Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

Or like the "Wooster" in Worcester, Massachusetts. Some of your cousins across the pond speak "English" English, too.

Regards,
John

[teacherfromca]

[scot47]

That sounds about right.

[Brunouno]

The Master of TESOL from Charles Sturt University (Australia) sounds ideal for you. Do a search and check it out.

[mmcmorrow]

Just a couple of points to add here.

1) Include opportunity cost

Given the length of the course, it's worth considering opportunity cost in any decision - on the basis that time really is money.

Let's assume that you'll need to spend 10 hours a week over 50 weeks completing your MA (taking into account classes, pre-reading, assignments, research, admin etc). That's 500 hours. How much could you earn if you spent that time working instead of studying? Obviously, that's going to vary. It really depends on how much you think your time is worth. But let's assume you could get private lessons paying you $25 per hour. That adds up to an opportunity cost of $12500 for the course.

Essentially, that would mean an MA course is costing you $12, 500 even if the fees were zero.

Adding on the opportunity cost to the fees gives you another way of interpreting the differential between the overall cost to you of different programmes. If you don't include it, it's like you believe your time is worth nothing! The result of including it is that the course costs begin to look a lot more similar - for example, courses costing 10 and 15k in fees (a 50% difference) turn out to be costing 22, 500 and 27,500 (a 22% difference).
And this smaller differential tends to make other factors (e.g. the content of the course itself) seem more worth considering.

2) Inherent difficulty of choosing MA programmes

The problem here is that there are too many of what Rumsfeld might have described as unknown unknowns. Basically, you don't know enough about the programmes themselves, how you are going to be motivated by the different content and teaching and learning practices within the programmes, and what value the knowledge and qualification you gain are going to have for your future life.

MA programmes vary a lot. Particular programmes tend to have their pet topics and approaches - because of the culture of the department and the interests / beliefs of the people teaching there. For instance, most Australian unis (e.g. Macquarie / Sydney) focus strongly on systemic functional linguistics. Other unis have a strong tradition in corpus lingusitics (e.g. Birmingham, Lancaster, Nottingham). Others focus on task-based / communicative language teaching (e.g. Auckland, Lancaster (also), King's College, London). Some places put a strong focus on critical pedagogies .... etc.

It's just hard for prospective MA students to know what they are letting themselves in for. So one sensible approach, I think, could be to choose a uni with a big ELT department, where there's more likely to be a range of different approaches, so that you don't get stuck with one that just doesn't suit you.

The other inherent uncertainty is that you just don't know how the course will change you and your motivations and how it might prove to be useful in the future. I did my MA twenty years ago. I'm now living in a different country and doing different work at a different kind of institution. The reasons I did it then are not the same as the value it has for me now. That's why I think it's worth focusing on quality - doing the best course you can - even if it doesn't seem especially worth it at the moment. Your future self might thank you for thinking more highly of him / her.

3) Why I'm impressed by Lancaster

I mentioned earlier that Lancaster has an online MA programme. I'm not saying it's necessarily any better than a number of others. I think the online version has only been running for a few years, but seems to have been well-designed - and I also have a positive impression of the staff and their teaching skills, based on some recent experience.

This was a two-day course on corpus linguistics here in Auckland conducted by LU staff last year. I think the general consensus was that it was excellent in every respect. Four or five of the lecturers took sessions in which they presented and then facilitated a workshop in which we did tasks in a computer lab. These included the head of the department and a couple of young lecturers (from Poland, I think). They were all very effective and engaging presenters and the course materials were very well designed. I think it was probably the best short course I've taken part in.

Apart from its expertise in corpus linguistics, Lancaster Uni has a big ELT department. with a strong focus on classroom teaching, including task-based learning. The same could be said for other courses too, of course. It might be worth having a look around. I would have suggested the course run by the Institute of Ed at London Uni, but that's not being offered next year.

In the end, my main advice is not to be too focused on fees and to consider quality and (as much as possible) whether the course seems to match your interests.

Martin McMorrow, Massey Uni, New Zealand

[currentaffairs]

Lancaster is a very good university with a top ten ranking nationally and a lot of departments with strong research and teaching ratings. When I looked at the MA program it looked well organised.

[shamblaram]

Lancaster univ does have a very good reputation, and particularly its applied linguistics/ELT department.

The only trouble with their 'distance learning' MA, I seem to remember when looking into it a while back, is that you have to attend a day (or weekend or week?) course in the UK a couple of times a year when each of the modules are introduced. That may have changed. But it'd be worth checking/finding out how strict they are about attendance. If the OP's not in the UK, return flights (plus accommodation & general living expenses) a few times a year would be costly.

[currentaffairs]

[shamblaram]

That's good news for those thinking of doing an MA.