Job Discussion Forums

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:31 pm Post subject:

Getting back to the main line of this thead, I just wanted to try to point out that having an MA in Linguistics does not make one all-wise as an EFL teacher.

Smooth Operator · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 140 Location: Japan

Slightly off-topic, but are there opportunities for people with university teaching experience but with MAs in other fields? I'm teaching in Japan with a non-TEFL/Linguistics MA. Is it possible in the Middle East? Thanks...

younggeorge · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 350 Location: UAE

abufletcher · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:16 pm Post subject:

I knew a guy with an MA in Creative Writing working in the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. But that was quite a while ago and things might be more competetive now.

redafiya · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 33

It is a shame that MA's are such an essential requirement, yet are ultimately cosmetic , in my view at least.

But then again, with so much competition for posts, it is an inevitable requirement I suppose -- and also, universities wouldn't seem very professional ( in appearance at least ) if they had teachers without MA's, which is fair enough too.

I mean, it is understandable that an MA student in Riyadh, Tehran, wherever, might not take their teacher seriously if said teacher didn't have an MA....rightly or wrongly, that is the state of play... If you were an MA grad, who would you prefer to teach you at your college? A MA grad or simply a cert.holder? It is psychological is it not, and the MA does show a certain commitment to an academic lifestyle. ( or confirmation one couldn't make a life outside academia perhaps in some cases ! Mine perhaps ? )

I have to say though, I studied Linguistics under ( supposedly ) two of the best Linguistics professors in Europe at BA level, I have an MA, I have a BA in English Lit, and I have two TEFL certs on top of 16 yrs in the field.....

But out of all of that -- I have to tell the truth and say the main factors which made me an effective teacher, were simply hard graft, trial and error over the years, self reflection, advise of my contemporaries shared on cultural inclinations -- and the humble novice's RSA prep cert I got many years back... That short, relatively simple course all those years ago is still the foundation of much of my theory and classroom dynamics.

The Dip course if truth be known, I simply found to be a ridiculous , annoying farce and regarding method, a rigid strait jacket. ( if I had a penny for every EFL teacher I have heard say "Oh I have forgotten all that dip stuff now... I never bothered with it anyway ...jumping through hoops mate! " ) Why the profs. on the Dip. course felt inclined to make it such a stressful,macho, quasi primitive "rite of passage boot camp" I will never know...ridiculous.... I remember when we questioned one of our profs on the actual usefulness and effectiveness of a number of the techniques we were being taught and asked to rigidly reproduce, she answered "Oh, it doesn't matter if you never use it again, it might not be useful in "real life" classrooms, but just ( again) jump through all the right hoops..."

You want the truth? Regarding my in class teaching skills : the other qualifications -- whilst mighty enriching intellectually and personally -- were purely cosmetic as regards my actual perfomance/success rate in the classroom.