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naturegirl321
Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 9041
Location: home sweet home
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 Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 3:55 am Post subject: |
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| Roger wrote: |
But the way I had to learn different other languages gave me enough insight in how one becomes bilingual or multilingual; I am often somewhat perplexed at the theories on L2 acquisition by monolingual TEFL cert holders. |
I agree. People who don't learn another language, don't really know how their students feel. |
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Scott in HK
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 148
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 1:59 am Post subject: |
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Roger wrote
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| If you are perfectly bilingual (for an US person: Spanish/English; a Canadian: French/English; a Brit: many different combinations possible) then you have prctical, hands-on experience from before you actually had to choose a career path. |
First of all....very very few people are prefectly bilingual....the vast majority of bilingual shows strengths in one language over the other...not one book i have read on bilingualism talks about anyone being prefect....the word most often used is balanced...
Second....those bilinguals that are balanced usually acquired their languages at birth from their parents or perhaps in an immersion program...in any case they acquire them and therefore would have no 'hands-on' experience to fall back on....this would be different if they learned the language at a later date...if they did...they are not usually as 'balanced' as they ususally have learned the language for some purpose and would be stronger in that area than others...
Even if the student has learned his language at a later date and has become a balanced bilingual....he or she may not be very aware of the practices his teacher used to help him or her achieve this...and they would only be aware of how they learned...and not very aware of how to teach an entire class....
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| The best grounding in the teaching profession, in my opinion, is if you had to become proficient at at lest one other lingo, preferably two or more. |
now since my only experience in second language learning is my primary school french and living in a different country....i am going to take acception...i think the best grounding for the teaching profession is knowing how to teach and a dedication to your students....although i have to acknowledge that teachers who have learned another language bring something extra to the classroom....
and just to end...
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| But the way I had to learn different other languages gave me enough insight in how one becomes bilingual or multilingual; I am often somewhat perplexed at the theories on L2 acquisition by monolingual TEFL cert holders. |
hard to learn other languages that aren't different...(you could mean learning languages with the same linguistic base as opposed to learning languages that are very different from your L1...but it wasn't clear and sounds odd)
how do you know your insight is correct....maybe the assumptions you have made are not true...you would have to read up of bilingualism and language acquistion...now having learned another language you could make some great connections to the texts and be able to understand them in certain ways...but my not being bilingual does not stop me from understanding the same texts....of course the difference which will point out is that i have done my reading while studying for my masters and not a tefl cert....and that i would have to give you...but the texts are there to be read and a tefl student can learn quite a bit from careful study of bilingualism and language acquisition.... |
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jobe3x
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 45
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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I must admit that this thread isn't much help on deciding what to do.
People seem to avoid answering the question.
Is a teaching certification in the U.S. school system a plus or minus in this field?
Or do people just not care?
Or would my money be better spent on a Masters after two years of teaching?
You have to realize I don't have infinate resources for education. If the U.S. teaching certificaiton is not going to be much of a help finding a job than I'm not going to invest the money.
Last edited by jobe3x on Thu Jan 29, 2004 6:20 am; edited 2 times in total |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Roger wrote: |
| If you are perfectly bilingual (for an US person: Spanish/English; a Canadian: French/English; |
As an aside, about 3/4s of Canadians do NOT speak French. I'm often asked by Europeans and Asians if I speak French, and these people are surprised when I say 'no'. I know more Spanish and more Indonesian than I know French.
French is almost never used outside of Quebec and New Brunswick, and in my home town of Vancouver, there are a dozen languages that are more popular than French. |
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FGT
Joined: 14 Sep 2003
Posts: 762
Location: Turkey
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| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 12:26 am Post subject: |
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I'm with HK Scott on this one, teaching and learning a language are two very different things. Having empathy with the learner is, however, part of being a good teacher. But so is enthusiasm for the language (English). If teaching abroad, cultural awareness is vital and knowledge of the learners L1 can only be an advantage, if only to make one more aware of the areas likely to cause confusion.
Any course that deals with teaching skills will help the teacher to teach. If you want to teach English to adults, it's probably best to do a course that concentrates on that. CELTA is widely recognised. |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 12:42 am Post subject: |
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Is a teaching certification in the U.S. school system a plus or minus in this field?
Or do people just not care?
- jobe3x |
Unless you want to teach in an American school abroad, I vote for your third option. |
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chinagirl
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 235
Location: United States
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| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 5:29 am Post subject: cert |
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I agree with Ben. Unless you: 1) believe that teaching kids in the US will be your life's work or 2) plan on teaching in an international school or 3) are passionate about educational pedagogy, then I would go with an EFL certificate designed for teaching outside the US. Who knows? You might enjoy teaching so much that you'll come back and do a U.S. teaching certificate. That's what happened to me. I will go back to school full time this fall to finish my MA TESOL plus K-12 ESL cert (it's all in one...I'll be qualified to do *everything*) and couldn't be happier. However, I taught abroad in several countries with no certification at all.
An ESL "certificate" such as the CELTA, versus a standard teaching certification that will be recognized by a state in the US (one that takes time spent in university to complete, plus student teaching for months, full-time) are apples and oranges, for you folks that aren't familiar with the system here. No public school system would let you in the classroom here with a CELTA. But it's perfectly good for getting your feet wet abroad, methinks.
Do the CELTA, or some other recognized certificate from a university. You can always add more later to your qualifications.
Good luck! |
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chinagirl
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 235
Location: United States
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| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 5:31 am Post subject: and to answer your question |
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And to answer the poster's original question: yes, it can be beneficial to have the U.S. credential. But most times, having a public school credential abroad does not make much difference. There are exceptions, of course. Where do you want to go?
Good luck! |
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