Job Discussion Forums

[Glenski]

[Chancellor]

[evolving81]

My suggestion would be to take an entry level teaching position in Japan or Korea and save some money and then do the certification. Then you can move on to bigger & better jobs...possibly. But yeah, Japan/South Korea are not necessarily the middle of nowhere.

[Erikc]

[evolving81]

Well I just looked at the first five jobs under the Korean Job Board here on Dave's and none required TESL certification. All require a BA though...which you said you had. One did make mention of teaching certification, if any...which indicated to me that it would be nice but not required.

[Glenski]

Erik, you must not have looked at jobs in Japan very much, because most entry level jobs don't require any certification.

Get away from "services". Apply directly. As far as Japan goes, there are about a dozen places that recruit from abroad, so if you don't want to go that route, you'll have to come here (at the right time) with US$4000-5000 to support yourself for 2-3 months before you get that first paycheck.

There are no guarantees anywhere for getting a job. Japan's market is very tight right now, but it's still there.

[Sadebugo]

Most teachers who first enter Korea do so with only a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field. How many teachers has anyone met during their career who anticipated they were going to teach EFL and majored in a related field? Usually, the cert. and/or MA in the field come later. Frankly, conditions are so bad in Korea that they cannot attract enough 'qualified' instructors to fill the positions so the OP would not be an anomaly. Really, even if very qualified, it would be difficult to apply what you've learned in Korea. The system relegates you to being someone who simply provides authentic language to your students.

FYI, I have an MATEFL from a British university and currently work for the US government teaching EFL. I don't have a TEFL certificate and never seriously thought about getting one. I just couldn't fathom how only four weeks of training with only a few hours of observed teaching could prepare someone completely.

Anyway, hope this helped.

Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/

[dirimini]

[spiral78]

I don't think any of the reputable cert courses purport to prepare anyone 'completely.' That's obvious rubbish.

The thing is that there is a vast market out there for entry-level teachers, the majority of whom won't make the short-term job into a career. The short courses aim to give those 'teachers' a basic tool kit that covers some of the important concepts of language teaching - as versus other kinds of teaching/learning, which most newbies are more familiar with.

The courses I've been involved with primarily focus on the fact that language classrooms are generally much more learner-centred than other kinds of classrooms may be (at least the literature in the field indicates that this is desirable, though the degree to which it's applicable in some regions of the world is questionable), and try to give 'teachers' ideas about some of the ways 'learner centred' can be done.

The only 'educational' value is likely to be for those few who go on to make the job a career, and get more education. I'm one - started out with a BEd and a cert, and now have an MA TESL/TEFL and will start a doctorate next year (have been accepted, hurrah).

I would agree that what I learned on my entry-level course is now pretty laughable, but it's been 12+ years of experience and further study...the same would be true in most fields, I think!

[ITTP]

For Japan and South Korea you don't need a TEFL. You just need your university degree. Still though, if you do have TEFL certification then it sometimes means getting paid more and holding a better teaching position. Not always though.

If you arrive on a college degree only and haven't any teaching experience and if your school doesn't provide any pre-teaching training then your students will be getting a native speaker conversation-skilled teacher, not someone though who is trained and able to teach English.
It (teaching English), can't be effectively learnt fully in 4 weeks and there is lots of on-the-job training BUT those TEFL courses are not called 'intensive' for nothing

From my desk in Seoul.

Neville

ITTP Prague
Narodni 21, Prague 1

[Chancellor]

[spiral78]

Though there is a move within the general education environment of the American government indoctrination centers (public schools) for teachers to be more learner-centered in their teaching.

Good to hear - it's about time. I was, however, thinking more about the general teaching climate in Asia, which I have zero first-hand experience with. However, I am told by friends and colleagues in various Asian countries that teacher-centred training is still highly in vogue

[Chancellor]