PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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 Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:12 am Post subject: Re: Teaching after NOVA? |
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| deadpoet wrote: |
| Well I just came back from Japan where I worked at NOVA for 2 1/2 years. Now I am still interested in teaching EFL here this fall at some language school in US. I know it's a big plus that I have the 2+ years living in another country. But do I have the confidence to teach from my experience working at NOVA? NO. Neither did I take the responsibility to get more teaching education while I was in Japan. I had a great experience with NOVA and Japan but where do I go from here to gain more confidence? I hesitate to apply to language schools but should I anyway? How about getting a TEFL? even online I think that would help me. Maybe I could take a class or two at community college? I only met a few teachers in NOVA that really liked teaching but was wondering if there are any ex-NOVA teachers out there that continued teaching and what did you do? Of course any advice from ANYONE would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! |
Let me preface by saying Im not an american nor have I lived in the US, but i have researched into ESL teaching in Australia where I can get a visa both at language school and university level
My honest feeling is that 2 years at NOVA won't mean a hill of beans to a language school back home, where most ESL teachers are ESL certified, many with Masters degrees and have experience teaching mixed groups in the US.
NOVA doesnt have much of a teaching method except drill and repeat, my guess is you know squat about ESL teaching theory and how to manage students who are not Japanese. What do you do in a class full of Mexicans, Chinese, Arabs, Germans? How do you deal with pronunciation problems and can you teach an English- only class? What do you do if a student throws a grammar question at you (teacher: whats the difference between "have gone" and "had gone"?)
Find out first what you need to get hired there, what qualifications they look for. My guess is you will need some kind of formal professional certification. Check the teacher training forum- Jeff Mohammed offers a course out of Texas i think. SIT offers a CELTA as well.
I think you will need to learn how to handle an ESL class of mixed nationalities than one just made up of one group, where you just parrot out of the book. ESL in one's own country is more hands on, and students need English in their daily lives, not a hobby like it is here.
Knowledge is power and the more you know, the more confident you will be about asserting control in the classroom. In japan students cede control to the teacher but in the US you will get assertive students who are not afraid to answer back or challenge the teacher if you dont know something. get some training, do a course and find out what teachers need to get hired. My guess is you will likely need a masters degree to get an interview as well as CELTA etc. |
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