Job Discussion Forums

franky · Joined: 12 Nov 2010 Posts: 5

Give it a try and see what happens

Neutrino Girl · Joined: 01 Apr 2010 Posts: 128

I am working at a university in the UAE and can confirm that employers look for a MA in TESOL, Applied Linguistics, or something related for instructors in the English foundations programs (HCT, UGRU, Zayed, etc.). Very few people I know working in foundations programs have a PhD.

forest1979 · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: SE Asia

Key words - "foundation programs".

Yes, pedagogically speaking there is no advantage to employing a PhD holder.

In Taiwan admin terms there is a growing need. See that need expand as the declining birth rate kicks in and language centers fight for their lives to stay open.

At the same time consider this. Profs in Taiwan have one advantage: they have a better chance (in theory) of getting NSC money. Instructors under the present grading system of grant applications have a very small chance. You will see Profs replacing instructors so that they can not only teach anything - in Taiwan admin terms the class itself is not important, just as long as someone teaches it! - but you will see increasing pressure to get research grants, and in some instance I think this will be vital to language centers sustaining themselves. After all language centres are not bona fide departments. They don't have this status. They can easily be shut down on the whim of a university president if need be.