Archive for the ‘TEFL links- EL Gazette’ Category

The most civilized rant in TEFL has got me thinking, and I’m also feeling confident and enthusiastic since I discovered that the Museum of the English Language that I wrote an article demanding about 10 years ago seems (probably coincidentally) to have happened. So here goes with making change happen and/ or taking credit for things that happen anyway:

Proposal to reform TEFL number one

One of the ideas I had is to set up a prize for TEFL/ TESOL journalism, kind of like a cross between the Ben Warren Prize and the Purlitzers. “TEFL/ TESOL journalism” could mean people writing in TEFL publications, people in newspapers that cover TEFL finally getting off their arses and investigating something (I think you know who I mean), or even bloggers that wrote something with a journalistic level of proof- which rules me out right away! . Possible topics include: uncovering dodgy school owners and training providers; revealing how people are really paid and really treated across a whole company, country or the industry; and (probably best of all) some angle that we have never really heard about. There could be prizes for a single best article of the year, publication of the year, journalist of the year, and/ or lifetime achievement award, with the first probably being the easiest to set up and organise. The people on the commitee would probably have to be volunteers, but who wouldn’t volunteer to read juicy TEFL scandals and reward someone who actually made things better?

Possible criteria for the winning article (first thoughts)

- Made a difference, preferably to the whole industry

- Took a story that was little or unknown and really spread the word, preferably into the mainstream news

- Took a risk but didn’t overstep the line into libel

- Took on the big boys

- Didn’t bring the reputation of TEFL teachers even lower (if such as thing is possible)

Just in case the sarcastic remark above that I just couldn’t stop slipping out makes you think that I am just indulging in idle fantasies ala Big Teacher idea (and actually I was only half joking on that one too), I’m putting aside half the money I made from my one and only published book to put into whichever one of the 4 ideas I am going to make gets off the ground.

Hopefully it’s okay for me to reprint this editorial in full (and in the classic self-deluding style of a habitual blogging copyright breaker I am going to take the fact that they haven’t disabled the copy function on the online version as some kind of permission), because not only can I think of no way to say what it says better, I can possibly find nothing else to say on the matter ever:

“In this issue of the Gazette we have a number of stories featuring global giants in possible trouble over employment law. We have language schools operating in the UK and owned by an American media giant (page 1). We have a UK-based company owned by a multinational founded in Sweden recruiting for schools from Russia to Indonesia (page 3).
   The English-teaching world is becoming increasingly corporatised, globalised and – to judge by the contents of the anonymous envelopes sent into the Gazette’s offices by desperate teachers – staggeringly ignorant of the basics of employment law. So here are a few handy hints for employers:
RULE ONE: You are the employer. That means it is your job to know employment law.
RULE TWO: You need to know the law in all the countries in which you operate. Here is a pointer for school franchisors. If you are recruiting for a franchisee you may well in effect be operating as an employment agency. So your contracts need to comply not only with the law in the country of employment, but also with the legislation where the office doing the recruitment is located.
RULE THREE: There are certain authorities it is advisable not to disagree with. They include the US Supreme Court, the European Court and, as the British Council have found out (see page 4), the Russian tax police. What the US Supreme Court says is law in every state in the Union. What the European Court says applies country in the European Union – which means, language-school owners please note, that rolling up holiday pay into the hourly, weekly or monthly wage is illegal everywhere from Copenhagen to Capri. If you want to do business in Russia, don’t argue with the Russian tax police, whatever the law actually says.
RULE FOUR: It is not a good idea to ignore the law just because you feel it to be impractical, unworkable or just too expensive to comply with.
RULE FIVE: It is a really bad idea to tell your staff that you know what the law is but that you are not going to comply with it because it is impractical, unworkable or just too expensive. To compound this by telling your staff in writing is completely idiotic.
RULE SIX: With the notable exception of Germany, in most countries the tax authorities don’t like the idea of teachers being freelance. This is because it is easier for a tax inspector to get hold of a school than a teacher. You can tell the teachers they’re responsible for their own tax, but this may not stop the taxman turning up at the school gate.
RULE SEVEN: If you are about to break one of the preceding rules, ask yourself, do I want what I am doing to appear on the front page of the Gazette? If the answer is no, don’t do it.
And finally, a handy hint for teachers: If you think your employer is breaking the law, don’t just send us a whingeing email (and if you do, don’t do it using your work email account). Your horror story may well be true but we need documentary evidence to prove it. If we can prove it, we can print it. ”

And an extract from the article on Kaplan to show you what they are talking about:

‘it is true that the European Court of Justice has ruled this practice to be “unlawful”… However, the practical ramifications of accruing holiday pay for hourly paid workers according to this principle [the court ruling] are complex and unworkable.’

i.e. We don’t agree with the law, so we won’t keep to it. So there.

To add a bit of culture, here is the original Blast, which our mate Mel has done a very good job of making a TEFL version of: Blast Manifesto

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…)

‘There several pieces of research showing the negative effect of teaching several unknown words at the same time that are members of a lexical set. Learning several unknown words in such sets made learning 50–100 per cent more difficult.’ (more…)