Job Discussion Forums

[PO1]

I have always heard you have to have "papers" published in order to get certain university jobs. Not just in Japan, but universally. Could anyone give me information on where to start if I want to find reputable publications I can submit to for resume boosting?

I looked at the FAQs for university jobs and it seemed there were some good links, but a lot of them are disabled or not functioning.

I have 4 years experience teaching now, one year of high school, one year of eikaiwa, and two years of dispatch work. I also have a Master's in English and a teaching license. Just for a frame of reference so someone may know what kind of university jobs I may be able to get without a doctorate. I'm open to junior and community colleges too.

Anyway, I'm sort of at that "beefing my resume" period of my career so I want to start making new steps to make it look better for future jobs.

Of course I know competition for these jobs is stiff, so any leg up I can get, (publications, Japanese level, etc.) I want to pursue.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[It's Scary!]

Publish or perish!

Japanese unis have always had a skewed idea of what's most important of its profs!

It's NOT a universal thing...it's a Japanese uni thing!

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Publications are not UNIVERSALLY required for university level jobs teaching ESL / EFL. They are usually required in Japan. But not in other countries. They ARE required for professors in content areas.

In Japan, the biggest one to publish in is the JALT Journal. The Japan Association of Language Teaching's Journal. According to a seminar I went to specifically on publishing with them, it takes about a year from the time you've submitted it to the time it will be published.

They aren't going to publish articles on English literature (which is what I {and I think probably a lot of other people as well} think of when I read someone has a Master's in English- if that isn't the case, you should clarify this). English Literature is ***at best*** a marginally related field (but maybe you actually studied writing or journalism or something- that would be more closely related- but still not actually language teaching). So your first problem with a university position is that for most of them universities will look at you as having an unrelated masters degree (like applying to ad to be an English Lit Professor who specializes in Shakespearean dramas and sonnets at Harvard and saying "Hi. I have a non-terminal master's degree in Education, specifically in second language acquisition. I'm thinking about doing the doctorate in Second Language Acquisition in the future, but not now. I haven't studied literature since I was in high school because my undergrad is in theoretical Linguistics and all of my electives were in computer languages, but anyway, I remember enjoying reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' when I was a kid and so I want to teach undergrads about the works of Shakespeare.") Your best bet for publishing English literature articles is to look up literature journals- the ones you used when you did your master's in English. And see what their submissions criteria are.

Most countries do not ask for a PhD in order to teach EFL. The PhD is normally taken so that people can then teach native level (or thereabouts) English speaking people how to teach English to speakers of other languages. But in order to get into that kind of a program, you normally need a masters degree in TESOL. But if you are a 'content teacher' (like, you are teaching English literature in an English speaking country to undergrads etc) then yes, you need a doctorate (or to be doing your doctorate- then you can maybe get a job as an adjunct, but only if they can't get enough people who have a doctorate in-hand in the area, which is not very likely to happen with English Literature). I am referring to teaching at a university in your home country. Many Japanese universities offer degrees in English literature, but they are taught by Japanese people with doctorates in Literature from English speaking countries (especially the US and UK) from Japanese universities (or foreign ones).

I think the reality is that masters degrees in humanities areas are not likely to be of much use by themselves. They are basically just a stepping stone to a doctorate in the same field (from which the goal is to teach that subject at the university level, obviously), but can be made useful if you do more work-related study- like getting a second masters. For example, if you do a masters of information technology (that's 'Library') then you would be a strong candidate for a management position at a university library (with your teaching credential you could be the school librarian at a k-12 school). If you do a program in publishing (if you're American, then I think there are summer courses in it in New York City), then you would be a strong candidate for a position at a publishing house (especially in the editorial department, probably- and you would probably be steered to educational publish because of your teacher qualification). Same with public relations (target agencies whose clients include literary festivals, library, reading initiative etc, and you could find yourself in an NPO job that focuses on literacy, maybe even international literacy and the right to education- if you wanted. Or you could end up working on products totally outside of education-related areas {like Coast! The Eye Opener soap}).

A very common one is to get a teacher credential to teach in the k-12 sector (something I see you already have). From there the usual career progression as far as working overseas is concerned is usually to get about 3 years experience teaching in the k-12 system in your home state or province, and then approach international schools in Japan (or elsewhere). In that case you would be teaching the same kind of thing in Japan that you taught in the US / Canada wherever. That path isn't really for teaching in a university.

If what you want is to get out of secondary teaching (or elementary, if that's the target of your teaching qualification) and into tertiary teaching, then, for Japan, you will likely have to do a masters in TESOL (or Applied Linguistics) or at least read a whole lot about it on your own (you need access to an academic library for that), and then publish articles on language teaching (you may find that you need to really publish an awful lot of articles and possibly a text or something as well to really get your name out there as a serious linguistics researcher if you don't have a related master's). OR, you could go someplace like Korea and teach at the university level now.

[It's Scary!]

Er...what GBBB said.

It's not quite "overboard", but a rather lengthy, and, I might add, detailed response!

[PO1]

Thanks Gambatte for your detailed response. I seemed to have read that universities in other countries prefer PhDs or publications, but that may be just hearsay or just for certain positions. In any case, I appreciate your response. I recently got married so I'm looking for semi-permanent work in Japan (I understand that almost no work in Japan is permanent, as it's often on a contract by contract basis). I have a Spousal visa now, so I hoped that would open some doors that were closed as I was on other restricted visas before. So I'm just looking for that next step up if possible.

I'll look into some of the things you suggested and see where that takes me. I was hoping some of my qualifications and experience would help me move up in the world, so to speak. Any further qualifications and experience I can receive in Japan or through correspondence would be ideal for me.

I guess Japanese skill is a must for some positions and I'm working on improving in that area as well.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Glenski]

There are hundreds of publications where you can submit papers for EFL-related research. I have a list if you want it. A lot depends on what field you are researching.

Expect a 12-18 month waiting period from submission to actual printing of the article, by the way. So, it's not a quickie process.

What sort of stuff did you plan/hope to publish?

Universities have their benchmarks for quality publications, too. Peer-reviewed international journals where you are the sole author will be considered most highly. Books are not rated as high as journals. Non-peer reviewed work is pretty much bottom of the barrel. It all counts for something, but you have to know your priorities.

[FAQ]

[PO1]

@Glenski: If you have a list, that would be great. I appreciate any help I can get.

I'm not sure what I'd like to write about, but I have an interest in the methods of teaching English that are employed by Japanese teachers vs. foreign teachers teaching English and why they are so vastly different i.e. Japanese teachers focus on grammar and rote memorization while foreign teachers are expected to use immersion tactics and make "English fun." Not sure where I could go with that, but I'd like to write about topics after I do some research and see what is currently being written before I just plow forward. I'm not exactly looking to make the leap to the next level yet, so I don't mind the wait time.

So any help you could give is appreciated.

@FAQ: Thanks, I will check out the updated links.

[Glenski]

I would suggest going through all the information on this link from the JALT CUE SIG:
http://jaltcue-sig.org/node/67
Definitely worthwhile information to help anyone, newbie or veteran, in planning how to do research and get started on writing a paper.

Also, even though every publisher has their own standards for writing, I would strongly suggest that you buy the APA Manual (5th or 6th edition), and related materials. You can see what I mean from the bottom half of this other CUE site:
http://jaltcue-sig.org/node/56

Never written a paper before and find APA Manual daunting? JALT has its own Writer's Peer Support Group:
http://jalt-publications.org/psg/

If you want that list of publications, send me your email in a PM. The list is in PDF form, so you have to be able to open and read that.

[It's Scary!]

[Glenski]

You will never ever get published with an attitude like that. Ever. Publishing in itself, whether for literature or academic purposes, is a cutthroat business, and authors have to have/develop a thick hide.

Look at it this way. One editor was a jerk, and you are put off publishing anywhere anytime? Uh, would you say the same thing about car salesmen? Think about it.

Additional point.
As an editor and author myself, I am acutely aware of feelings of potential authors, whether they are veteran writers or newbies. However, I've seen so many papers submitted that didn't even come close to using the required format.

Margins wrong.
Headers incorrectly written.
Improper font type and size.
Indentation wrongly used.
Line spacing improper.
References horribly formatted and cited improperly.
Missing information (like a whole abstract!)

Those people need guidance, yes, but it's also painful to have to tell them they really need to follow the guidelines that were given to them. Editors in a lot of journals (like JALT SIG journals) are not paid workers, and neither are their reviewers, proofreaders, or associate editors, so contributing authors should really have the professional courtesy to do as asked when offering a paper.

[Glenski]

Here is a site that offers a list of 10 online and 24 print journals in topics of second language acquisition, in case anyone is interested.
http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/SLA/SLA_journals.htm

[Trident]

All of this is really useful for me too, thanks!