Archive for the ‘Advice for teachers’ Category

Hi, I’ve just read your DELTA experiences and wondered if you could advise me on the best course to take. I’ve been teaching for 12 years (PGCE and Degree in English) - 6 years in Comprehensives in the UK and 6 years in France at a Lycée and University. I’m now back in the UK teaching in a Comp and want to get back into TAL or TEFL……which type of course would you recommend? I’ve been told there are 4 possibilities:
 
RSA Trinity
CELTA
DELTA
MEd TESOL
 
I’m going to be in the UK for the next 5 years so I would be teaching here rather than abroad.
 
Thanks,
 
Diane

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Any advice for Diane anyone?

Number one: cosplay

Only joking- I mean of course that the status of English teachers is not so obviously low that when I met the love of my life and asked her to marry me she actually agreed!

You won’t hear a lot about it on the TEFL forums, but there are actually a lot of other advantages to choosing Japan to teach in: (more…)

I’ve been teaching three virtually identical classes every week for the last couple of months, something I hadn’t done since doing primary school classes in Thailand. For some reason the second attempt at teaching the lesson is always better than the first but by the third one I’m forgetting what I’m talking about halfway through my sentence, losing my page and generally switching so much onto automatic pilot that I forget where the controls are.

No suprise there- I’ve had the same thing several times over the years, and its always the second one that is the peak. The worrying thing is that the third class is the one that reminds me most of what my teaching is generally like at the moment. And so the question springs to mind- is this the point where all the reading and thinking and blogging in the world is not going to change the fact that my teaching simply isn’t going to get better. I’ve been holding off the decline for the last few years like an aged defender whose energy levels aren’t up the job anymore but whose eye for the ball and new love of the game since the pressure is off makes up for it. Sooner or later, though, the fact that you’ve done it all means your desire has gone and a move to the second division is just around the corner. And 37 and just married seems perfectly timed for the defender extended metaphor to work…

Then again, maybe I’m just a striker that has gone off song. If so, whether my off period will be Raul-length or not and whether I’ll need to just wait it out, shake up my training regime or get a transfer to get over it, only a genuis manager would know. Even more of a short supply in TEFL than in footie as far as that goes…

Or to put it in a more TEFLy way- is there a teaching Intermediate plateau?

You finally come to the end of students staring at you blankly through the grammar explanation, and introducing pairwork brings on jokes, chat, imaginative use of language, and maybe even some flirting- unfortunately, little of any of it in English! Why do students switch to their own language in an English class, despite your best Basil Fawlty-like shows of displeasure every time they do it? (more…)

Now that “Paul Lowe” and “Windsor TEFL” are so many places on the web he can hardly have time to write threatening emails to them all let alone sue them, I can strike up my pipe, put on my tweed jacket with the leather elbow patches, gaze at my navel and get back to considering “What is the meaning of TEFL?”

In todays episode, Uncle Alex will consider “Why don’t my students (especially the adults) pull their socks up and do their homework?” It could be because they are trying to drive me to such fits of disbeliving fury that I keel over from a heart attack and they get a teacher who isn’t so keen. It could be because they are M* and hoping I will introduce corporal punishment. Alternatively, it could be because:

 1. It’s boring
2. They don’t understand the instructions/ what to do
3. It’s too difficult
4. It’s too easy
5. They could understand the language, but couldn’t think of any ideas (e.g. arguments for and against or a storyline)
6. It’s not their priority, e.g. because it doesn’t involve speaking
7. They just forgot/ forgot exactly what they had to do
8. They don’t find time/ have bad time management
9. It’s a minor rebellion
10. They don’t see the point/ don’t think it will improve their English
11. Doing homework seems childish
12. They lack a place where they can do it in peace and quiet
13. They lack equipment (e.g. a CD player)
14. They have their own self-study materials or habits which they prefer
And here’s what you can do about it/ do about some of those points:

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“alex,

read your fantastic blog on tefl.net. brilliant stuff and i wondered if you had any advice on setting up a blog like yours..

Mike Long
S. Korea” (more…)

“Hi Alex

Just been looking at the worksheets and lesson plans you´ve reproduced.  You´ve certainly been busy, great work I will be using quite a lot of them.  I was checking through to see if you had any specific to Legal English, as I am currently teaching a group of five lawyers in Spain.  If you have anything or know any good links to other websites I´d really appreciate your help.

Thanks very much.

Cheers
Sarah”
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“Hi Sarah
 
Thanks for your nice comments. I’m afraid I’ve never taught lawyers (the nearest I got was immigration officers), but do you mind if I post your email to see if any other readers have suggestions?
 
Thanks
 
All the best
 
Alex”
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“Hiya

Thanks for your quick response.  Yes, you can post my email if you like.

saludos
Sarah”

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So, any help at all gratefully received by me and Sarah. Please! Pretty please!

Maybe because it is the most obvious next step for an experienced and ambitious teacher who still wants to do something related to teaching rather than stepping into management, over the years I must have met 20 times as many teachers who wanted to be teacher trainers as people who ever managed to find a full time job doing it. That demand and the lack of a standard qualification for teacher trainers means that it can be very difficult to break into teacher training, and many of the teacher trainers I know relied somewhat on luck to do so. As such, none of the suggestions below are guaranteed to work- but all of them are guaranteed to improve your chances over sitting and waiting, or over taking one of the very dubious online qualifications for teacher trainers: (more…)

To make up for all the navel gazing recently, have decided to give the public what it wants for once. And what the public wants is TEFL sex!

That first paragraph should get some nice bizarre Google searches coming my way, but actually I’ve already done that topic to death (really!), so I’ll instead be expanding on the most popular recent post, which was on writing the perfect CV and cover letter for a TEFL teacher. Now we have, for your delight and delectation:

The perfect CV and cover letter for an EFL exam class teacher

The perfect CV and cover letter for a TEFL young learners teacher

The perfect CV and cover letter for an EFL manager

The perfect CV and cover letter for a teacher trainer

And last and (possibly) least:

The perfect CV and cover letter for a Business English teacher

In answer to my own question, I’m actually quite happy being a TEFL pleb again after trying teacher training and what have you, which is perhaps why I am the only person who will give advice to others on how to get into it as I’m not competing with you for the jobs…

Perhaps the most commonly asked and most difficult to answer question about TEFL is “Should I do it?”

Although I’ve never felt the irritation at being asked this question that the average TEFL forum regular shows (if they have such problems with feelings of frustration, I really would recommend entirely a different kind of website!), it isn’t the easiest of questions to answer without regular sessions with the person asking the question and a couch (I mean therapy, not what yot were just thinking). But, wthell, if someone can write their life story in 6 words, TEFL in 200 words has to be possible:

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