Job Discussion Forums

[athenssoest]

just wondering, does having a degree in education (and being certified to teach secondary school) especially useful when looking for an ESL job abroad?

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Yes!

[spiral78]

Depends. I know quite a few private and public language schools in Europe that will also want a candidate to have training specific to teaching English as a second or foreign language. Quals and experience in teaching core subjects in one's native language to other speakers of the same language is NOT the same as teaching language.

I, too, have a background in general education. Those skills really don't get one far in a language teaching/learning classroom.

The real benefit is that having general education quals on one's CV does demonstrate a commitment to education - and, along with some specific training in teaching language (CELTA or DELTA are a good start), DO make a CV stand out.

[Chancellor]

[naturegirl321]

www.tes.co.uk is also a good place to look.

[FrenchLieutenant'sWoman]

In my opinion, yes. I qualified as a teacher of French in England, I now teach English in France. I have no formal TEFL qualifications (yet!). The basics are there: planning lessons, assessment, the basic 'how-to' of presenting a concept, classroom discipline - I would, however, say that a good knowledge of English as a language (not just being able to speak it) is vital.

I still struggle with knowing exactly what to teach and when, how much is 'enough' and which tangents to explore/which to leave well alone but I think that also comes with experience. At least I kow roughly how many new words I can introduce in a lesson so they'll be retained! What I was most suprised by, having shifted sideways, is how much of my teacher training was focused on national standards, the curriculum, extra paperwork from being in a school etc and how little was actually teaching so you'll actually find you don't use a lot of what you know. The trick is finding which bits are relevant.

I think it also depends where you want to teach. IBO schools require teacher certification but you may actually end up teaching your subject rather than EAL. I used to do EAL in an international school and it's very different to teaching ESL in a specialised langauge school. The native speaker + teacher certification is a useful combination if you want to teach for any government institution. They're more concerned with the bits of paper.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

It would be very useful if you had an ESL add-on and taught at the same level in the other country.

With a k-12 qualification AND a few years teaching experience in your home country, then you can teach at international schools.

What it would NOT be useful for is if you want to work at a university (and that is the level that many people aspire to in this area).