Job Discussion Forums

[lizzydizzy]

I am surprised at the vast number of non-native, English teachers employed in Saudia Arabia. I am not trying to imply that one must be a native speaker to be qualified, but rather, I am making an observation that Saudia Arabia differs from some other countries in this regard.

Does anyone know the qualifications for non-native English speakers? Are there any? What is their monthly salary? And do they go through the same health and background checks that native teachers face?

While I suspect there may be well-qualified, non-native, English teachers, the ones I work with are not very qualified. There seems to be something shady about this part of the ESL industry in Saudi Arabia. And I am not certain if it is only limited to my employer or more widespread.

[Dr X]

[nomad soul]

[bigdurian]

[hsm]

NNESs differ mainly from NESs by accent though not all of them.

When it comes to qualifications, I've seen many NESs with non-English language degrees teaching English just because they speak English and have that 120-hour CELTA.

[spiral78]

[lizzydizzy]

To get things back on topic, what qualifications are required if any?

[Leno]

Native English speakers ( including UK/Canada/USA born and educated ) are highly sought in Saudi Arbaia for their pronounciation, accent, way of thinking, style of their dress and the way they talk walk and communicate, and problem solving skills in non-arabic way, jokes in English, all of which are very beneficial for Saudi youth who will soon study overseas, or for saudi students who will not go overseas, and learn from American,Canadian and British teachers.

Qualifications are not important for english teaching jobs, as long as one is a NES, but for visa purpose and QC, all employment visa applicants must hold suitable educational qualifications and experience for the job they will be doing in KSA.
Majority of NES teachers do not hold related Englsh teaching certificates, and employers are happy to employ them under business/visit visa to speed up the hiring process.

Depending on qualifications and duration of past work experience, salary package will vary.

At the same time, NNS teachers are also important part of the workforce, as Saudis stdents will learn from varieties of nationalities using ENglish as medium for communciation. THey receive lower salaries than NS teachers, but they are happy to reside in KSA with their family, and earn.
Can they compete with new saudi graduates for teaching jobs? Salaries of NNS expats are lower than Saudi (teacher)s, so for business purpose, schools prefer expats.


Teaching is about preparation., there is a lot of support from supervisors in KSA workforce, and everything is scheduled.

[nomad soul]

That sounds like a recruitment shpiel for a contracting company.

[scot47]

Why surprised ? I learned German from a non-native speaker of German. My French teacher was a British citizen and the teachers who gave me Latin were certainly not citizens of the Roman Empire !

[FrenchConnexion]

You nailed it Scot! And made me laugh! Yes, as a matter of fact, in France, I never had a native teacher teaching me German nor English.

[scot47]

French One !

We should remember that most teachers of EFL have never learned a foreign language. Some are barely literate in their mother tongue !


It is strange that so many working in foreign language pedagogy have never themselves acquired a foreign language.

[sicklyman]

Interestingly, the country's largest company has a policy of a 50:50 ratio of NETs to "bilinguals" (Arabic/English) both for itself and anyone it partners with for training.

[FrenchConnexion]

Scot,

In my case, it has made a huge difference to have experienced learning other languages. One of them is that, for my generally lower level students (A1 TO B2), I find the "absolute no use of the students' L1" rule to be counter productive. Additionally, having studied my students' language, I now understand better some of the common language interference (negative transfers) between Arabic and English, and I can pinpoint them to my students in class.
As for me, I work in a university and both NNES and NES have to be qualified with a minimum of an MA, which has to be related to what they teach (TESOL), or at the minimum, education.
Yes, accents vary greatly. When I was 1st hired here in KSA (in Riyadh), I was shocked to see so many nationalities teach ESL at prep year level. We had people from pretty much every continent! Some of those accents were quite tough (to understand) and rough. Actually, a tough accent for the students was from a Scottish colleague! I loved it, but it was challenging for beginners.

Interesting article (http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/whats-the-sexiest-accent-in-english/). I do not agree about the Aussie accent.[/url]

[desert_traveller]