Job Discussion Forums

[Professor]

[Professor]

[Glenski]

[Zero]

[artemisia]

Think I�ll just reiterate something I posted earlier:
Of course, if your opinion of this line of work [TESOL] is already low then highly qualified teachers will be an anomaly.

This thread's a bit like a recurring nightmare; time to depart before I wind up in an inanimate state myself.

[mimi_intheworld]

[johntpartee]

A colleague asked me to post this (his system is down [apparently for the duration; real "low-class" school network]):

This has been an interesting discussion. However, without going into the relative merits of having an MA, a CELTA or nothing but �life skills� etc., I�d like to pick up on one point that seems to have been accepted unthinkingly by nearly all posters so far. Namely, US TESOL qualifications are inherently superior to all others. This seems to be what the OP is saying when he and his professorial colleagues complain that



� the EFL world outside of the States for example, has zero regulations and many so called teachers only have a bachelor witha (sic) cheap EFL certificate. �



Sadly, this sweeping statement is unsupported and no evidence is provided. In fact it reminds me of the equally unjustified European counter claim, which views US education with condescension and suspicion. American universities, apart from the famous notable exceptions, are thought of as singularly lacking in academic rigour, many of them being little more than business training schools or glorified online courses with zero accreditation. American MAs in TESOL come in for particular disdain, given that most institutions appear to offer courses based on outdated Behaviorism theory. An observation often cited to account for the epic professional failure of whatever American MA holder had been recently let go.



As biased as both these rival views are, it might be worth looking at where most the world�s ESL/EFL material is developed and published. Britain surely ranks in the first place. Innovative research, which informs course book design, is as likely to be conducted in Australia and India as in the �more regulated, professional� US universities. Where are the American course books dominating the globe? An American version of Headway or Cutting Edge is available in the States, but where is the British/Australian version of Interchange? Its absence is conspicuous.



I can only imagine that anyone who believes that his MA is superior to all others must be employing a fallacious cost/benefit analysis. �My MA cost more, therefore it is better.� Perhaps it is natural for someone to cling to this illusion if a lot of money has been spent on further education. It is true that American education generally costs more, but this in no way guarantees it is better � whatever one may proclaim.



The money ethic also seems to be related to why so many MA holders opt for popular cash-rich destinations, like Japan or the Gulf. The need to recoup money and time invested is understandable. However, it is best not to confuse earning a high salary with doing a great job. Neither of those locations is noted for producing fluent English-speaking learners as a result of their classes with the MA teacher. It has been argued that given the generally low student performance there many teachers really never contend with issues typical of demanding European students, and so teachers with experience only in these regions are generally found wanting � MA notwithstanding.



Finally, non-US MAs are held in just as high regard as US MAs by American teachers. Just look at the number of US teachers on this very forum who got their MA abroad. Are they somehow less qualified than their compatriots who studied at home?



To be honest, some of the more jingoistic sentiments aired on this thread have made me think that perhaps some of the highly-educated contributors who posted them are not so highly-educated after all�

[artemisia]

Okay I�ll bite. I�m not sure which posters you�re referring to but it�s true you�ve highlighted a fundamental aspect posted by the OP concerning the apparent views of some professors known to the OP that has not been discussed on this thread at all; that there are apparently �zero regulations� for EFL outside of the States. The post raises the question whether �universities outside of the States� offer regulated EFL programs more authentic than that of the average language school that'll hire anyone with a pulse. I noted it and did not unthinkingly accept it. It seemed so preposterous that I didn�t think to take it seriously. The posts immediately this after focused on the thread�s question �Masters should be required to teach?� and that�s what I concentrated on, too.
But I agree that not tackling something directly can be interpreted as tacit agreement.

If some of these professor friends (of the OP) in the States truly hold the view that authentic EFL education can only be experienced in America, then my thoughts go to this famous painting by the artist Saul Steinberg:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/21121
(an interesting commentary from NYers and others follows)

Although it�s specifically about NYC I think it illustrates quite nicely (and literally) what an egocentric view of the world might look like � from anyone�s point of view � not just a New Yorker. For example, I think such a painting could also have been made about a view of the world from one of Tokyo�s streets during my time in Japan.

[Hod]

The opening post of this thread is based on anecdotal and questionable evidence. It is 100% the opinion of �Professor�.

I studied engineering and later took the four-week CELTA. In my opinion, the colleagues I worked with who had Masters Degrees in Education were at least as good as I was. No one has yet developed a reliable scale to determine an English teacher�s effectiveness.

I would like to ask who these unnamed professors mentioned in the opening post are to question any other teacher. These professors may well study languages for decades, but have they ever done anything useful? I don�t read about any of them finding a cure for cancer or working on a replacement for the Concorde aeroplane.

Nobel Prize winners? Check. (None)

As an ex-teacher, now engineer, I would compare the opinion of some language professor to that of a burger flipper.

[johnslat]

Burger flippers of the world, I extend my apologies for Hod's insult.

Regards,
John

[Reine Lierre]

[Reine Lierre]

[Reine Lierre]

[mimi_intheworld]

[Glenski]