Job Discussion Forums

[tanuki]

@ dakota29michael

I don't know the answer to your first Q re: MSc (I assume) and MA. Could be that some employers wouldn't like it. Could be that most wouldn't care less coz it's got "Masters" and "TESOL" in the same phrase.

Does seem a bit odd to me, though, and MSc in TESOL.


Re: the second question, an MA blows a 120 hour course out of the water in SOME ways. But there are a couple of points that should be considered here:

1. Not all pre-service training courses are created equal. Some are cheesy; some are really good.

The two stock-standard, internationally recognised (by the organisations that COUNT in English speaking countries, such as, say, The British Council) certs are, as I'm sure you know, UCLES CELTA and Trinity Cert.

Then there are about a million other courses that give you a basic pre-service training. Some of them are CLEARLY rubbish. And some of them may not be so bad.

The differentiating factor is that MOST of those other ones are simply not recognised in the US, Canada, America, Australia, NZ, the UK, etc.

If someone is not interested in working in EFL or ESL on their return home (assuming they come from one of these English-speaking countries), then CELTA or Trinity may not be worth the expense.



Okay, the second half of that point is less relevant to the discussion at hand, but I thought I'd toss it in because the thread is kinda about EFL/ESL careers...



2. The "blowing out of water" thing may or may not be valid. There are some MAs that have a practical teaching component, but most of them do not. So theoretically, someone could simply sign up to an MA (TESOL-type) course, graduate and not really know the first thing about ACTUAL teaching!


This person would simply have rings run around them by anyone who had gone through a CELTA or Trininty; and PROBABLY by anyone who had gone through a large number of the cheesy non-Engl-speaking country recognised ones too!

An MA gives you a solid theoretical understanding of the elements "behind the scenes", if you will. Yeah, some units directly address Classroom Management, and Lesson Planning, but I would wager that MOST units on MAs are HEAVILY theoretically-based topics such as Test Design, Syllabus & Curriculum Planning, Methodology, Pragmatics, SFL, Research Methods, etc.

Many of which are perfectly applicable to classroom practice, of course. But only likely to be EFFECTIVELY applied by those who actually HAVE some classroom experience to reflect on as they're doing the MA.

[Now, MA-holders/do-ers, please don't misinterpret all that to mean that I think an MA is worthless. I don't. Indeed, I'm doing the last unit on mine this semester. ]

3. And as insurbordination first mentioned, and I added to, and then spiral78 added to, an MA could potentially LOSE you jobs! There are a lot of colleges in places with standardised pay-scale based on experience and qualifications (such as Australia, in NEAS-accredited schools; bit more cowboy on this point in the UK, even with the British Council peering over shoulders; have no experience in NthAm so don't know how it works there--suspect not unionised) that would go for someone less qualified (newb or otherwise depending on circumstances), simply because they have to pay the MA-holder "too much".

Naturegirl321 also pointed out that for university jobs, good; otherwise, not much good.


Sidenote: As someone with an MA... how would you feel about being paid the same as someone with a CELTA or less?


And johnslat confirmed the point that an MA is needed for most jobs in the Middle East.

So, all told, I reitterate my point from before: There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with an MA. But...

...it depends where you want to go within EFL. Don't just do one for the sake of it. Where do you want to go and will it actually help you--as opposed to you just assuming that it will because it's a higher qualification? She don't necessarily work like that in this game.


Tanuki

P.S. Kootvela makes and good point about being able to charge more for private lessons! You could have ZERO classroom experience and still be charging more for private lessons! LMAO!


P.P.S. @ the OP... have you looked into the DELTA? This will open a lot of doors for you and get you better pay without necessarily pricing you out of the regular private college market.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.eflteachertraining.com

[Extraordinary Rendition]

[dakota29michael]

For the program i am looking into, you can't get the masters' without completing an entire semester of supervised teaching... so its not possible to receive the masters without hands on experience...

[Justin Trullinger]