Job Discussion Forums

[Beachee]

Life Experience degree - this is exactly what is says! A few years ago degrees were not important, you could only get a job with experience. Now the situation has changed and every one wants a rather fancy bit of paper in the assumption that this is better than experience. Some reputable universities addressed this problem by offering life experience degrees. You would fill in a form and have to produce proof (references, certificates, CV, sometimes an assignment etc) of your work experience. The reputable universities carried out checks, if all was deemed to be acceptable, full, detailed and satisfactory proof of your previous work you were given a degree based on your life experience. As with everything in life, some dodgy characters decided to jump on the band wagon and distort this process by simply offering a 'degree' in return for a sum of money with no proof or support of previous work carried out, thereby giving it and any LED holders a bad or questionable name.

I disagree that someone who has sat in a college or university for years is better than a person who has been teaching successfully for 5 years or more.

I think that was is happening in Oman at the moment is sad. As Mr. Duffy pointed out, you are not talking about fly by nights. You are talking about people who have been in Oman teaching very successfully for obviously a long time. If they REALLY were such awful teachers why did the ministry / college / agent keep them employed for so long?

[balqis]

Interesting, the thing with life degrees and the respect for life expereince beachee has pointed out recognized by good unis. I agree.
Tesl is many a time a dubious and shady area for me, where there is lots of noise and razzmatazz, ado and commotion, trends an fashions - most, if not all of them, wax and wane in a year or decade - and quite little genuine, if ever platonic, substance [ the quote from Macbeth on ado would come in handy here]

I personally strongly believe foreign language can be only learned and not taught. Hence the ''ontological'' status of an ESL teacher is by no means clear and tangible. In my own - occasional - professional musings I often compare myself to a nice and pleasant, say, KLM flight attendand, nicely dressed and delicately perfumed, whose role is to meander glibly amongst students and make their EFL effort - if such an effort exists on their side - durable and directed, easier, sometimes loveable. All in all making their tedious and most of the time boring FL journey simply nicer, shiny, funnier, you name it, and with a lustre whenever such lustre is to be found. But EFL can't be taught. It can only be learned.


The tefl degree craze is just another craze. There is a profound money-making business lurked behind it and whipping the degree lash. Pity that it may be stifling the existence of many talented classroom characters.

Long live life experience!

[Stephen Jones]

The wrong kind of degree as in one that doesn't require any study at all.

Life experience degrees are a scam, and to suggest any respectable institution has ever issued one is a joke.

[Beachee]

Interesting point of view.

However, you will never convince me (or some other people) that a non native English speaker straight out of college will be a better teacher than a native speaker that has had 5,10 or more years of practical experience - without blemish, complaint or problem.

The 'wrong' kind of degree also applies due to the Ministries changing their minds about what is accepted and what is not accepted.

[veiledsentiments]

Interestingly I agree with everyone here. Like Balqis, I think students often learn in spite of us rather than because of us. The ability to motivate the students and keep them making some kind of effort to improve their skills being the key.

I agree with SJ that "life experience" degrees are a complete joke and I don't know of any legitimate universities that offer them. And I agree with Beachee that all those bits of paper don't really have much to do with whether the person in the front of the room is a good language learning motivator.

BUT... the fact is that our opinions on this matter are irrelevant. All that matters is what the employers require. And if they want a legitimate degree from a legitimate university, that is what we have to provide if we want the job.

So it goes in the world of employment in most every field that provides a living wage...

VS

[Beachee]

What an excellent and unbiased reply VS, thanks.

[eha]

'....a nice and pleasant, say, KLM flight attendant, nicely dressed and delicately perfumed, whose role is to meander glibly amongst students and make their EFL effort - if such an effort exists on their side - durable and directed, easier, sometimes loveable.....'

Gulp. I will certainly be fired then. My qualifications are so impeccable that no-one has grasped the anomaly that I've been working for years at least one grade lower than said qualifications and experience entitle me to--- all because, as someone pointed out, not too many people are aware of comparative value in the qualification business.

However, I do admit that I lack the 'nice', 'pleasant', 'nicely-dressed and delicately perfumed' factor. I less 'meander glibly' than 'stalk menacingly' among students, making their EFL effort far more exciting (in the Chinese sense) and far harder than they feel it has to be. And if they love any of it, it has nothing to do with me..... but then I was educated in the days before the edutainment became the order of the day.

Duffy, sorry your friend(s) are facing the chop. You are so right; being any good at something is no guarantee of being appreciated--- and conversely, having a bit of paper is no indication of cerebral or any form of useful activity. Quite the contrary, in some cases, it seems to me.

[dorothy1]

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[jdl]

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