Job Discussion Forums

[advice]

Which areas have the best job market for ESL teachers nowadays in Canada?

Canadian immigration law now has more rigorous requirements for English, earlier people got points for having the interview at the embassy in English, now they require IELTS. However, it's for the main applicant. The spouse and children are not required.

As far as I understand there should be many jobs of ELL teachers at public schools. If to take into account my 12 years of experience of teaching English at the university to the future teachers of English + Ph.D from my home country and M.A. in journalism from America (strategic communication) what are my perspectives? Of course, in the case if we get the permition to come to Canada?

I have no intention to get more education (I have 20 years of education). It was rather challenging to become a graduate student in the USA after 12 years of being a university professor. It makes no sense.

In the USA there are plenty of ELL teachers who are not native speakers. And the teachers of other subjects. All accents are around.

However, if I could stay in the USA, I would apply for some government job instead of ESL, they pay a lot to Russian interpreters and other employees where international experience is required. I have no idea about this field in Canada. Do they have many jobs in the capital city for people with international experience / foreign languages?

In the USA, people come to the Library of Congress as interns and retire after 80 years old, getting benefits, insurances, etc for the whole life:))) And nobody controls in the reality when they came, went out, etc as in other jobs. It's just one example of many others.

What is Canada's capital city look like in terms of teaching jobs or government jobs or different funds which work with other countries? The main Canadian library is located there. They may need people with foreign languages.

Any other ideas? Many Slavic immigrants are now moving to Calgary, especially from Toronto which is full of our people with M.A.s and Ph.D.s waitressing and babysitting:(((

Now the requirement for immigration is not the field but the level of education. It means that it makes no sense to make my husband, the computer programmer, the main applicant, because he has Bachelor's degree, for my Ph.D they would give more points.

I have also the experience to work for American media (education journalism, translation, interpretation).

[spiral78]

Sorry, but there are many errors in your original post - despite your obviously high level of education and qualifications, you won't find well-paid work teaching ESL in Calgary.

I can't speak for the rest of Canada, but I do know the ESL market in Calgary.

One important point is that most immigrants want native-speaker teachers. While I personally feel that there is a very useful and important role for non-native speaker teachers to play, the openings are limited. I know a Romanian native who has had university level work for some years, but her written English is much stronger than yours, and she's teaching lower levels. And, as I said, the openings are limited for non-native speakers.

[spiral78]

As far as I understand there should be many jobs of ELL teachers at public schools. If to take into account my 12 years of experience of teaching English at the university to the future teachers of English + Ph.D from my home country and M.A. in journalism from America (strategic communication) what are my perspectives? Of course, in the case if we get the permition to come to Canada?

[advice]

Well, I am not asking your opinion about my writing:)))

I am asking about job market. I know that Canada is very different from the USA. In the USA in many places they do not care about your writing. Even in ESL jobs. They need to fill the positions.

We are speaking about different things. In Russia you can make one mistake in writing and it's the destiny of your university education. Our requirements for "A" grade - 100%, not even 99%.

I was very surprised that in the USA the grades in graduate school of journalism do not depend on your mistakes. They have now more non-native speakers:))) And plenty of professors who are non-native speakers as well. Including ESL and journalism.

This is the reality of life. Personally, I am extremely irritated when I see other people's mistakes in Russian writing. That is why I understand you.

I do not know Canada. In the States they hire journalists, crowds of journalists without native proficiency. The editors correct mistakes. It makes more sense to hire a Chinese person who spent 10 years in the system of education in China to write about education and to pay less to him than to pay more to a native speaker with MA in journalism who does not know the system of education.

This is the reality of American life.

The same will be in Canada. You may like it or not, but after "the collapse of the devil empire" the world changed in many unpredicted ways.

Personally, I would prefer to work as an interpreter for government. However, ESL job has certain advantages sometimes.

Market is the market, it does not care about our education and arrogancy:))) It just dictates certain tendencies.

[advice]

"One important point is that most immigrants want native-speaker teachers"

It works for private schools. For public schools in America the children and their parents are not asked who will be their ELL teacher.

The readers of the American magazines are not asked either, the editor re-writes the ideas to make the article look better in writing.

In the hospitals doctors and patients are not asked who is the interpreter for the doctor-patient appointments when the patient does not speak English. This is just one example of a job where native speakers of English are not in demand at all. Courtroom interpreters. However, in this field certificates are expensive.

The world is changing rapidly and there are many occupations about which we haven't heard a year ago.

In the USA community colleges used to be the second-quality education. Now there are biotechnological companies which say that it's too expensive to hire Bachelors after 4 years of the university. They make contracts with community colleges, give them curriculum and then hire their graduates (every 7th graduate, according to last week report in the Congress) with 2-year community college degree. They pay $35,000 a year. Many American students pay a lot for MA degree in journalism, finally get their dream job in a fashion industry in NY and then their salaries are no more than $2,000 a month:((( Of course, they have good English.

I am not speaking about Mexican immigrants with native Spanish proficiency who have only high-school degree and 40-hour certificate of medical interpretation who are paid $25-30 per hour and work as much as they want because the hospitals are full of people who do not speak English. By the way, only the state of Washington has some requirements about such certificates. In all other states it is only hospital's policy.

I asked my question in a very narrow way: Which Canadian job market has more ESL jobs from the point of view of Canadian teachers.

That's all.

[Gordon]

Vancouver and Toronto are huge ESL markets, but the cost of living is high and the pay is pretty lousy.

What is ELL? Never heard of it before.

[Jetgirly]

In my school board we use ELL[s] to refer to "English language learners". It could be used interchangeably with "ESL students". We don't use it to describe "English language learning" - just the learners themselves. It would be unnatural to say "ELL teacher"- that's like saying "English language learner[s] teacher".

[ls650]

It seems like a useless acronym. Why not just say students?

[Jetgirly]

Well, I'm "in" the public school board (I use the term loosely as I'm a student teacher). Saying "ELLs" is a lot quicker than saying "ESL students" when you're trying to differentiate them from the student body as a whole. Also, some students get offended when English is refered to as their second langauge because many are already multi-lingual... ELL avoids that problem.

[Symphany]

There seem to be some jobs teaching the teachers. Some people who have years of experience (read 5 or more years of ESL/EFL) experience become trainers who teach students who want to become ESL teachers. You might want to look into local boards of education as well as colleges and universities to see if they need any instructors/professors who can teach their native language. The Toronto or the Vancouver board of education might be able to take on someone who can teach Russian nights to adults. There are sometimes heritage programs for children on Saturdays or evenings for children of parents who don't want their children to forget their roots. You might be able to squeeze in a position as an instructor at a college or a university, then there are always private sector and public sector jobs that crop up where they need someone who speaks English and a specific second language -- in Canada its mainly French, but sometimes its also Mandarin, Japanese, Russian or any of the many, many other languages that are spoken in Canada (mainly in Toronto , Montreal and Vancouver).

[bonanzabucks]

To the OP: it was kind of hard understanding what you were trying to say. Now, I can't comment on the job situation for teaching ESL in Canada, but I can tell you about federal government jobs there. I had an offer to work for them (Stat Can) years ago before I left. Basically, you need to take an exam and you absolutely have to have at least permanent residence to even write the exam. If you don't have it, they won't even consider you. Of course, they take into consideration your education, experience, etc., but you have to take this exam, which is like an aptitude test. You have to take this test for just about every position you apply for with the federal government. That includes translation positions.

You don't need to take an aptitude test to apply for the provincial or city governments (some might require a civil service exam, depending on the jurisdiction), but there are very few translator jobs with them. And getting a position within those levels of government is very, very difficult and you often need connections. Not to mention, you need to be a permanent resident.

You also mentioned something about teaching in the US, which I didn't quite understand. I actually interviewed for this one EFL teaching position here in NY. The starting salary was $25-$30 an hour, depending on your experience and educational background. It was full time too. I don't know where the OP lives, but maybe he could consider an EFL position here.

As for journalism, well, I just accepted a position to be an editor for a financial and investment publication. I have zero journalism and editing experience whatsoever. But they were looking for someone who had a finance and economics background, like I do, since that is what this job pertains. I know for a fact, however, that this company would not have hired a non-native speaker for this job. I start this job in a few weeks, so I can ask more questions about journalism and who they hire and tell you more when I get the answers.