Job Discussion Forums

[mcloo7]

Do people who start out in China usually start with children, or could they start with adults? Does this depend upon your prior training? Does having a CELTA help a lot and will it give you more job opportunities? I have a degree but no CELTA and little experience, but I am considering getting a CELTA. Thanks.

[johntpartee]

[Denim-Maniac]

I'd disagree. A CELTA will surely help. If you complete a CELTA and dont make it work for you, you have a problem IMO.

Personally, there is no way you can complete a CELTA and lot learn something that you can use to improve your teaching practice. I believe that is true for newbies and people who have been teaching for 5 years. It is more relevant to training centre work with adults, but skills learnt can still be applied to other settings.

Professionally, there are some employers out there who regard such certification as a pre-requisite for employment.

[mcloo7]

What do you think is the best strategy for taking a CELTA? Should you take it in your home country, or where you want to teach? It seems to me that if you took it in China and got a job in China you would have to leave China to get your Visa, so it could be quite a hassle. Thailand seems to be the cheapest place to take it, could it be worth taking it there even if you're not planning on teaching there? Also, if taking a CELTA is going to take a big chunk of your savings, would you still say its worth it?

[zactherat]

a CELTA (as opposed to the myriad of unaccredited TEFL courses) won't be valued by everyone

but those few employers that DO recognize it

are exactly the type of employers that you want to be working for: informed about the industry; respectful of academic integrity.


re: typical first positions -

I think most EFL positions in China could be considered entry level, regardless of the setting (kindy, uni, etc.), this is why there is no typical first job.
This is also why long time TEFLers become bitter - after all their hard work, they can be replaced by newbies at the drop of a hat!

[JayCee86]

Of course a CELTA will provide you with more opportunities, for example you need a CELTA (plus experience) to become an IELTS examiner.

However, there will still be plenty of jobs that don't require one.

Another example of a typical first position I would say would be a training centre, but there's no one typical first time job.

[mcloo7]

Thanks for your answers guys. I keep reflecting on this and am coming to the conclusion that I really don't want to take the CELTA at this point. Part of the reason is because I really don't want to spend so much money on something that I'm not even sure I want to do for the long haul. Does this sound reasonable to you: I would try to get a first job in China without one, see how I like teaching, and then if I do like it and want to develop as a teacher I could take it . Plus I'd probably have some extra money saved up at that point. Of course, in lieu of taking the CELTA I would read as much as possible and try to learn as much as I could about teaching English. What do you think?

Also, what's required to teach at a University in China, or just in general, to teach adults?

[xiguagua]

Generally I think that teaching kids or at least high school is the best way to start out. Shorter classes, more students, more problems. If you can adjust and learn how to cope with these classes, engaging the students, getting uninterested students interested, tackling discipline problems, etc. it will pave the way for teaching other classes.

45 minute classes blow by so fast that if you do have a bad class, it is usually over very quickly, giving you more time to reflect on how you can improve or what you can change to become better compared to 1.5 hour classes that if you have a bad class....it's super awkward.

Just for me, I see a lot of first time teachers that come to a university to begin teaching and usually I get students complaining to me about said teachers class because well, they have no experience, they don't know how to deal with the Chinese students, what interests them, what you can and can't talk about etc etc. I see my experience of starting with juniors/seniors invaluable.

[mcloo7]

Thanks, what do you think putting off the CELTA until after you have a little teaching experience?

[7969]

Teaching (and doing a decent job of it) with little or no experience will subject you to a steep learning curve. If you can figure out what students want or need, if you can manage a classroom of 30-50 students, and if you can organize teaching material semi-coherently at the outset then do the course later. But if you think you're going to be in way over your head from day 1 then consider taking the course first. Teaching isn't rocket science but it does take some know how and some organizational skill. Some people have it, and some people (including some certified teachers) don't.

[ecubyrd]

[mcloo7]

Still, could you try it without the CELTA? Especially if it's more money than you can afford in at the moment, and at least see if you want to pursue teaching for a few years?

[Denim-Maniac]

[ecubyrd]

[Denim-Maniac]

@ecubyrd - I would suggest that if someone is going to do the training, doing the recognised programs of CELTA/ Trinity or a few of the other generic 120 hours / observed TP is the way to go. Cheaper options dont tend to deliver and are rarely (if ever) recognised within the industry.

$300 spent on a few of the industry recognised books (Thornbury's 'How to' series, Scrivener's 'Learning Teaching' etc) and a subscription to OneStopEnglish would be a better bet I think. I speak as someone who 'invested' money into online training with i-i many many years ago, which proved to be worthless, not recognised by anyone worth their salt, and their course at $200+ offered 10% of the information offered by any single one of the aforementioned books.