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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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wsiggins
Joined: 08 Jun 2008
Location: Chuncheon, Gangwon do
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 Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:58 am Post subject: What is the highest rated MA A.L/TESOL Online degrees?? |
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I've looked at RAE postings and read up on numerous Universities.
What is a university employer (in lets say... Most countries??) looking for?
Some schools have the rep of being a "mill degree", others want you to have a teaching bachelors degree before even considering a masters.
Currently, I have a BA in Fine Arts (or um f**k all) and have been teaching in Korea and Japan for a few years. I want to do this for the long haul, but I want to teach at Universities other than just Asia (itchy feet, sorry).
Soooooo..... Opinions/help would be greatly appreciated.
Hm also my home country is Canada but I do not plan on teaching there, I am mostly interested in Latin America/Eastern Europe Uni teaching...
Am I living in a pipe dream? |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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| I think you should look into the Birmingham program. That sounds like a good fit for you. Very good school with a good reputation. I'm sure it's highly-valued in Europe, especially. |
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USANAK
Joined: 15 May 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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Check out University of New England. They have an excellent reputation. I've studied with them before, and just starting a Masters of Linguistics with them this month.
http://www.une.edu.au/bcss/linguistics/maal.php |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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I second USANAK. Great programme. Finished my MA with them three years ago and have been reaping the benefits since. |
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HapKi
Joined: 10 Dec 2004
Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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In terms of brick and mortar schools, University of Birmingham, UK is ranked in the top 60-70 in the world. They've also run one of the oldest Distance MA programs in Applied Linguistics, TESL/TEFL, and Translation Studies in Korea. There are quite a few students taking the program in Korea at any given moment.
http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/programmes/distance/tefltesl.shtml |
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USANAK
Joined: 15 May 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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UNE achieved the top rating (five stars) for all three primary categories of students� �educational experience� in The Good Universities Guide for 2009. UNE has received the Guide�s top rating in this regard for nine of the ten years from 2000 to 2009 � a record unmatched by any other university.
Surveyed graduates gave UNE the maximum five stars for �teaching quality�, �graduate satisfaction� and in the �overall graduate rating�, which is a resounding endorsement by graduates of the unique Australian living and learning environment offered by UNE. |
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madhusudan
Joined: 30 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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I've recently gotten interested in this as well. Thanks for the info above.
Does anyone know of this school: http://www.anaheim.edu/ and how the MA TESOL compares to those programs already mentioned? |
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wsiggins
Joined: 08 Jun 2008
Location: Chuncheon, Gangwon do
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks everyone, I appreciate it! I'll be looking into your suggestions tonight. |
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tselem
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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| madhusudan wrote: |
| Does anyone know of this school: http://www.anaheim.edu/ and how the MA TESOL compares to those programs already mentioned? |
I cannot speak for the program itself, but the faculty is really well-known within the field of TESOL. |
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Francis-Pax
Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:33 am Post subject: |
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| madhusudan wrote: |
I've recently gotten interested in this as well. Thanks for the info above.
Does anyone know of this school: http://www.anaheim.edu/ and how the MA TESOL compares to those programs already mentioned? |
Something to always think about is the accreditation of the institution. Anaheim University is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Unfortunately, this is not one of the traditionally well accepted regional accrediting institutions. Usually schools that offer distance learning in the US are accredited by one of the big accrediting bodies and add DETC as an extra. It is difficult to say exactly how it is viewed, since accreditation of academic standard is not conducted by the government in the US; instead, it is done through the private regional accrediting bodies.
Although they have David Nunan, a highly respected scholar, I personally would not enroll there. There are plenty of really established universities with good reputations that offer this kind of degree. Why take the risk? |
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Francis-Pax
Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:35 am Post subject: |
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| HapKi wrote: |
In terms of brick and mortar schools, University of Birmingham, UK is ranked in the top 60-70 in the world. They've also run one of the oldest Distance MA programs in Applied Linguistics, TESL/TEFL, and Translation Studies in Korea. There are quite a few students taking the program in Korea at any given moment.
http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/programmes/distance/tefltesl.shtml |
Agreed! University of Birmingham is one of the best programs out there. Not only does it have a great reputation, but it has excellent in country support as well.
WARNING! The program is not for the faint of heart. It is very rigorous. |
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Spongebob Squarepants
Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Location: You wanna see my caring face?, ROK
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:42 am Post subject: |
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Birmingham's program is only one of many UK programs out there. The Universities of Manchester, Reading, Leeds, Leicester, London, and Nottingham all offer distance MAs in App. Ling. or ELT fields (basically equiv. to a MA TESOL for us North Americans). One plus to non-North American programs is the relatively simplified (not the same as less stringent) admissions process. As they do not include GRE scores, they base a lot on past work experience, relevant undergrad work, undergrad GPA, intrinsic motivation, etc...
A large amount of people are attracted to the Birmingham program because they advertise vigorously in Korea, and have occasional on-site classes and get-togethers.
However, one critical issue is that with the Birmingham program you are primarily 'taught' by tutors: individuals who have newly completed the MA themselves. This was a deal breaker for me when inquiring with them. I will not agree to pay 6,000 GBP for an MA and not have the benefit of being taught by a real specialist (read 'professor') in the field. Besides this, the Birmingham MA has not been updated since the 90s: modules they offer are somewhat dated/out of touch with current research. Birmingham has a top-notch Applied Linguistics program (on par with Ivy League colleges), but their ODL TESL/TEFL is mediocre by comparison to other ELT programs out there. Added to that the local staff (a bunch of Koreans based out of a university here in Korea), were extremely unhelpful and even rude. The impression they give is that they are only interested in high student numbers. And by the looks of the CCed spam mails I still get from them they do have quite a few in-country students.
My advice: look into University of London's IOE program (one of the best in UK/world) http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/prospective_students/postgraduate/index.php. There are also increasingly varied options for graduate studies with universities in Aussie and NewZealand.
I am doing an MA App. Ling./ELT with U of Nottingham http://pgstudy.nottingham.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/applied-linguistics--english-language-teaching-by-web-based-distance-learning-ma_145.aspx, and I am very happy I didn't go with U of Birmingham. OP, do your due diligence and you will find the right program.[/url] |
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Francis-Pax
Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:21 am Post subject: |
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| Spongebob Squarepants wrote: |
Birmingham's program is only one of many UK programs out there. The Universities of Manchester, Reading, Leeds, Leicester, London, and Nottingham all offer distance MAs in App. Ling. or ELT fields (basically equiv. to a MA TESOL for us North Americans). One plus to non-North American programs is the relatively simplified (not the same as less stringent) admissions process. As they do not include GRE scores, they base a lot on past work experience, relevant undergrad work, undergrad GPA, intrinsic motivation, etc...
A large amount of people are attracted to the Birmingham program because they advertise vigorously in Korea, and have occasional on-site classes and get-togethers.
However, one critical issue is that with the Birmingham program you are primarily 'taught' by tutors: individuals who have newly completed the MA themselves. This was a deal breaker for me when inquiring with them. I will not agree to pay 6,000 GBP for an MA and not have the benefit of being taught by a real specialist (read 'professor') in the field. Besides this, the Birmingham MA has not been updated since the 90s: modules they offer are somewhat dated/out of touch with current research. Birmingham has a top-notch Applied Linguistics program (on par with Ivy League colleges), but their ODL TESL/TEFL is mediocre by comparison to other ELT programs out there. Added to that the local staff (a bunch of Koreans based out of a university here in Korea), were extremely unhelpful and even rude. The impression they give is that they are only interested in high student numbers. And by the looks of the CCed spam mails I still get from them they do have quite a few in-country students.
My advice: look into University of London's IOE program (one of the best in UK/world) http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/prospective_students/postgraduate/index.php. There are also increasingly varied options for graduate studies with universities in Aussie and NewZealand.
I am doing an MA App. Ling./ELT with U of Nottingham http://pgstudy.nottingham.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/applied-linguistics--english-language-teaching-by-web-based-distance-learning-ma_145.aspx, and I am very happy I didn't go with U of Birmingham. OP, do your due diligence and you will find the right program.[/url] |
Your assessment of University of of Birmingham is not accurate. The job of the tutor is not to teach you. The course is an open distance course where the student is primarily engaging in self-study. The tutor is there to help you with the course where needed. Anything that cannot be answered by your course tutor is referred to a specialist. There is also a lot of internal communication via WebCT and the in-house email listserv that is only accessible to students. The tutor's main official duty is to review drafts of your assessment papers before they are sent to the university for anonymous double marking by primarily tenured faculty and external moderation to a professor from another university. Tutors also keep information on the student's progress on behalf of the university. Some tutors are past students that have been carefully been selected by the professors at Birmingham. However, there are tutors who are not graduates of the Birmingham course. It is common practice for graduate students in the UK to have a tutor in taught courses that are not necessarily people who have the rank of professor -- a very rare designation. This does not mean they are incompetent. Many Birmingham graduates with only MAs have published in leading ELT/Applied Linguistic journals. That is a testimony to the quality of the program. I should also mention that a fair number of Birmingham graduates regularly present at conferences like KOTESOL, KATE, TESOL Arabia, etc. It is impressive, and a source of pride, for all the people involved with the Birmingham course to see such professional involvement. That is not to say this is exclusive only to Birmingham.
The course materials are of high quality and they cover the main areas. Furthermore, the assessment papers required rigorous research and reflection on theory and practice. All assignments require going very deeply into current research. It is very much a course for self-starters who are mature enough to get their feet wet the get go.
While I cannot say your experience is made up, I can say that my two and a half years of communicating with the Korean administration center of the The University of Birmingham has been excellent. They have always been very helpful and kind. The Korean administration center is at Kyungwon University. Kyungwon University has nothing to do with the academic aspects of the course. The University of Birmingham merely rents space and pays staff at the university take care of the administrative aspects of the course such as collecting tuition fees, sending out course books, and providing logistics for the annual summer seminar conducted by professors from Birmingham. Please note that one major advantage of the course is being able to pay for the course on a set schedule determined at the beginning of the course; all payments are made in Korean won -- not pounds.
You are so wrong about your portrayal of the Birmingham program. They are very concerned about quality. If you would take the time to read the extensive feedback they give on the module assignments and observed their rigorous grading practices, you would certainly have a different opinion. There are also many students in Korea; however, I am not sure exactly how many there are in total. Like any course, they try to recruit students, but this does not mean they have low standards.
To say that University of Birmingham is not up to date in its research absolutely ignorant.
Where did Professor Jane and David Willis do most of their work on Task-Based Learning? University of Birmingham
Where did corpus linguistics take off? University of Birmingham
Where did the top advances in discourse analysis in the UK occur? University of Birmingham
Where did leading author on vocabulary McCarthy do most of his work? University of Birmingham.
The list goes on my friend.
To everyone reading this, I would like to say that I wholeheartedly endorse this course and I welcome anyone considering applying to contact me. I would do it again if I had to. |
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Spongebob Squarepants
Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Location: You wanna see my caring face?, ROK
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:11 am Post subject: |
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F-Pax,
I don't remember saying that Birmingham were unconcerned by quality. I acknowledge that they rank highly in RAE assessments. I do admit that Birmingham has a top-notch App. Ling. department, but I am certain that their specific strengths lie there and not in ELT.
Yes the COBUILD project was groundbreaking in the 80s and 90s (as was the more recent CANCODE), but ELT implementation of corpus linguistics has not been Birmingham's forte. Yes, DA with Coulthard and Coulthard was innovative in the 70s and 80s, but once again more recent practical applications, especially in the FL classroom are not part of the scope of Birmingham's current research work.
Michael McCarthy has never been part of Birmingham. He has on occasion co-authored/published with Birmingham faculty, but his professional career was spent at the University of Nottingham, where he remains Emeritus Professor and shares an office with Ron Carter.
Granted J. Willis and her husband published several derived TBLT methodology books while at Birmingham, but last I checked they merely picked up on Prabhu's original TBLT work.
Very recent (post-turn-of-the-millenium) research into materials development, SLA, learner motivation/anxiety, assessment, and multi-dimensional approaches have all been done elsewhere.
Believe me, I appreciate the significant contributions of the Birmingham School to App. Ling. (having been a student of them myself), but I still believe that 'badging' an MA "TESL/TEFL" while catering more to applied linguistic facets of study and research is synthetic at best. |
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Francis-Pax
Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:48 am Post subject: |
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| Spongebob Squarepants wrote: |
F-Pax,
I don't remember saying that Birmingham were unconcerned by quality. I acknowledge that they rank highly in RAE assessments. I do admit that Birmingham has a top-notch App. Ling. department, but I am certain that their specific strengths lie there and not in ELT.
Yes the COBUILD project was groundbreaking in the 80s and 90s (as was the more recent CANCODE), but ELT implementation of corpus linguistics has not been Birmingham's forte. Yes, DA with Coulthard and Coulthard was innovative in the 70s and 80s, but once again more recent practical applications, especially in the FL classroom are not part of the scope of Birmingham's current research work.
Michael McCarthy has never been part of Birmingham. He has on occasion co-authored/published with Birmingham faculty, but his professional career was spent at the University of Nottingham, where he remains Emeritus Professor and shares an office with Ron Carter.
Granted J. Willis and her husband published several derived TBLT methodology books while at Birmingham, but last I checked they merely picked up on Prabhu's original TBLT work.
Very recent (post-turn-of-the-millenium) research into materials development, SLA, learner motivation/anxiety, assessment, and multi-dimensional approaches have all been done elsewhere.
Believe me, I appreciate the significant contributions of the Birmingham School to App. Ling. (having been a student of them myself), but I still believe that 'badging' an MA "TESL/TEFL" while catering more to applied linguistic facets of study and research is synthetic at best. |
Birmingham offers an MA TESL/TEFL and a MA Applied Linguistics. Although several of the module are similar, the module assignment are different. As someone who has personally gone through the program, I am deeply satisfied with the education I have received. I thought the program had an excellent combination of theory and practice.
TESOL is a branch of Applied Linguistics. It is not something completely different. All of the course books for MA TESL/TEFL course do a lot to bring applied linguistic theory to teaching practice. Furthermore, all of the approaches you mention are covered in the course and there are lecturers who are engaged in that type of research.
All research stands on prior research. To say that Willis just lifted Prabhu is overly simplistic and totally ignores their contribution. The same goes for Coulthard. This is not a contest. Research is about truth and our understanding of truth develops.
The original point about Birmingham was that is an excellent program. You brought up objections concerning their distance course; however, your understanding of the course and its administration was incorrect. You are also clearly ignorant about the research currently going on at Birmingham; however, I am not going to waste my time to demonstrate that to you.
Bottom line: folks, I actually did the program and I believe it is good. I also will probably start PhD studies with them in the near future. Look at the fruit of the course present in the many alumni who are actively engaged in research and conducting their teaching practice with competence.
I am a little disappointed with how this conversation went. You turned it into a conversation of who's dick is bigger than the others. Another reminder of why I do not come on to Dave's very often. |
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