Job Discussion Forums

80daze · Joined: 15 Oct 2008 Posts: 118 Location: China

HI,

I've just spent the last few hours looking for a decent IELT'S teaching program and everything I'm finding seems to be run and certified by unknown companies.

I've tried the British Council sites and the Cambridge ESOL site, I'm looking for something that can travel well and that I can do in China or distance (online) does anyone know of a very good program?

Thanks for any and all advice Very Happy

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

I'm not sure what an IELTS teaching program is. Do you mean becoming an IELTS examiner? Or do you mean a program which helps you to teach IELTS courses? Please elaborate.

Chris_Crossley

There is no shortage of private language schools in China (where I have been living and working these past eight years) that offer IELTS examination preparation courses, which may be taught by foreign teachers, but British Council rules stated (at least a few years ago they did state) that IELTS examiners were forbidden from teaching IELTS examination preparation classes.

As for actual courses that prepare one for teaching IELTS, I do not think that they even exist. If one thinks about it, all that one needs in order to teach IELTS are the linguistics skills in the English language that would ordinarily be required to possess in order to cope with the demands of academic programmes at bachelor's degree level in Anglophone countries such as the UK, NZ and Australia.

Hence, native-speakers and any non-native speakers who may have already benefited from a university education in Anglophone countries would probably be the ones to teach IELTS without any form of training whatsoever, though some schools might insist that one at least has a CELTA or a Trinity Certificate in TESOL or the equivalent.

Sashadroogie

80daze · Joined: 15 Oct 2008 Posts: 118 Location: China

Hey, thanks for all the advice everyone Very Happy

I guess I could have made my post a little clearer, I have a BA (Hons) and CELTA and currently teach in China. The school I teach at want me to start teaching IELTS, I was trying to see if there was some qualification I would need in order to teach it and that I could add to my CV.

It seems that there is none.

Thanks again Very Happy

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:24 am Post subject:

There is a rule that IELTS examiners in China can't teach IELTS, nor can they advertise their role as examiners or even just talk about it casually with non-examiners or students. You can't really say anything about it- when I was applying last year to be an examiner, no one that I knew who was one would tell me anything about it. It was frustrating. Now I know why- you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. It's really hush hush

Sashadroogie · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:09 am Post subject:

Really? I signed a non-disclosure doc too, but it was in no way as far-reaching as you have desribed above. Is this a local rule, I wonder? Perhaps to combat the problems of test security particular to China?

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:50 am Post subject:

Yep, I think there were problems with examiners slipping test questions to students-- a big problem here. At my last university, on the last day of school, the dozen or so foreign teachers spent several hours tearing to shreds all the test papers from the year so they could be recycled safely. Why shredded? Because in the past, the cleaning staff disposing of old tests had sold them to students.