Job Discussion Forums

[almuze]

A turkish friend of mine a looking to go to an english course at a dershane, and she asked me if I could recommend one, and I said, well, no, actually, I don't know very much about them.
I told her to look for one that was clean and maybe had a good reputation with her turkish friends.
But it got me thinking, from a student persepctive, is there any reason to think one dershane is different from another? There are all kinds of differeces in primary schools, on all different levels. what about for the grown ups?

[dmb]

In the past some were better than others. Nowadays they are pretty similar in my opinion. But as I don't work for one I don't know. although not a huge fan of the BC it's a pity they are closing(this week/next week?) For instance a friend of mine was going to start an ILEC course, but now there is no where to do it.

[almuze]

that's pretty much what I thought, but just to double check-
for example, in a primary school, I would try to check out
a)whether or not corporal punshiment is practiced (of course, they ALL say it isn't, but many teachers still do.)
b) if the school holds any wierd religious leanings (either to the extreme right or left) most are just normal center or the road, but every so often one pops up with strange things
c)is the playground actually child safe? is it actually used often?

These are (I think?) not questions that would come up at a dershane, and most of them are pretty much the same, like dmb said. right?

[Otterman Ollie]

Yeah pretty much the same as in CRAP .

[saloma]

Think both teachers and students should take a close look at the course materials before signing up with a school. You are going to spend a large amount of time with that book, so it better be good.

It has been a trend in recent years for schools to write their own textbooks, using their own in-house staff as writers and artists. They pay them way less than a proffessional writer (who actually has some credentials in curriculum development), and usually are able to find someone who can draw and pay them a pittance compared to what a proffessional artist would charge.

I have seen books written by TEFLers with 2 years teaching experience and not even a CELTA.

One teacher with drawing skills negotiated a contract with a school to illustrate a complete book for $1000 US. The going rate PER PAGE is between $100 and $200 depending on the detail.

The books rarely get tested out properly on a few target classes, instead they take over the system quickly. The students are then forced to study from these books and the teachers are forced to teach out of them. For better or for worse.

The bottom line is money. The students are forced to buy the book that the school has published.

Please tell your student to look over the books and ask about the pace of the class first, how many chapters is the course going to cover? Is it grammar based or theme based?

Teachers - when applying for jobs, make sure you check out what you have to teach!

[thrifty]

What kind of "contract" do you expect a TEFLer to negotiate? 1000 dollars-more money than that TEFLer has ever had in one go.