Job Discussion Forums

[Charismagirl]

Does anybody have advice on where non-native speakers may apply for jobs ? It seems as if most schools are open for applicants from Britain, US, South Africa etc., while ignoring that people from other countries also may be fluent in English. So if anybody knows of good schools which will accept others as well, I would like to hear about it! Any location would be of interest.

[Deconstructor]

I sympathise with you.

Where do you live? It is very true that if you come from a non-Anglophone country and your name is not John Smith, you will have all kinds of difficulties getting a job. Sorry, I'm repeating what you've already experienced.

I find it sad considering that great many of TEFLers are basically incompetent teachers who happen to be native English speakers, which to me is only half the story, maybe even less than half. One needs to be a great teacher not just a great native speaker. There are so many wonderful teachers for whom English is a second language, but who never get the opportunity to teach. When I was a student at a university in Canada, for many of my TESL teachers English was not a first language, yet they were teaching teachers and doing a fantastic job.

Qualifications for an overseas teaching job:

Native speaker (no experience required, may be half literate, may have sh*t running down his/her neck).

Must have CELTA meaning the less you know about teaching the better because we (the employers) know even less. We are not interested in qualifications, only in scams� er� we mean CELTA because our businesses are also scams.

Why do we, the employers, want native speakers? Because we want someone with North American/British/Australian accent even though we couldn�t even remotely master those accents even if we studied them for eternity + 1. After all, we are clueless as to what it means to learn a foreign language. We�re just obsessed with the English language, which will forever remain opaque to us and we shall forever remain Kafkaesque characters trying to go through the guarded door or get into the castle of English.

[nolefan]

this has been debated here many times already. I am not from one of those "Native" countries but I have lived in one for over 6 year and went to school there. I know of many folks just like myself teaching in China.

If you're fluent in English, have a degree and the right skin color then it will not be a problem.

[Roger]

"Non-native" speakers normally teach their target language in their home country; without perfectly bilingual or multilingual English teachers there would hardly be a job available for English-only speakers around the world.
Anglophones tend to view their mother tongue as a God-granted gift that they can market; this has much to do with ideology rather than pedagogy.
The native-English speaker phenomenon has been maintained by countries that traditionally used to attract immigrants; typically the natives of these immigration countries didn't, and in some cases, still don't normally acquire a second language themselves.
Their understanding of why people learn English often is clouded by the idea that everybody wants to emigrate to their home country; hence the idea they can "help those native speakers of other languages" improve their oral fluency, and that is why some markets only absorb so-called "oral English teachers" whose job profile typically is less demanding on them than the job requirements for in-country teachers is.
\It is no coincidence that native speakers view teaching of English not as a career but as a temorary situation. THey are interested in it so they can stay in the source countries of foreign immigrants without having to pay as tourists do.
Rest assured that this trend has no future for much longer; if you can deliver - i.e. teach subjects other than oral English - your chances will in future improve. With good qualifications and exam reports of your students' English scores to support your claim you might land a job even if you are not from a typical anglophone nation.

[hesterprynne]

The OP asked for specifics, didn't she? Please, OP, tell us more about yourself- ethnicity, qualifications, citizenship, so that we may consider the prejudices of our respective countries of employment and better advise you. I assume that you have already searched this site for previous advice on this topic?

[anubistaima]

Don�t make a big deal out of the fact that you�re not a native speaker and many schools will consider you. In your cover letter, say something like �Although not a native speaker, I have worked and studied in US/England/Australia for over 10 years.� Then go on to mention all the things you�ve accomplished in English (degrees, publications, prizes).

Don�t dwell on the fact that you�re not a native speaker --Put the emphasis on how wonderful you are, native or not. I applied for every single job I liked on this board, ended up with seven job offers and I�m currently in Russia, working for a school that wanted resumes �from natives speakers only.� Everything�s possible.

That is, of course, assuming you have the right look. All schools I applied for asked for a picture � I am lucky enough to have the right skin color. If you look Western and your English is good, your chances are many.

[JZer]

If you have the right passport you might not even have to tell them that you are not a native speaker (if your accent is not that strong). If you are a U.S, British, etc citizen, it may not matter if you are a native speaker. Especially if you are being hired by a non-native speaker it may not matter. When I was studying in Germany I met some English teachers from China. Since these Chinese teachers were in an English MA program and did not speak German we were conversing in English. I sat down and was talking to some of them at a party and most of them could not distinguish between my American accent and a German accent. So with the right passport it could be irrelevant if you are really a native speaker or not.

[breathtaking]

Deconstructor: I was stunned to read your comment. You said that "Must have Celta" means "the less you know about teaching the better".

I am currently reviewing the celta course I did - I am writing an essay to send to Cambridge. (I did not pass the course). I have a master's degree in a related area, and also a bachelor degree in linguistics, and have taught for more than two years. I'm hoping that I can write an essay which will explain my case, and get the grade changed.

I've heard there is an interpreter accreditation in Australia where the pass rate is only 5%. In contrast, the celta course was advertised to me as having a 98% pass rate. They told me that it was not an "academic course", but was "practical".

I am appalled at the result.

[Madame J]

Breathtaking, you certainly sound like a competent teacher, and if you are it only goes to show how unregulated the whole CELTA course system is. We had an obviously incompetent teacher on our course (i.e. she barely paid attention to the students at all, and in fact her own grasp of English wasn't much better than that of her students) and she was passed due, most suspected, to the kindness of the tutors. It seems crazy that a course carrying such a universal gold standards can vary so much when it comes to assessment criteria.

[Kootvela]

I am a non-native teacher of English in Lithuania. I agree with the post about that such teachers as myself should teach in their countries of origin. We are good teachers because we know how to learn a foreign language from our experience, we know the problems of our learners (esp. phonetics) and we can help them. And lots of other things.

A few years ago I was sad because I wasn't considered a candidate to teach abroad because I was not a native speaker (I still keep the school replies to amuse me on a gloomy day) but at the moment in my home country I am making good money, depend on no director and can be involved in many projects should I have time.

[fladude]

I'm just starting my career as an ESL teacher (well I haven't started yet, but I'm applying for classes). I am however, a lawyer and a businessman in the US. My guess is that it would depend largely on what the course is about. I mean... look I've worked with people from other countries who speak more "proper" English than I do. I bet they know what a dangling modifier is even though I have no clue. But let's face it, often talking like that builds resentment when you are talking to business people. Business people usually aren't English majors and feel more comfortable speaking to someone who talks like they do, rather than someone who talks like a college professor. While a non-native speaker may have perfect mastery of English, they may not speak like an American, or speak like an Englishman (depending on what country you are planning on dealing with). Now in all fairness, most of the people who graduate from schools with degrees in English don't speak like American businessmen either, even if they are from the US. So in that sense the Native Speaker advantage isn't really fair. But over all, I would imagine that a course for business people would want people who talk like businessmen, or talk like lawyers, rather than someone who talks like a high school English teacher.
.

That's just my guess. I'm new so don't kill me.

[Kootvela]