Job Discussion Forums

[Professor]

I can see now where the professors I knew back in the States were coming from when they said that EFL is looked down upon and even seen as a joke by many REAL professors who have multiple Masters and/or a Ph.D.
According to some of them (Linquistics who speak many laguages and have been studying languages for DECADES) the EFL world outside of the States for example, has zero regulations and many so called teachers only have a bachelor witha cheap EFL certificate.

Perhaps the universities outside of the States offer a more regulated, professional EFL program than say all of the laguage schools who hire anyone with a pulse??
What say you??

[fladude]

While I have a lot of respect for people who obtain a content area master's degree, I must confess that I have very little respect for a Master's in Education. That's not to say that I don't respect the people who obtain it, but I certainly don't respect the degree. While people who obtain this degree may be a little more organized than other people and may have some added teaching strategies, there is ample research which suggests that student test scores are no higher in their classes than in the class of someone without this degree. In fact, there is a general trend to suggest that the best teachers are people with a content area degree and who teach that content area. A content area master's degree is obviously icing on the cake, but it is not a must have for teaching high school, and should not be since high school classes are at best college level 100 (and that's for an AP class).

So to answer your question, no I do not believe that a master's degree is necessary to teach. Obviously someone who is dedicated and obtains a masters degree in Applied Linguistics is going to have a huge advantage over someone with a TEFL or Celta degree, and I am sure that their employment offers will reflect this, but that does not mean that you should be required to have such a degree just to teach conversational English. To teach at a university... well that's a different story. Although even at a university, someone with a TEFL could teach conversational English. After all the only thing you really need for that is to be able to speak English in a natural way. In some ways, I think that people who do not have a degree in Applied Linguistics speak more naturally than those who do. My cousin has an MA in Applied Linguistics from Harvard, and while she can obviously teach TEFL to advanced classes better than I can, I have always found her way of speaking to be a little too structured to sound natural. Its natural for her because of her training, but it would sound odd for a businessman, for example, to speak like that.

[fladude]

Now let me ask you a question Professor, why do you believe that having a Masters degree in Education or Applied Linguistics would make you qualified to teach Business English, for example?

I have ran a business and I have a Juris Doctorate degree so I believe that I would be much more qualified than someone with a M.A. E.D. to teach "Business English" or certainly "Legal English." What exactly about an Masters in Education would really teach someone how an attorney actually speaks? I understand that you could get a book on legal phrases and repeat this over and over, but you would have no clue how people actually talked during a mediation session or at a corporate meeting. Those are the kinds of things that you can only learn by experience.

[Professor]

[Professor]

[Professor]

[fladude]

Well you wouldn't understand. For you teaching ESL is apparently the best job that you could get. Personally I got quite bored sitting in one town every day, putting on my little suit and going off to listen to the same pompous judge droll on day after day, year after year. And so I took off.

That doesn't seem to be your inspiration since you've basically been sitting in the same place in Mexico year after year, hoping to better yourself by getting some cheap online Masters in Education which no reputable university in the States would look twice at. Now you've put it on your wall and consider yourself "edumacated."

As for me and my reputation, your opinion means nothing to me. I made the choices that I made.

In the words of the Great Khan, "what will be, will be."

[Professor]

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

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[Isla Guapa]

I think it's kind of cool that someone who has labored to get a law degree and has had a legal practice finds more job satisfaction teaching English than practicing law. More power to you, fladude .

[TeresaLopez]

[artemisia]

[Teflon Don]

I have just left an industry in which I excelled, and in terms of finances I'll likely earn between a quarter and a fifth of my previous earnings now I am entering the EFL/ESL industry.

I didn't hate it either, I just didn't love it.

It is my intention to work towards an MA over time, although I believe my previous experience will prove to be more beneficial to my teaching when Business English is concerned.

What concerns me about entering this industry is not my ability or current qualifications (unrelated* BA and CELTA), as I will apply myself and develop as in my previous career. What concerns me is that in my previous industry results proved your quality, whereas in EFL/ESL my impression so far is that people seem to believe that qualifications prove ability. Surely teaching is about a lot more than pure knowledge?

The reason I want to work towards an MA is simple, I believe it will open more doors in the future. The professional development I carry out along the way is what will make me a better teacher, in my opinion

* although unrelated, it will of course be relevant in certain ESP scenarios.

[Professor]

[Professor]