Job Discussion Forums

[guest of Japan]

In response to the last poster -

No Child Left Behind is forcing all teachers to get the masters, so even if that $2000 bump doesn't do it for you, the threat of unemployment might.

PhD is a big risk. At that level it takes a lot of publications, experience and networking to make a go of things. A PhD will increase your public school teacher earnings to a level that often exceeds university jobs without the need to publish.

[jgmodlin]

I think the teacher's unions might have a thing or two to say about that. Are you teaching in public schools in the USA now?

[Chancellor]

[jgmodlin]

If, like my county, they reimburse tuition it's not a bad deal. Virginia and most states I know of do not have any requirement for teachers to get an MA.

[guest of Japan]

[robertokun]

Yeah, a master's is required to get tenured in my home state as well. At least at the secondary level. NCLB and all that is a whole other can of worms . . .

As for no full time jobs at the university/community college level anymore, that's what scared me away from the M.A. Applied Linguistics/TESOL degree in the first place and made me go the K-12 state certification route instead. They've got to be there somewhere, though, those mythical tenue track TESOL positions.

At least with the M.A. Applied Linguistics/TESOL your degree is good anywhere in the world and in a variety of contexts. The limitations of state certification is yet another can of worms that could be opened . . . but . . .

B.A. with teacher's certification and an M.A. Applied Linguistics/TESOL is the royal flush of this game if you ask me. I would have never guessed when I was 18 though . . . haha

[DaveW125]

Like the OP I�ve also been toying with the idea of getting an Ma in TESOL or the like. However, I think I�m a little different than most of the posters in this thread as I have no real wish to teach adults or in universities. Does anyone know if an Ma would open any further doors in the industry with regards to teaching kids. I already have a TEFL cert and a Masters (in law, for what it�s worth) but would like to progress as far as I can in the ESL industry and improve my own knowledge and ability to teach. I�m pretty sure that getting a teacher cert would be the best option but due to a number of reasons this isn�t doable for me for at least the next year or so. If anyone has any input that would be great, thanks.

[Chris_Crossley]

I know from personal experience that at least one university in England, which shall remain unidentified, absolutely insists on applicants for even part-time jobs teaching ESOL at its so-called International Centre possessing the DELTA (or its fellow UK equivalent, the Trinity Diploma in TESOL) even if you have already got a master's degree in applied linguistics.

In February '09, I applied for such a vacancy at this university, only to discover, much to my incredulity and anger, that the three tutors interviewing me had failed to spot that I do not have the DELTA, even though I had been invited to this interview.

They said rather sheepishly that they "weren't sure" if I had it or not, but, in these days of the so-called information superhighway (or is that already an outmoded term?), they could simply have either emailed or phoned me up and ASKED!

They didn't. This was a clear example of sheer and utter incompetence.

However, I don't doubt that there must be other universities in the UK that do not necessarily insist on pretending to be amongst the elite institutions by only wanting to hire DELTA holders to do ordinary classroom jobs without administrative duties in addition.

One university in Scotland did contact me to say that I was invited to a (phone!) interview to become a pre-sessional tutor despite my lack of any DELTA - and I did make it plain to this uni that I have no DELTA. Unfortunately for me, my full-time employer's Head Office decided to move the start of the academic year forward by a fortnight with no explanation, and so I had to contact the uni to say that it was, under the circumstances, no use going through with the interview, because the two courses would have clashed for at least one whole week and I could not be in two places (Scotland and China) at once!

I hope that I, a "DELTA-less" EAP tutor, will be successful next year in getting pre-sessional teaching jobs during the summer! The pay would have been very good if I had been able to take that Scottish uni summer job, though, so I am a bit miffed at being compelled to pass up the chance to take it!

[spiral78]

I would presume that the British unis that offer MA TEFL/Applied Linguistics would accept teacher candidates without a DELTA, as it's not a prerequisite for the MA programs.

[Chris_Crossley]