Job Discussion Forums

[Rooster_2006]

I'm not plunking down $30,000 for an MA TESOL. No way, no how.

However, I'm thinking about doing a master's degree in a subject completely unrelated to teaching.

Would a $4,000 DELTA + an unrelated MA be good enough to teach at a uni or senmongaku, or is an MA TESOL an absolute prerequisite?

[Mr_Monkey]

$30,000 for an MA? Sucks to not be European, I guess.

In my experience, the DELTA wasn't particularly well-recognised in Japan. However, I know a guy who got an MSc in Computer Science, and apparently that was enough for him to get a job teaching English part-time at a university in Fukuoka. This was a few years ago though, so things may have changed.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

You almost always need an MA in TESOL or Applied Linguistics these days, unless you are teaching something other than English (or know somebody). Sometimes you can get a job at a university while you're still doing the MA, though. It is especially a problem in that you often need publications to get in these days, and without a related masters, you could find yourself at a serious disadvantage in that area. Universities aren't likely to be very impressed with publications that are totally unrelated to teaching English.

Doing an MA from a university in Australia wouldn't be $30,000 (unless you have a three year as opposed to four year degree).

I think CELTA and DELTA are pretty much meaningless in Japan (they aren't worth any more than any other short private TESOL certificate).

[ripslyme]

$30,000?!

I went home (USA) after the JET Program and did my MA-TESOL at a public university for less than $15k (tuition, books & other misc fees).

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

It's about $30,000 if you're an international student (a Canadian doing an off-campus masters in Applied Linguistics or TESOL through a university in the UK, for example, will be spending $30,000 by the time he or she is done. Canada has very few distance degrees in this area- even fewer for people without a k-12 qualifications. Recently [I think], University of Calgary opened one up, and there are a couple of Christian Universities that have them. The most common thing is still for Canadians to do their off-campus degrees from universities in the UK or Australia / New Zealand, though).

And the reason why people are increasingly doing off-campus degrees these days (besides the obvious thing that the quality is now equal with on-campus degrees thanks to universities using discussion boards that are set up like this one for every individual half-course / module / unit so that learners can commuincate with each other and directly with the professors) is because actually going to your home country to go to school means the loss of not only the time and costs in tuition etc, but the loss of income for a year. The net result is that going home to go back to university full time is more expensive than being an international student, unless you honestly think that working part time will get you the same amount of money that you would if you worked overseas. (For example, if you get paid $30,000 year, and it costs $30,000 to do a distance degree, then a distance degree costs you your salary. It doesn't zero out, because during that time you still have to pay for rent, bills, food etc. If a degree in your home country will cost you half of that, $15,000 but you have to give up your $30,000 a year job in order to do that, then it is now costing $45,000 to do it at home. However, you are at home and so you are able to work at whatever you want, so you have to figure out if you'll be able to earn $15,000- if you can't then being an international off-campus student is cheaper. You have to also factor in how much it costs to live at home- what's rent, food and bills going to cost you- more or less than it would where you were living before? Of course, if you ARE from the UK, then a distance degree isn't going to cost anywhere near as much as if you were an international student).

[Mr_Monkey]

I disagree with the idea that a CELTA is worthless in Japan - it opened doors for me a few years ago. I do agree, however, that the DELTA is (unfairly) ignored - the best teachers I've ever known have had one, and I've met some pretty shocking teachers with MAs, and even one with a PhD in Applied Linguistics. There's often no practicum on MA TESOL courses and the like...

I'd suggest that the DELTA would make you a better teacher, but it wouldn't really be worth the paper it was written on in Japan.

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

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[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Of course people could just do an off-campus masters degree from a university in Australia where it would cost about that many Australian dollars (i.e. less than half of what it would in the UK) and you could complete it in two years part-time while working.

Monkey: I didn't say it was worthless, just that it isn't worth any more than any other initial TESOL certificate (including the kind that take three weekends over the course of a month).

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

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[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Why? Is there something wrong with Australia?

[Rooster_2006]

Okay guys, thanks.

It sounds like the DELTA won't accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish.

There's no way I'm going for an MA TESOL. I know there are cheaper programs than Temple University's 30K program (I've heard 7K for some of the Australian programs), but honestly a year of my life and forfeiting all the savings I'd otherwise make aren't worth the career gains. I only plan to teach for two or three more years, honestly.

I guess I'll just give up on trying to break into teaching adults/uni students and just do my best to learn to be happy at an eikaiwa until the time comes to get a job wholly unrelated to English teaching.

[Mr_Monkey]

[Mr_Monkey]

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

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[Rooster_2006]