No qualifications or experience needed to just teach conversation
It’s true, you don’t need any qualifications or experience to converse, although some people seem to lack that basic communication skill even in their own language. Even for the most chatty of one to one “classes”, though, experience of grading your speech is pretty vital. When it comes to “teaching conversation”, as you might not have spotted that the blog title actually said, you are entering by far the most difficult part of language teaching and the idea that you’d need less qualifications and experience to do this than to teach grammar is absolutely laughable. The recruiter who is telling you that “The local teacher will do all the grammar, so all you have to do is teach speaking, so don’t worry” is actually telling you “The local teacher will tell them that the Present Perfect is used when there is a connection to the present, for example when we use the word ‘since’. We think that is beyond you, so all we want you to do is:
- Make the students more fluent speakers
- Make them more confident about their speaking
- Cut down on the number of errors they make while speaking (without teaching grammar)
- Cut down on how long they pause without speaking
- Give them the functional language they’ll need in almost any spoken interaction
- Choose from the many different teaching methodologies that all claim to improve speaking
- Make them able to talk on a wide range of topics (without teaching them vocabulary)
- Make them able to speak with a wide range of nationalities (in a monolingual class)
- Etc”
To put it another way, the absolute minimum for really “teaching speaking” is probably reading Conversation: From Description to Pedagogy, whose title alone gives you an idea of what you’d be getting yourself into, whereas the absolute minimum for teaching grammar is one decent rule on the point at hand, one decent practice activity, and some idea of what questions students might ask.
Conclusion: Recruiter, he speak with forked tongue (and with dollar signs in eyes- for an example see this Daily Express article, where the recruiter makes EF, of all people, seem like a shining example of honesty from TEFL employers)
This post is the start of a new series on the most ridiculous TEFL myths online. Any other ideas for things I should deal with or volunteers for a guest piece on the matter?
July 18th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Great article Alex. However I would like to draw attention to the difference between “teaching” conversation and “practicing” conversation. At my company http://LingoMatch.com we are trying to become the “language matchmakers” of the internet, by helping people connect with the right language partners to practice conversation.
Obviously here its up to the partners how they practice but we envision that they stop thinking too hard about grammatical perfection and just get on with communicating and hopefully enjoying the process while they go with the flow. We feel its important to just get in front of native speakers as often as possible and get comfortable understanding and communicating.
We always advocate however, that one does this in conjunction with formal lessons where one does focus on correct grammar and so on. This piece is vital to staying on the upward learning curve and we certainly understand that there is a place for teaching conversation rather than just having one.
July 18th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Thank you for this post… I have been “teaching conversation” at a hagwon for adults in Korea for about 15 months now, and despite my genuine interest in TEFL and sincere attempts at improving my teaching skills (doing a TESOL course, reading everything I can get hold of on how to teach EFL), I am ready to throw in the towel, I’ve just had enough…
You didn’t mention how difficult it is:
-to come up with an appropriate, relevant, new topic of conversation every day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks of the year
-to deal with different levels (upper beginner to upper intermediate and everything in between) in one conversation class
-to teach students who don’t want to work from a textbook (“too much work”), also don’t want to read newspaper articles (“too difficult”) and then, when invited to speak on a topic of their choice, just sit there with nothing to say
-to teach students who do absolutely nothing outside of class to improve their English, don’t participate in class unless forced to, and tell you quite openly that they hate studying English… and then complain that “conversation class isn’t helping”
-to then listen to the student who tells you that teaching English conversation must be the most ridiculous, easiest money-for-nothing job in the world, you just sit there and speak English and you get paid for it, don’t you.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:02 am
“Welcome” to the trade, Alice.
Feel as if you’ve just moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island, NY, perhaps? [**breathily whispered **] “Get… out!”
Get out now, while you still can! LOL (or not).
If you genuinely enjoy teaching (and TEFL in particular), then find out where all the best jobs are (based on what tickles YOUR fancy), what you need to get those jobs, and then make it happen.
Otherwise you’re destined for more or less the same thing (only dressed up slightly differently) no matter where you go. TEFL Groundhog Day.
If, on the other hand, you’re doing it as a means to fund your travels, then – frankly – don’t complain. Find another way to fund your travels that’s more agreeable. The endless supply of backpacking “teachers” (a set to which I’m not assuming you either belong or don’t, incidentally) is just one of the many, many reasons that the whole TEFL industry is such a rampant joke.
Good on you for trying to skill up and make a reasonable fist of it, Alice. You’re right that teaching is, in fact, NOT necessarily an easy job and, indeed, contrary to popular belief, NOT just anyone can do it.
Well, actually, that reminds me of something one of my trainees said the other day. She was feeling a little overwhelmed and was letting off steam when she said “It’s soooo hard to be a teacher!”
I replied, “No, any idiot can become a teacher. It’s hard to become a GOOD teacher.”
The sad reality, however, is that flying in the face of even good teaching, there is (to mix metaphors) a sea of overwhelming apathy and virtually insurmountable inertia borne of near total extrinsic motivation for being in the classroom in the first place.
Couple that with the various wild misunderstandings by the “punters” as to how language learning ACTUALLY works, and… well… *shrug*
———————-
Gee whiz! Happy-Happy-Leslie, today, huh? =)
July 19th, 2010 at 7:01 am
Hi Leslie,
Thanks :) Quite funny, really.
Not funding any travels here (what travels? what holiday? quite frankly – what money? Contrary to popular belief, this is not an exceptionally well-paid job, as I’m sure you’ll agree).
Agree with almost everything you said. I don’t, however, think the “backpacking teachers” brigade is a “reason” for the TEFL industry being viewed as a joke. Sure, they’re not doing the industry any favours, but they’re there because the industry WANTS them there, it creates jobs and opportunities for them – see the above blog post title (no experience or qualifications needed….)
You don’t see too many backpacking lawyers, engineers or nurses around. And the obvious reason for that being that there are no “backpacking”, “no qualifications or experience needed” opportunities for them.
The industry itself – and not these “teachers” – is solely responsible for its own reputation. Why go on INVITING people with no qualifications & experience to do a job in which you truly need both? Who’s doing who a favour here?
I had some (not much) teaching experience before I arrived here, but even so, I had no idea how complex / complicated / difficult being a GOOD TEFL teacher would be… and I do want to be good at what I do, I think that’s kind of normal, human.
Anyway, not getting out just yet. Plan to die with my boots ON.
:)
July 20th, 2010 at 12:38 am
First, great article Alex as always.
Second, Alice I think you are going through what we all go through when we first get ‘here’, wherever here is for you. You find that you have to engage in conversations with people that might be well wholly uninteresting or workaholics that don’t have much to say.
I’ve found that over time it gets a lot easier and you pick up the skill of being able to have a decent conversation with anyone anywhere. This also helps you and your language learning. I think good communicators make good language learners. I know that seems so elementary, but a lot of people especially some of our students just think that they can beat the books and become amazing at English. It’s not so.
I believe teaching conversation is just as important if not more so than grammar. Being able to communicate on a human level and being able to read nuances is invaluable. It takes a skilled teacher to do that too. The problem is we are never taught any of that in school, so we can’t put that down as qualification per se.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:35 am
Hi Neal,
Yes, very true.
For a short while and just after I started teaching here, I thought that the “classroom silence” phenomenon was my fault and that I was actually causing it (!). I soon found out about the cultural dimensions to this problem, which obviously helped a lot to manage it. I have also, however, come to the conclusion that there are (too) many students who think they can improve their English by just sitting in the classroom while not making any effort to participate.
And yes, some people would have nothing worthwhile or interesting to say in any language, not only English… and it’s a massive effort having a “conversation” with them. But as you point out, one learns from this.
BTW, if anyone wants to suggest websites / blogs which specifically target “teaching conversation” it would be much appreciated. I have found numerous articles on the topic, but not really any sites / blogs.
November 30th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Hi I am considering trying to get out to china to teach. I have little teaching experience and what experience I do have is in teaching sign language. I do not have a degree or a tefl or tesol cert. but love to help and think this would be an amazing job for me. Can someone please reach out and help me get started.
November 30th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Help yourself. Get a TEFL certificate.