Job Discussion Forums

barmadu · Joined: 03 Feb 2003 Posts: 43

An ethical question for those teaching very young and young learners. As English teaching professionals, we are very quick to differentiate ourselves from the simple native teacher with no training whatsoever who decides to "teach" on their gap year.

Why is it that this ethical stance does not transfer to the teaching of very young learners or young learners for that matter? Would I be wrong in thinking that someone who holds even a CELTA has very little idea as to how very young learners learn and their cognitive capabilities? Should you have studied the differences between the way 3yr olds learn and 5yr olds before trying activities? Or is trial and error sufficient as they are only children? Why is it OK for the "teacher" with no training whatsoever to be placed in a classroom full of 3-4yr olds, no questions asked, yet not OK for them to be teaching adults, whom they certainly understand better?

This is terribly common practice here in Spain and from what I hear in Japan, but do parents care so little elsewhere? It amazes me everyday when parents drop their children off with full knowledge that the site is completely inadequate for children, sharp corners, adult sized chairs and tables and not a question asked.

Does 'business first' necessitate unexperienced, unprofessional people being placed in a room full of children? Seen from another perspective, in what other field would this be tolerated? Are we not risking creating an entire generation of children who hate the language simply to make money while the getting's good?

I realize a post loaded with questions, but questions all the same that I would like to hear rational answers to, other than of course, it's the business.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I'd no idea this was commonly done in Spain. I cannot imagine someone with no training in working with children being even remotely qualified for such a post. Nor can I believe that parents leave their children with untrained instructors in this case...

Though, I suppose lots of au pairs haven't any specific training in child care, either (do they?).

barmadu · Joined: 03 Feb 2003 Posts: 43

Good point regarding the Au Pairs, but the difference there would be that they would be responsible for 1-3 children, a world of a difference from a classroom of 8-15!

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Yes, I suppose it's not really comparable - though the au pairs would conceivably be responsible for children in much more sensitive situations (there being far more opportunity for neglect or abuse or simple mistakes in a home setting than in a classroom).

Anyway, I absolutely agree with you that teachers without specific training in teaching young learners should not be in such classrooms. I am surprised to learn that it's common. I think this is not true in many other countries in Europe....at least, I hope not.

sheikh radlinrol · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 1222 Location: Spain

jr1965 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 175

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Wow. A whole dreadful substrata of the field I had no idea of...

Yeah, I knew there was a big market in Asia, but totally didn't realize that it had any hold in Europe.

I'd be curious to know whether it's just Spain...or Southern Europe. I am pretty sure this has not spread to the countries I know best (Czech Rep and Nederlands).

SirKirby · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Barcelona, Spain

I think it should be noted that, apart from qualifications (I assume you mean something like the CELTYL or the CELTA YL add-on, ie. a paper qualification), there is also such a thing as training.

A good school will be providing some sort of on-going training for its staff involved in teaching young learners (workshops, etc). I know schools that do (albeit not by any means a majority).

I've also met and worked with teachers who have been phenomenally good with YLs despite not having any kind of formal qualifications for it (and, it has to be said, most of them were young, female, and non-native speakers of the language).

Most people just do not have a formal qualification to teach YLs: as that is, nevertheless, a large part of the "market" for private language schools, they are inevitably employing people who are unqualified.

Betti · Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 44

Hello

I've popped into this forum although I am currently working in Sicily. I am now a free-lance English teacher and have a variety of private students and commercial courses.

Recently I seem to be teaching more and more young learners (3-10 years old) including a state-run infant school.

I have the normal (?) qualifications - degree plus CELTA. I'm currently teaching two groups of 30 five-year-olds at the aforementioned infant school. I have to admit about having some very big doubts before accepting this job, however I can happily report that the children, my fellow colleagues (I work in conjunction with 3 other Sicilian teachers) and the director of the school have all expressed their satisfaction. I teach this group for two hours every week and the lessons are split thus: 1 hour of key vocab introduction, games, songs, chants, lots of TPR and 1 hour of applied follow-up activities such as making an identity card (What's your name? Age etc.)

I may not have studied the cognitive abilities of these young learners but, let's face, a healthy dose of common sense prevails. Keep it simple, keep it active, make them laugh.

Not everybody is cut out for this field - indeed not everybody is suitable for teaching full stop - but I do believe that it isn't necessary to have prior experience in this field. My fellow teachers (the Italian ones) have expressed how important it is to have a mother tongue teacher at this early age - pronunciation obviously being the key advantage. Maybe I've been lucky, maybe this is the area to which I'm best suited or maybe I'm deluded, but I greatly enjoy teaching this age group. I also teach two private courses for children from 3-5 and 7-10. In many ways I find it much more rewarding than teaching adults.

With the older children I obviously introduce new grammar - but I don't teach it as 'grammar' if you all catch my drift. I won't waffle on as I am hijacking the Spanish forum but I certainly believe /hope (!) that children who find their initial English lessons fun and motivating will then approach the later stages of study (massive amounts of drilling in la bella Italia) with a more positive outlook - the bottom line being English can be fun.