Job Discussion Forums

[Beast]

To logical thinking people it would seem that an MA would lose it's validity after a time. For example....If you got one in the late 70's when the rage was Audio Lingual.... everything you studied would be invalid today. Teaching English has evolved very far from that era. As a person moved from Audio Lingual to Communicative and now lots of Online and web 2.0 stuff going on, it seems that what one would have learned then would not work today.

[mozzar]

Surely an MA is more about learning for a year and then stopping? Isn't it a sign that you're likely to keep reading and developing from that point on? The MA gives you a strong basis to review studies, understand complicated ideas and then you motivate yourself to keep reading.

[eha]

'Surely an MA is more about learning for a year and then stopping? '

Not any more it isn't. So many Master's degrees these days are more like vocational qualifications; in my experience over the last thirty years, some degree courses seem to CLOSE people's minds rather than open them. When I first found myself in tefling circles, I couldn't believe the level of defensive disparagement and competitive infighting there often was between people who believed in (seemed to have been brainwashed in) different 'schools of thought' about education-- or even worse, who didn't know much about education, but thought they knew a lot about 'language teaching'.

[balqis]

I cannot believe people can ask such questions as the one above.
You've got the nerve, truly.
I must have been born and must have died in XIX century, all in all.
I just cannot believe such a question can be asked.

Greetings only to those who think alike,
balqis

[Beast]

Please elaborate....
Because, in over 30 years of teaching I have found PhD's who couldn't teach their way out of a wet paper bag. I have also found MA's who put Grammar Cloze exercises and Vocabulary Matching on "Listening Tests." I have also seen MA's who feel the more copies you throw on the students the better teacher you are. They feel they can sit back while the students plod through the exercises. But, "They have their MA's" so that makes them good. Sorry but REAL evidence doesn't support the fantasy.

[balqis]

Everything you have mentioned in your last post can be summarized as follows.
TEFL is an illusive fantasy. It has no real content, just shibboleths similar to fashion crazes, say Dior in the 60ties, say No-idea-who for the 70ties, Armani in the 80ties, Westwood in the 90ties and Galliano in the current decade.
With such vantage point I am in full agreemnt. TEFL is an illusive fantasy, but this knowlegde is elitist and one has to affect TEFL does have real content.

I came across a book a while ago, old manual for English teachers learning the Hugo/Berlitz method, printed I think around 1914 or even earlier.
There, in the preface to the book the author, I reckon the very Mr Berlitz, announces that the clue to the successful language teaching is having an attractive personae, especially when it comes to one's voice act.
Then he gives advice to all teachers-to-be: listen carefully to Noel Coward's act and try to emulate his vocal genius. It will win you over with your students.

So simple! So genuine! And so very true!

Now think about the heaps of paper, mincing words and theories, produced by TEFL departments all over the word for decades. It is scary to even think about it.
I was once involved in a huge university library clearance operation. I was mainly asked to help with sorting out an EFL department old books and decide which may be sold out for a proverbial penny to the public and which should meet their fate in the shredded.
A very telling and pensive experience I had flipping through the old TEFL books there. What a waste of effort! What a stifle to the real learning!

But there is little difference between the old TEFL and the current TEFL. Current TEFL is the old-to-become TEFL which hasn't yet become obsolete and grown old. But let the time take its turn, and it will nowadays, it will very fast.
So why question old M.A. or PHD degrees? The guys from the 60ties or 70ties did the same job as the guys of the 90ties or the current decade. Truly, I can see no difference. I can only feel sorry for the disillusion of those who slaved through say Chomsky's theory and now find it of no use ever and with no appeal too. Who would dare these days to draw a Chomskean GG tree in class?
What a drag!What a shame! Whate a pity...

balqis

[veiledsentiments]

It goes back to what I've always said... teaching is an art, not a science. I've seen good and bad teachers with every level of education. Every band-wagon ESL/EFL method works for some and not for others. (both teachers and students)

What irritated me most were those who supported their particular method (and/or personal degree level) with religious fervor... ... the 'their way or the highway' types...

VS

[eha]

'What irritated me most were those who supported their particular method (and/or personal degree level) with religious fervor... '

Like the 'lady' who was bitterly complaining about how her soaring academic qualifications hadn't been correctly assessed --- for salary purposes, of course--- and she wanted to know why a colleague was on a higher salary grade than herself. She asked, imperiously, when the colleague had 'done' her MA; the colleague replied 1976. 'Oh' retorted Mrs Socrates, 'then it's irrelevant!'. This was about ten years ago. It seems it was also irrelevant that the colleague had already completed over twenty years of post-MA university teaching, while Mrs S herself had only just completed her own master's the previous year. Does any other profession have to suffer so much from the arrogance of limited minds? Oh, of course, I forgot; we aren't a profession any more.

[Geronimo]

balqis wrote:

[veiledsentiments]

And then he offered this song in the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipQmU4WjQ9o&feature=related

VS

[Buffalo Boy]

I came across a book a while ago, old manual for English teachers learning the Hugo/Berlitz method, printed I think around 1914 or even earlier.
There, in the preface to the book the author, I reckon the very Mr Berlitz, announces that the clue to the successful language teaching is having an attractive personae, especially when it comes to one's voice act.
Then he gives advice to all teachers-to-be: listen carefully to Noel Coward's act and try to emulate his vocal genius. It will win you over with your students.

So simple! So genuine! And so very true!

Nice. While working at the British Council several students told me that they chose that school in order to aquire a properly superior English accent from the teachers.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[Geronimo]

Addressing the original point raised by Beast more directly,
the need for a greater commitment to Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
on the part of teachers in the Further Education sector
has already been recognised and addressed in England.

Below is an extract from the 'Background' section of
A Guide to the Further Education Teachers� Continuing Professional
Development and Registration (England) Regulations 2007

"...The FE White Paper (Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances - March 2006)
set out the case for supporting teachers to continue to develop and improve their practice,
in order to improve the quality of teaching for learners. This underpins the aim of having a qualified and professional workforce
that is committed to continuing professional development....
In the FE White Paper the Government announced its intention to introduce new regulations
as part of the policy to professionalise the FE workforce. These include a requirement for teachers to be professionally registered
and the setting of a minimum CPD requirement; with an aim of ensuring teachers maintain up-to-date subject knowledge, teaching skills and pedagogy....
They require:
� full-time FE teachers to undertake at least 30 hours of CPD per year, for
the purposes of updating their knowledge of the subjects they teach and
further developing their teaching skills;
� part-time teachers to undertake pro-rata amounts of CPD, with a minimum
of 6 hours per year and for those working for more than one FEI to
apportion this CPD requirement accordingly;
� FE teachers to maintain a record of the CPD undertaken, make that
record available to their employers and (unless they are teaching in a
sixth form college and have opted to register with the General Teaching
Council for England (GTC(E)) - see para 10 below) provide a record of the
CPD undertaken to the IfL every year; and
� FE teachers (except those working in a sixth form college, or working in
both a school and an FEI prior to 1 September 2007 - see para 11 below)
to be professionally registered with the IfL, which is the professional
membership body for the FE sector....."

(Available at:- http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tna/+/http://www.dius.gov.uk/guide2007no2116.pdf/ )

For information on how this commitment to CPD is underpinned in practice
visit:- http://www.ifl.ac.uk/cpd/about-cpd

IMHO, this good practice should be extended to other locations.

Geronimo

[balqis]

I agree with you, Geronimo, that the world is full of nonsense,
'' a walking shadow full of fury, signifying nothing''

balqis

[eha]

'the world is full of nonsense,
'' a walking shadow full of fury, signifying nothing'''

Not so sure. I think this particular bit of nonsense signifies how gullible and easily bullied teachers often are; or at least how desperately we all need an income, that we go along with so much sheer b*llsh*t.