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David S
Joined: 21 Apr 2016 Posts: 25 Location: Edinburgh
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Posted: Wed May 18, 2016 11:48 pm Post subject: Agree |
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The fact is and always has been that whichever approach you choose to use, pretty much the same percentage does well, struggles through, and/or fails. But fancy names for these things seem to stroke teacher self-esteem. And convince managements that we are doing something fancy. (add computers and smart boards and all should be fixed)
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I agree at least partially with this. On the one hand, I acknowledge that certain methodology/techniques are definitely more appropriate, engaging and effective than others and a good teacher will know about them, be up-to-date and know what to use and when.
However, one thing that does get up my snout about this industry is it's growing pretentiousness. I suspect it's due to, what we call in Australia, a 'cultural cringe'. You know, TEFL isn't really a 'real job' with 'real teachers', unlike such-and-such, so there appears to have been something resembling a campaign to gain respectability by giving ourselves airs. One way to do this is to make the job appear more 'academic' than it needs to be. Other subjects have completely incomprehensible methodology, so we'll have incomprehensible methodology, other disciplines use complicated methods and fancy-sounding terms to explain simple concepts so we'll use use complicated methods and fancy-sounding terms to explain simple concepts, etc., etc. I saw a bit of this at my last university gig where the battle-cry, at least at that time, was on 'task-based learning'. I researched it to prepare for the interview and, (whilst my memory might be faulty), as far as I can gather, all it's basically saying is that you should have a reason as to why you do things .[/quote]
Agree.
I was reading one Omani cllege teacher's contribution to a teacher training forum: topic - kinesthetic learning in the ESL classroom. Here's something maybe I can learn I thought and maybe practise!
Two examples she gave - hangman for vocabulary and cutting the lyrics of a song into strips of paper and putting them in the right order when listening to the song. Turnes out what I have been doing has been relabelled 'kinesthetic'.
This is why, when someone suggested doing an MA in TESOL to improve my prospects (a BA, PGCE & CELTA along with 10 yars' experience being deficient) I demurred. I might do an MA in Education but it will be focused on mainstream pedagogy and meatier themes. Life is too short at my age and it seems an MA in anything to do with Education boosts your prospects. |
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nomad soul

Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 12:01 am Post subject: Re: Agree |
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David S wrote: |
This is why, when someone suggested doing an MA in TESOL to improve my prospects (a BA, PGCE & CELTA along with 10 yars' experience being deficient) I demurred. I might do an MA in Education but it will be focused on mainstream pedagogy and meatier themes. Life is too short at my age and it seems an MA in anything to do with Education boosts your prospects. |
Which is why I chose to complete an MA in Teaching (MAT) when I changed careers to TEFL. Its versatility make it a good fit for transitioning into corporate learning and development roles. |
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veiledsentiments

Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 2:39 pm Post subject: Re: Agree |
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David S wrote: |
This is why, when someone suggested doing an MA in TESOL to improve my prospects (a BA, PGCE & CELTA along with 10 yars' experience being deficient) I demurred. I might do an MA in Education but it will be focused on mainstream pedagogy and meatier themes. Life is too short at my age and it seems an MA in anything to do with Education boosts your prospects. |
It naturally depends on age, but I got the MA in TEFL for one reason. I didn't expect it to be actually needed to teach these students... but it was needed in order to get hired for the better jobs.
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