1. Choose whether you prefer school or post-secondary - very important!
2. Motivation of the students can be a big factor in the ME and this can affect satisfaction from the teacher's perspective...

3. Intellectually challenging yes: but choose your area of ESL carefully.
I have to admit that for me ESP wins hands down. Why?
As experts and lovers of the English language - as we should be - you have to incorporate elements of structure and subject in one teaching bag! Very challenging, as you are continually researching the areas of specialty you teach and how best to present them.. The OP mentioned SQU - I taught ESP in the Agriculture faculty

In fact I am envious of a lot of the younger TEFLers these days who have discovered this, and specialize in everything from English for Aviation to Zoology.

I am not in the ME at present, but in Europe and have found, very belatedly, that teaching adults who pay (rather than their governments)
to learn English as it relates to their work environment, most satisfying.
Certainly an area of TESOL I'd recommend getting involved in once you've made your money in the ME.......

Happy choices....!

[desert date]

Thank you all for your informed responses - keep 'em coming. This is what I like about the Mid East fora; by far and large people here reciprocate considered posts with the same instead of the usual sarcastic one-liners and dissing you get elsewhere.

Where's Cleo?

[mishmumkin]