Archive for the ‘TEFL blogs’ Category

“even universities do not insist on any proper teaching qualifications but rather MAs and PHds.”

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“In many parts of the world, it’s still the case that anyone who speaks English as a native can get a job teaching the language, despite the efforts of professional organizations like TESOL and university departments of Applied Linguistics. I hope that the chapters so far will have convinced you that this is almost as daft as employing someone as a human biology teacher because they have a healthy working body.”

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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…)

With my recent troubles with Mr Paul Lowe (see below), there were moments when I wondered who I or other troubled TEFLers could turn to for help. The UK government aren’t interested unless it touches on immigration, and the TEFL celebs seem to think a new warmer is more important than job security. It seems our only hope is investigative journalism. And it is being done, and being done well- by the EL Gazette. I don’t know how a trade journal became our last line of defense (I can’t imagine Double Glazing Monthly does many exposes), but I am very glad they have at least partly taken on that role.

Meanwhile, what has everyone’s favourite you-couldn’t-be-as-radical-as-us-if-you-tried left wing “quality paper” The Guardian been up to? (more…)

“I will practice my English with you, if you will do me the honor”

“You keep alive just to practice your English?” (more…)

My usual desperate scratch around for some TEFL-relevant news has turned this month into a desperate attempt to deal with it all. If it carries on like this, our grandmothers might even get to be proud of what we do… (more…)

I really should wait until I’ve been blogging for 3 or 4 years before I presume to give lessons to the overly keen and/ or angry TEFL bloggers who have quit the game recently, but haven’t got anything else to write about since I got the whole professionalism thing off my chest, so here goes anyway:

Sustainable TEFL blogging uses most of the rules of ecological sustainability, and here they are:

1. Save energy
2. Recycle
3. Use second hand goods

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So, you’ve come in early to cue the tapes and you still have to desperately search for the place on the tape while the students are looking because when it becomes time to rewind and play again, you realise that the school has bought CD players without a counter on the tape

or

You’ve finally finished your further TEFL qualification, and then the person employed as your new boss hasn’t even got the last one you did

or

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Still ruminating on the details my next big post, which will be “Why you should take the latest TEFL research with several buckets of salt”, but thought I should reassure my faithful reader(s?) that I haven’t abandoned you in the TEFL wilderness in the same week as Katie from TEFLlogue found a good man and hung up her TEFL blogging boots for good.

While I have been maintaining radio silence on TEFLtastic, I’ve been busy working on my two new blogs, JapanExplained (of which the English Words from Japanese explained, Japanese Education Explained  and Japanese Company Names Explained pages might interest TEFLers and other language buffs) and QuoteJapan. I’ve also written loads more new stuff for UsingEnglish.com and put new Medical English worksheets and Business English and ESP games and worksheets here on TEFLtastic, including most as pdf for easy killing of trees with the photocopier.

You’ll be most excited to hear, though, that I will soon be available in your pocket. I’ll let your imaginations go on that one for a while before I give any details…

Talking of the power of imagination, I actually have no evidence at all on Katie de Teflogue’s love life, but the TEFL world needs some good gossip I reckon. I’m picturing her man coming into the English school halfway through class, picking her up and sweeping her out of a life of drudgery like Richard Gere in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (as also featured in the Simpsons episode where Marge takes bowling lessons)…

I’m sure you are all excited about the year when your relatives realise that teaching a language is something worthwhile because Ban Ki Moon supports it, but it seems some people are not on board:

“While the rest of the world lines up to support the U.N.’s International Languages Year, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad has announced that America’s participation remains problematic. The Bush administration is claiming that languages are theories, not scientifically-proven facts, and the president himself recently affirmed his belief that God created English in just six days and promised to veto the use of federal funds to teach language evolution to impressionable children. ”

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