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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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 Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:04 pm Post subject: Postrgraduate ESL Qualifications.... |
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Has anyone completed a postgraduate qualification in ESL?
I'm finishing my undergraduate studies and am considering taking this course over the summer term at Victoria University here in Wellington: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/degrees/cert-tesol.aspx. It's a Graduate Certificate in TESOL, run over approximately 10 weeks.
The course involves the fundamentals of ESL learning, and also involves weekly teaching to student volunteers who are learning English themselves.
The reason why I want to do a Graduate Certificate is that it will give me more practical exposure to the classroom environment, and allow me to better get to grips with the fundamental principles of language teaching. Another significant factor is that it's eligible for government loans and allowances, just like other postgraduate courses (courses such as CELTA and Trinity are not).
I risk offending a few people here, but are these postgraduate qualifications in ESL, TESOL etc on a par with, for example, other postgraduate degrees? Do they require the same intellectual rigour? I do not mean to demean anyone's qualification!!
I'm curious to know why people choose to pursue a postgraduate qualification...to better understand your work, for intellectual curiousity, or simply to improve your employability? On that note, have you found that your postgraduate qualifications have led to improved pay and conditions?
I'd love to hear from all postgraduates, the good and the bad.
Thanks!! 
Last edited by Cubic09 on Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:29 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:15 pm Post subject: Re: Graduate Certificate in TESOL |
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| Cubic09 wrote: |
I apologise for the double post...the Australia/NZ Forum does not seem to get much traffic! 
Has anyone completed one of these qualifications before? I'm finishing my undergraduate studies and am considering taking this course over the summer term at Victoria University here in Wellington: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/degrees/cert-tesol.aspx
The course involves the fundamentals of ESL learning, and also involves weekly teaching to student volunteers who are learning English themselves.
The reason why this course interests me over the CELTA and Trinity qualifications (which I would otherwise do) is that it is eligible for government loans and allowances. The vast majority of TESOL courses are not, primarily because of their short duration (typically four weeks).
If anyone has had any experience of such a course through a university or polytechnic, I would love to hear from you. |
It's a graduate certificate, which is a whole lot more than a one-month CELTA, Trinity, SIT or other TEFL certification course. If you have the opportunity to do it, go for it! I presume, of course, that you already have a four-year undergraduate degree. |
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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:38 am Post subject: |
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That's right Chancellor, I have two degrees - a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws; a course of study that took five years to complete.
Thanks for the advice! |
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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 3:44 am Post subject: Re: Graduate Certificate in TESOL |
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| Chancellor wrote: |
| It's a graduate certificate, which is a whole lot more than a one-month CELTA, Trinity, SIT or other TEFL certification course. |
The one thing I suspect that might be different is that it might not have as much of a teaching component as the one-month courses. The CELTA, Trinity etc usually stipulate 100 hours of teaching? Or is that simply a 100-hour course?
I think the Grad Cert. could safely be said to be a little more academic than the other courses, though that isn't too much of a concern for me. Practical experience is more important at this stage, to my mind. |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject: Re: Graduate Certificate in TESOL |
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| Cubic09 wrote: |
| Chancellor wrote: |
| It's a graduate certificate, which is a whole lot more than a one-month CELTA, Trinity, SIT or other TEFL certification course. |
The one thing I suspect that might be different is that it might not have as much of a teaching component as the one-month courses. The CELTA, Trinity etc usually stipulate 100 hours of teaching? Or is that simply a 100-hour course?
I think the Grad Cert. could safely be said to be a little more academic than the other courses, though that isn't too much of a concern for me. Practical experience is more important at this stage, to my mind. |
No, it isn't 100 hours of teaching. It's 100+ course-hours (time you spend being taught) and then there is at least six hours of supervised teaching practice. A graduate certificate is much more than a CELTA or other such course and may very well include a stint of student teaching (where you are in a real classroom teaching real students). One should check out the details of a particular course. |
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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:49 am Post subject: |
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So like, I had a meeting with the Course Coordinator today. Turns out that the course is quite intensive, 40 hours per week over the summer term in her words.
15 hours of teaching, and something like 6 hours of 'observation' each week.
Crimony!! I'm starting to have second thoughts... |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:26 am Post subject: |
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Why? Is it scary when suddenly getting trained in teaching English suddenly turns into something like getting professionally trained to teach.... well ANYTHING?
My first training was a full-time certificate program over two semesters (an academic year in Canada).
Besides, if your observation is on-campus at the university, and you can contribute, you have SOME experience (not much, but still better than most the day they finish their training) in teaching university level. And, you get to talk with international students- try to get into a high level class at first (you can communicate easily and it'd fun talking with them). |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| Why? Is it scary when suddenly getting trained in teaching English suddenly turns into something like getting professionally trained to teach.... well ANYTHING? |
I'd say it bodes well for the TEFL profession. |
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Chancellor
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 1337
Location: Ji'an, China - if you're willing to send me cigars, I accept donations :)
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Cubic09 wrote: |
So like, I had a meeting with the Course Coordinator today. Turns out that the course is quite intensive, 40 hours per week over the summer term in her words.
15 hours of teaching, and something like 6 hours of 'observation' each week.
Crimony!! I'm starting to have second thoughts... |
I think you should go for it. |
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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:33 am Post subject: |
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Thanks people; I have applied for the programme...there's a selection process though, as they only accept 12 people for it. Selection involves interviewing referees, an interview type situation, and looking over my transcript...I've just got to hope that they don't pay too much attention to my grades, I never was a scholar!  |
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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:31 am Post subject: |
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Hmm, I have altered my original post slightly to make it less 'New Zealand-centric'. I'm really just curious about postgraduate study!  |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Cubic09 wrote: |
So like, I had a meeting with the Course Coordinator today. Turns out that the course is quite intensive, 40 hours per week over the summer term in her words.
15 hours of teaching, and something like 6 hours of 'observation' each week.
Crimony!! I'm starting to have second thoughts... |
If you think 15 hours of teaching per week is too much at this point, you'd better reevaluate a teaching career. |
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Cubic09
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 66
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| Cubic09 wrote: |
15 hours of teaching, and something like 6 hours of 'observation' each week.
Crimony!! I'm starting to have second thoughts... |
If you think 15 hours of teaching per week is too much at this point, you'd better reevaluate a teaching career. |
The 21+ weekly hours need to be seen in the context of other things Glenski, like paid employment.
In NZ, and many other countries, students are required by their circumstances to take on a significant amount of paid employment in order to pay for their expenses (like rent, etc.). A few of my classmates work full-time hours; the majority work between 10 and 20 hours per week, in addition to the suggested 40 hour workload of our law degrees. Some of us even maintain commitments such as team sports and music lessons, which could add anything up to 10 hours to the total again.
Your flippant comment is neither constructive or helpful - perhaps your long stay in Japan has blinded you to the realities of the outside world. I'm no salaryman, after all. |
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