Job Discussion Forums

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

20 or so years ago TEFL was mainly something done by travelers who needed money.

Now it's grown to a respectful career, for the most part. Where more and more schools require some sort of qualification.

So what do you think the future holds for TEFL?

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

I think the market in Asia anyway might shrink a bit (except maybe China for a while.) I think that as time goes on, the market will continue to professionalize. I know that market forces - ie students would be needed to make the change, but I think that is what is going to happen. Let's use my favorite examle. Would you want to pay NOVA $5000 US for language lessons the way they teach them? Neither would I. Every Japanese person I knew, who knows as much about NOVA as I, wouldn't dream of paying prices like that. If NOVA's hiring practices, educational quality, etc were public knowledge in Japan, the company would go under in 3 days. Especially considering how tight the EFL market is in Japan, and the fact that comparatively better shcools exist.

It's not going to be 3 days, I know. But 20 years from now I think that in many places EFL will be a more professional industry to work in. As students begin to "vote with their feet" and go to schools with better educational quality (and therefore better teachers and a decent learning/teaching enviornment) then such schools would become more commonplace. Also, I think that government jobs in the industry will either improve or disappear.

What am I basing this on? A hunch. Very Happy

And the change won't be uniform all over the world at the same time. But if English continues to become the Lingua Franca that everyone choses to learn, then the profession of teaching it will continue to estabilsh itself and institutionalize. EFL in China is fully endorsed by the government, and I know few people in China who despise learning English or see it as some sort of cultural imperialism. I admit that my sample of people I know isn't great, but I really don't think there's a lot of resentment here for that. Even if the market stops growing and doesn't shrink or shrinks very slowly, odds are still that the "groundwork" that's being laid today will be improved upon by the time I'm 46.

That's just what I think. I'm also gambling that jobs might become more stable as time goes on, but that's more a hope than a guess.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

The Chinese will shortly discover what a waste of money it is to pay foreigners to do the Chinese bosses' bidding when a CHinese teacher can do that so much more fficiently and cheaply!

shenyanggerry · Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 619 Location: Canada

Roger said:

FGT · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Turkey

In the same way that we, as teachers, have to enable our students to become self sufficient learners/developers of language; perhaps the industry should concentrate on enabling local teachers to teach English adequately/better than they do already. We would therefore be out of our jobs but might transfer to teacher training (?).

Slightly tongue in cheek but I'm sure the powers that be have already thought it.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Do you think CALL is the way of the future, or is this only reserved for the Gulf States? I don't know if it has caught on (too expensive) in other regions of the world.

nighthawk · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 60 Location: USA

Wolf wrote:

Celeste · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:51 am Post subject:

Here in F ukuoka, Japan I am using a brand new snazzy CALL system and My students (teachers doing in service training) love it. It was a bit of a steep learning curve for me at first, but now that I am comfortable with the software, I love it too. The old CALL system that we had here at the city education centre sat unused for the majority of the time because they only provided a Japanese manual, and even that (according to my Japanese co-workers) was incomprehensible and didn't have an index making it nearly impossible to find the functions you wanted to use. For our current system, the company that installed it provided English and Japanese manuals where possible, and sent English speaking technicians to train me how to use it. (Funny how I use the thing a lot more if I can do more than turn it on!)

Dr.J · Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 304 Location: usually Japan

I suppose it'll be like any other industry - as English becomes more important, schools will start to get more professional.

On the other hand, there are so many suckers in the world I don't see a rapid change.

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

I would of course love to see higher standards, schools asking for more qualified teachers, etc. The problem, or one of the problems, is money: qualified teachers cost more than unqualified ones; those of us paying off loans right now know that there are only a few countries whose salaries are high enough. I wonder if requiring that teachers be suitably trained would price English lessons out of the reach of many students in many countries.

I remember having a sort of cynical doomsday chat with my students in Prague (little cynics, every one! how I miss them!). I remember half-joking about a World War III scenario in which the US fell from its place as the current world superpower, and English, or at least American English, was no longer "cool" or necessary, having been replaced by the language of the newly crowned hegemon. I guess a lot of us would be out of jobs...

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Disclaimer: I most certainly do not wish to imply that I support the US' current "leadership," or that I think a WWIII scenario is likely. Heavens, no!!!