Job Discussion Forums

[sekuru]

[lotsa]

[like2answer]

Ah, but now we all know why you got the big red X. HCT will only hire MAs in the field. I know a lot of good teachers without MAs, but dem de rules.

How it "looks" is much more important to how something "works" at HCT.

Case in point - my friend just told me that Abu Dhabi Women's College will make all their semester 1 students buy a 6,000 laptop. Problems with this, to name a few, are

1) teachers can't see if students are working on task or surfing some Arabic web site

2) about 40% of the students fail = a lot of money for poorer families to dish out.

3) Some students don't know how to USE computers. So the English teachers will have to show them, in their already limited time, how to do the things they have to do

4) the computers break down all the time, which means some students just have to sit there and watch, while the class carries on.

HCT doesn't always make the wisest choices.

[lotsa]

I like your constructive feedback like2answer. It is good to see replies in here that extend more than one sentence. Again, the majority of feedback I have seen about HCT is negative vs positive. At the end of the day, I have made a wise choice to set aside any further interest in them.

[adorabilly]

Here is the problem, and if you have taught in the field for 13 years, then yous should recognize it immediately.

They REQUIRE a MA in TESL, or linguistics. It is nice that you have that experience, and a BA. You could be one of the best teachers in the world, but without that REQUIREMENT they won't hire you. So sorry, thank you for applying.

Having been in the field, you should realize that sometimes the stupid requirements means that lots of great teachers don't get looked at.

Heck, one of the best teachers I ever knew had 20 years experience in 7 different countriese was fluent in 2 other langauges and didn't have a high school diploman. He was just canned from my old school because they went on the "requirements" of having a minimal bachelors degree. The people who lose out, his students (who were some of the best at the school)

You will find that many schools around the globe have a "style overs substance" approach.... "all of our teachers have MA's in TESL, or related fields."

[lotsa]

This debate will go on for time immemorial and becomes academic. To be blunt I'd rather have a teacher with substance than merely style alone, but I guess HCT haven't really recognised that, yet. The premises of your argument may be true, yet somehow the conclusion in pure rationality would inevitably be false. Thanks for your feedback though.

[Afra]

If you haven't been offered a position after a year of being accepted into the 'pool', you drop out and need to reapply. There have been so many problems with the B.Ed that you may not now be needed. Try for another position.

[globalnomad2]

If I were hiring, I'd prefer to hire an MA with good experience over a BA with good experience. Posters here have seemed to imply that the MA and competence are mutually exclusive.

Why an MA requirement? From my perspective, EAP faculty at a proper university should be able to feel like regular academic faculty, and be able to communicate with them, most of whom have PhDs in any American institution. (Many institutions here seek institutional American accreditation, after all.) EAP faculty should know what it is like to do a serious thesis, and have a broad understanding of university governance and not just be BA-level schoolteachers. Schoolteachers get paid less and s*** on more. Not that MAs in EFL aren't...but...anyway, this is the system I'm used to. A PhD on the other hand gets one out of EFL because you'd be a fool to get a PhD and then return to Foundation-type programs because you'll still be teaching 20 hours and getting s*** on like a schoolteacher.

[Iamherebecause]

[sekuru]

[globalnomad2]

Iamhere....That may be the British system and it may work well in Britain, but I don't think you'd want to have that kind of university system throughout the "colonies" nor impose it in an international college setting.
What you're suggesting is that someone who got his/her TESOL/Ling MA from Columbia University and subsequently worked five years as, say, director of English at the Let's English School in Nagoya has an inferior education and background to someone who first taught chat at Let's English for five years and then got the MA at Liverpool U...Doesn't make any sense.

[Iamherebecause]

Sorry, globalnomad, slight misunderstanding there. What I said was

[globalnomad2]

OK--gotcha. I misunderstood. By the way, in case you didn't know, there really is a conversation school chain in Japan called "Let's English."

Right. Let's Japaning.

Oh, I was a lucky one, a very very lucky one when I got my fresh MA in 1986. I got a job with the State University of New York/Buffalo's program in Kuala Lumpur. It was a World Bank-funded project, and the housing allowance allowed for large detached houses even for the single lecturers--all to themselves, not shared. The salary--well, goes without saying. They hired mostly experienced people but they also wanted a couple of people straight out of graduate school and I was one very lucky one. Did I mention "lucky one"?

[jeanne]

Hi everyone....need some help here. I've just been called to attend an interview via video conferencing nxt week. Would like to find out what are the possible questions asked and their expectations. Thanks in advance!

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

I hope someone more in the know will jump in to help you out .. but I'd bet my bottom dollar that CALL would feature ...

... what have you used
... how do you value it
... how has it benefitted your lessons
... what disadvantages have you experienced
... and how did you overcome/minimise them ...

Even if you've never used anything or never had the facilities to do so at your place of work, I would say you need to have some sort of reply lined up ...