Job Discussion Forums

[athenssoest]

just wondering, what are the qualifications for teaching ESL in a foreign university? How much more does it pay than working for a private language institute?

[santi84]

I checked your previous posts to try and gauge what country you are referring to - they are all vague. You need to specify what country you are asking about, or else nobody can answer these questions.

Places like Berlin or Muscat demand much higher qualifications than a place like China. What do you mean, specifically?

[athenssoest]

I'm interested in starting out in China and then moving on to South Korea and/or japan and then later the Middle East (no specific country) and possibly Europe (even though that might be a stretch considering I don't have an EU passport)
I'm currently working on a degree in English education and plan on eventually get my masters in TESOL (even if I dont go abroad ESL would still be my career in the US) Are those qualifications enough?
thanks!

[spiral78]

I work in a European university on an exceptional visa (I'm from the US). I have an MA TESL/TEFL from a British uni (the fact that it's British helped) and specialist qualifications in the teaching methodology used here. Before landing this job, I had contacts in the area and functional local language skills. Plus they needed five new teachers at the time

Hard work, local contacts, lots and lots of luck is what it takes.

Meaning you can't count on landing a European uni job based on quals and experience , but it's not entirely impossible.

Postscript: my job may well be in danger; our LC may be closing due to economic downturn, so another moral to the story: the jobs aren't often stable in any case!

[Glenski]

China, Korea, and Japan seem to have quite different requirements for university jobs. I believe China and Korea are far more lax than Japan (where I am).

In Japan you will usually need a minimum of a master's degree in a specialized field like linguistics, several publications, a bit of Japanese language ability, and some experience teaching in Japan.

1. The University Hiring Process: An Overview (Joe Tomei)

http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/1999/03/working

2. Job Hunting in Japan: Qualifications and Information (Ken Dillon & Craig Sower, 1996)

http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/96/oct/job.html

3. Job Hunting in Japan: The Resume and the Interview (Wayne K. Johnson & Ken Dillon, 1996)
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/96/nov/employment.html

4. Considerations for Securing an English Teaching Position at a Japanese University. Part 1 (Christopher Glick, 2002)
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2002/08/glick

5. Considerations for Securing an English Teaching Position at a Japanese University. Part 2 (Christopher Glick, 2002)
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2002/09/glick

6. Why English Teachers in Japan Need to Learn Japanese (David Barker, 2003)

http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2003/02/barker

7. Recruiting a University English Teacher: Raising the Standard (Paul Stapleton, 2004)

http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2004/10/stapleton

8. The Person, the Package, the Presentation: Lessons From a Recent Job Hunt (Philip McCasland & Brent Poole, 2004)
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2004/10/mccasland

[Sadebugo]

I taught in the English department of a provincial university in Korea. It seems that MAs are the standard there now for getting the better jobs, i.e., those that offer multi-month vacations, a reasonable number of teaching hours, etc. There are BAs at some universities but those individuals are usually relegated to the unigwons which can sometimes be worse than your typical hagwon. Another trend in Korea seems to involve hiring on the ground rather than outside the country. It's imperative that you be there in order to have the best opportunity of being hired.

Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/

[naturegirl321]

CHina is easy to get into to teach at uni level. More often that not you'll just be asked to be a native English speaker and have a BA. Bare in mind that pay might not be so hot, but you'll often only teach about 16 hours a week and they're convo classes.

Other countries are more competitive and you mnight be asked to have
MA
publications
experience teaching at other unis
do demo lessons
various phone or face to face interviews.

Don't discount luck as well. Being in the right place at the right time, or being able to accept a job NOW also helps. It helped me get a job at one of the top five unis.

[denise]

For the better jobs in the Middle East, you need an MA.

d

[naturegirl321]

Glenski, those are good links. I had no idea it was so tough to get a job at a Japanese uni. And then to only be able to stay 3 years on top of it!

[Glenski]

naturegirl,
Yup, even though those articles are a few years old, they still apply today.

People can expect about 20-100 applicants per opening.
Many jobs are only posted in Japanese, mostly to weed out the applicants who can't read any Japanese at all.
Yes, contracts for FTers may be only one 3-year stint, but sometimes they last 2 stints. Tenure is tenuous at best, and most uni teachers here are probably part-timers, but even they are being asked more and more for higher credentials than before (like publications).

Note: If anyone is interested in PT positions of any kind in Japan, you can't get them right off because of visa regulations. After a year of experience here, though, you can "self-sponsor" with more than one PT employer as long as the salary is high enough (no definite amount set by immigration, though).

[naturegirl321]

So I'm guessing that most of these Japanese uni jobs go to those married to Japanese? I thought it was tough to get into MY uni. Japan just isn't what it used to be as far as jobs and salary go. I wonder if CHina will be the next new boom for TEFL techers.

[Glenski]

[naturegirl321]