Job Discussion Forums

[sf_teacher]

Hello.
I am an American male planning on teaching English in Taipei starting in June. I have a Bachelor�s degree in Liberal Studies and no teaching experience. To prepare for teaching, I am going to read �teaching EFL� books and hopefully sit in on an ESL class before I go to Taipei.

Although I am not planning on getting a job until I get there, I am considering working for a chain school (Hess, Joy, Kidcastle, etc�). I know, I know, I�ve heard the horror stories�.But it seems there is at least one positive aspect regarding the chains in that they will train you. And the thought of getting hired at a school and just being put in front of a room full of students without some sort of training is somewhat frightening to me.
I haven�t heard much on this forum about how much training the independent schools give a new teacher.

I have heard that some of the chains do more than train you. They have a rigid curriculum and each teacher must teach the same way. While this does not appeal to me in the long term, I must admit that there is comfort in being given a pre-made lesson plan, at least initially until I get a feel for teaching.

Basically, I guess I�m asking: If you work for an independent, will they provide training for a new teacher? Do they train as well as a chain? Or does it just depend on which school you get, whether it�s a chain or an independent? I�m fairly outgoing and think I could be a good teacher; I just have never done it before and would like to do a good job.

Thanks in advance for your comments!

PS: If anyone can recommend any teaching books or has any ideas on how to prepare myself for teaching EFL while I am still in America I would appreciate it. I am also going to look into volunteering as a private instructor to get some practice.

[surrealia]

From what I've heard, the amount of training a school provides varies greatly. Some schools have a lot of training, some just push you in a classroom on the first day and say "Teach!"

I think it's great that you are taking the initiative in learning about teaching English before you come over. One book that I can heartily recommend is A Course in Language Teaching by Penny Ur. An easy-to-read introduction to teaching ESL.

[brian]

I think it safe to assume that if training is an advantage to you then starting off at a chain will probably be the best option. Sure some small independants may have great training programs, but there is uncertainty as to which ones offer what. Despite the constant chain school knocking that goes on this board, I have seen next to no recommendations of any particular small indepedant schools. Now may be the time for someone to put their hand up and say, hey you what, so and so school on such a such street offers a good training program.

Chain schools to vary considerably, both between the chains and even between the branches within a chain. Generally speaking they have central recruitment and training, but some are better than others in this regard. Also, be wary of privately owned franchise schools within a chain network as the conditions may be different in these schools.

Hess, Kojen, and Joy are probably the most established of the kids chains, and they all offer centralized orientation and training. I know that Kojen and Joy give considerable flexibility in how you teach the materials, provided that you cover the content of each unit. It seems that Hess may be a bit stricter about how you teach the content. It is obviously important that these schools know that a certain student, studying a certain book, knows certain content. If teachers were simply to disgregard the chosen text then the result would be pandamonium, especially if that teachers takes a vacation, or leaves the school. How does the teacher taking over know what the kids know?

Most of the chains have ongoing monthly training which you can pick and choose through. Most established teachers here in Taiwan agree that chains are a good place to get your footing.