Job Discussion Forums

dog@kew · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 13

I live in Vancouver, BC. I graduated with an English lit. BA last spring. I was going to take a TESL certificate course, pay for a Spartan life with abt. 20hrs per week while educating myself in preparation for more school. I couldn't afford the course, but I eventually got on with a tutoring centre, where I did poorly. The kids were often rude, and I'd have to talk to three of them at once, had to use a narrow range of deadly-boring material, while marking the useless homework that someone else had assigned; and if I looked disorganized or wasn't friendly enough, a student would ask to use the washroom and complain to the manager. I hated most of the reading exercises so I'd usually go with the more labour intensive writing & grammar stuff, which took more of my time and which many students liked less than the busy-work. Now my hours are down to almost nothing and I'm looking for labour and retail jobs.

I didn't coast through my degree; all think about is English, and I'm really interested in how learning works, so I'd thought I'd make a good tutor. I've often thought about private tutoring but, if I was nervous before, this experience has almost convinced me not to try. Without a teaching degree, I'm afraid that all that counts is confidence and organization. I realize that tutoring on my own would be different, but does anyone have an opinion as to whether someone without an education in teaching, who's not a born salesman, could pull it off without embarrassing himself?

tomstone · Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 293

The job that you had, how old were the students?

tomstone · Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 293

My apologies; a better question would be: what age group do you want to teach?

dog@kew · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 13

It varied. Grades one to twelve, but most were around grade three to six. I would have thought I'd prefer high school kids, but the few I had acted almost catatonic; I'm not introverted, but I need something to work with if I'm going to be friendly . . . Ok, sorry, I won't turn this into a rant.

Short answer: I wanted to be able to teach something advanced enough to be interesting to me.

tomstone · Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 293

For me, the greatest reward is to see a students eyes light up when they realize they CAN make that sound in English, or when a concept becomes clear. You get to see that in all age groups. Young children are the most fun and interesting (to me) because they're less shy about opening their mouths and giving it all they've got. My first "point of entry" is to assess the student's speaking skills, find the common strengths and weaknesses and go from there. A short conversation, a few personal questions, will usually give you an idea of their level of expertise (or lack thereof).

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

Do you want to stay in Vancouver?

I'm in Vancouver but currently off on maternity leave.

With a BA in Literature and no TESL, you are only qualified for tutoring centres similar to the one you taught at. While there are some good tutoring centres, they almost always require a BEd and BC provincial teaching certification. Some will accept a BA and TESL certificate (a university-issued TESL Canada Level II preferred).

If you prefer to teach in better conditions, try and get into ELSA. ELSA is run by the government, pays well ($25/hr+), and the students are great. ELSA, as you may already know, is for immigrants with below-intermediate skills. If you can teach advanced grammar or even intermediate grammar, make sure to highlight that.

The only issue is that places like ELSA require at least a degree and TESL Canada certification. Without the TESL certificate, you will not be able to compete in the Canadian market. Even with the TESL, you will not make many hours unless you get your PDP teacher certification or MA. Even then... ugh! It is also a very sought-after job - you may have to volunteer for a few months or years before getting hired.

If you aren't tied down to the Vancouver area, I would really recommend heading overseas for some experience. You can do tutoring on your own, but without some form of basic teacher training, it might be a disaster. Your experience at the tutoring centre indicates that you could really use some classroom management skills. Remember, if you are hired to teach, then it is about your students and how to help them understand THEIR material - not what you would prefer to study.

dog@kew · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 13

Thanks for the advice re. the market. I was wondering more about doing it on my own though, where there isn't a class, just one student. Do you think that's not workable without an education degree?

The reason I emphasize my own interest is that I had an awful lot of bored teachers back when I was in high school; they usually kept things quiet enough, but not many students left the place giving a damn about knowledge for its own sake.

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

I gave private ESL lessons in my 4th year, tutoring ESL students that went to my university. You can do private lessons without a teaching degree, but I'm not sure if you will have enough clients to make a living out of it. It depends on where you live - do you actually live in Vancouver, near UBC or SFU? I find there is a huge demand to assist students with writing in general - ESL or not - as academic writing is quite a challenge to most people. You can certainly post flyers at the universities and advise their ESL/English departments that you are available. It may not be enough to pay all the bills (you will get a lot of demand in Oct-Nov when papers and exams happen, but semester breaks and summers are a disaster).

FYI I charged $15 an hour as a tutor. Peanuts, but I was an undergrad trying to get experience.

The truth about tutoring ESL in Vancouver is that those who can afford private lessons are generally studying ESL as international students, so they can go back to Japan/Korea/China and get a job back home. In other words, they are in Canada because their family wants them here - there is not a great deal of motivation. Those who take ESL in Vancouver for their own functional knowledge (ie. immigrants) usually qualify for ELSA or other community services programs, and do not need/can't afford a tutor.

Go put up some ads at SFU or UBC, I'm sure you'll get some bites!

dog@kew · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 13

I don't know if I'm straying from the forum topic here but, as for tutoring in general: how does someone get an idea of how it's done? I.e. do most students have a specific idea of what they need help with, or does the tutor need to ready a sort of mini-curriculum of their own? Do you always go to their houses? etc. I've looked on the internet for this type of info, but all of the advice for tutors that I've found is strictly about the business side.

It sounds as if, whatever I do, I'm going to have to avoid working with the students who don't want to be there.

tomstone · Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 293

Assess their speaking skills, find out what they need help with (pronunciation, verb tense, syntax). I do most of my tutoring in my "office" (the computer room in my home). Have a conversation with them, just like you would anyone else, e.g., "How are you today?", "What's your favorite kind of music?", "Who's your best friend?"; teaching writing would be similar, have them write a paragraph about what they do in their free time, summer vacation, whatever.

dog@kew · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 13

What about teaching non-Esl students: is there a more or less expected method, or a tutoring bible, or do most tutors pick it up as they go?

tomstone · Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 293

I've only done ESL; sorry.

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

You may also be interested in tutoring international students who are taking non-ESL courses (despite being ESL). There are many ESL and international students that have an advanced level of English but still need some assistance in non-ESL courses, including 3rd and 4th year literature. Rather than focus on basic grammar, you can assist them with writing flow and advanced sentence structure.

Here's a good link to check out (Kwantlen)
http://www.kwantlen.bc.ca/learningcentres/be_a_tutor.html

I don't know any decent tutoring methodology textbooks (I'm sure they exist!) but I'm sure others here do and can respond to that. I strongly believe in some form of teaching training, I would highly recommend working towards some form of qualification.

dog@kew · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 13

Yeah, I think you might be right about that. Thanks.