Questions from a reader- jobs abroad for qualified non-native speakers
I’m still pondering my advice, so if anyone else can help in any way, will be much appreciated:
“Kelly Blackwell (Overseas Digest) wrote: “Teaching couples are the most sought after commodity in international schools, because they are the most cost efficient to hire[...]” Sadly, from our initial exploration of the online (E)SL job market, we did not get the impression there’s a lot of seeking going on.
We are ”Marc” and “Carmen”, two young language psychologists who have conducted research on language acquisition and bilingualism at renowned institutes in several countries(e.g., Harvard University; Instituto Ortega y Gasset, Spain; NICI, the Netherlands). The reason we are contacting you is because we have some hope you may be able and willing to help us with our ‘quest’ for a (teaching) job at a language school somewhere. We consider ourselves suitable candidates, both having obtained our MA in Linguistics(with honors) and being multilingual. In addition, we gained teaching experience, both inside and outside academia (teaching high school kids, as well as college students). However, and this seems to be a nasty complication, we are Dutch… Being Dutch does not necessarily constitute a problem in itself (at least nothing we cannot handle); it is the aspect of not being native speakers of English or Spanish that closes doors for us, even though we have reason to argue that, in terms of quality of teaching, it should not be an obstacle to learn from a good non-native speaker, who once faced the challenge of learning English or Spanish as a second language him/herself.
To recapitulate, we think we are pretty skilled and could be an asset to a language school somewhere, but the schools don’t know. Still, we are very excited about the ide aof putting our skills into practice and experience yet another country and culture together. We are not too picky when it comes to location or benefits. Is it absolutely necessary to spend time and money on a TFL course, even if you are a ‘tried and tested’ linguist (which is demonstrable)? We would be most grateful if you could provide some information, tips, hints, tricks or pointers; anything that could help us. Thanking you in advance, Yours Sincerely,
Marc and Carmen”
Anyone?
November 4th, 2007 at 2:55 am
1) Are they looking for work specifically in an international school, or just a language school? Qualifications required vary greatly.
2) Where are they looking to work? As a rule of thumb, the more established an EFL market the country has, the less picky they are about hiring native speakers only. Asia, in particular, if a couple of decades behind & suffers from the “native speaker fallacy”.
3) I agree completely that non-native speakers can offer a range of pedagogical advantages over monolingual native speakers. Not every school or director thinks this way, though.
4) Again, I might be speaking only for myself here, but it’s the “time and money invested” in a TEFL course which can help to show how serious & committed a candidate is to work in this field. Also, regardless of prior academic qualifications (and I’ve employed qualified K-12 teachers and linguists before), I feel that, at the very least, an entry-level TEFL certificate gives new EFL teachers a range of tools and practical methods to work with, which they can then begin to develop and analyse through their own experience and prior background.
So, in a nutshell:
Decide what kind of school you want to work for, and in what region. Vagueness tends to be seen as a negative by recruiters.
if you wish to work in a language school, consider taking an entry-level TEFL course, and research reputable schools/companies to work for.
It can definitely be done, and you seem to have the motivation, but remember that, in much of the world, non-native speakers need to be more patient & more qualified than native speakers to stand an equal chance in the job market. But don’t give up!
November 7th, 2007 at 12:18 am
First thoughts-
- University lecturing jobs might be easier to come by than actual teaching jobs, because then qualifications are more important than experience
- One of the benefits of being a non-native teacher is knowing the Ss L1, so I’d stick to teaching English in Spanish speaking countries or working in a Dutch International school somewhere