Job Discussion Forums

[benny2]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a bit of advice from Daves' PRC foreign experts....

I spent 3 years teaching in Sichuan from 2005 - 2008 sort of time.
Since then I have toyed with the idea of returning to the PRC to teach on and off but haven't gone ahead with the idea. I studied for an MA TESOL (and had kind input from Daves members for my dissertation) from 2011 - 2013 with this in mind but got then got promoted in my non related job at a UK university, which led to me putting off this idea.

I have scoured the forums for information, as I'm sure my questions have already been answered many times, however, I couldn't find quite what I wanted...so...

Although I studied the MA TESOL and have a CELTA, I haven't taught for ages and would be extremely rusty in terms of theory and practice.
I would consider a CELTA refresher course prior to returning, but wondered what was the best way to proceed.

If I was to go back into EFL, I think I would probably prefer to work at a University, as I wouldn't be keen on the anti social working hours of a training centre. I can appreciate that the CELTA promotes CLT, and this is best utilised in smaller classes, which training centres usually have...

Would it be sensible to start off with a training centre and then switch to a University afterwards?

Unfortunately, my teaching experience was at a middle / high school, which is quite a different environment to both in terms of what is possible / how to teach. I definitely wouldn't want to teach in that environment again...

How big are university classes?

I'm wondering how advisable it would be to jump straight into University teaching. I suppose I should have sufficient theoretical background to be able to apply this to different class sizes and contexts, but the fact that I haven't taught for a long while means that it will take a bit of practice to recover the appropriate confidence / techniques / planning.

Sorry for the rambling nature of that post! I guess what I'm trying to ask is what would be the best way to start out again, should I decide to do this!

Thanks!