Qualifications |
|
TEFLChina Teahouse: Job issues: Qualifications:
|
Certificates and training vs. MA TESL
Sara Smucker is wondering whether to do a one month Lado certificate or a longer and more academic TEFL course of preparation before coming to teach in China. My advice is to do the certificate, and before you do it check to make sure it is training oriented -- lots of classroom management tips and techniques. And if they don't employ at least several trainers who have taught English in Asia choose another program that does.
I did a masters degree in TESL at the University of San Francisco School of Education before coming to teach in China. For the past two and a half years I have been teaching in China and finding the education and linguistics theory and methodology I learned in the masters degree more a source of anguish and frustration than helpful in my classroom. This because Chinese universities fail my professional expectations constantly. Curriculums are frankly very badly conceived, pedagogically speaking.
The education theory I learned in my MA TESL often only serves to remind me that the organization of education in China is *much* less than I want it to be. That doesn't help me because I am not the one organizing it, nor do I have any *vote* in such organization, other than in what I *do* in my classes. Techniques would help me enjoy my classes more than theory does.
A certificate stressing classroom techniques and know how from people who have been here would help me more than my heavy on educational theory MA. In China you are on your own. No one around you in China is likely to know how to help you. Your students will sense your difficulty and try to help. They don't know how of course. But they will try and their advice may be all you get.
So a certificate course is a very good idea and probably your best bet. Be sure it is full of techniques that you can apply to grossly proficiency varied and large classes. You will have false beginners to advanced in the same class together, 24 students per class, and due to gross administrative problems, sometimes 50 students per class. Tell your trainers you are going to China and tell them this is what you will be working with. If you come to university, you will.
The students will enjoy you if you have the ability to entertain them while they deal with this crazy situation. To this end, techniques learned in a certificate course will be more valuable to you and them than theory learned in an MA.
The theory is important -- important to the development of education in China which in turn is important to the world -- but foreign teachers don't have the departmental power to operate in that realm here. Foreign teachers in China are guest teachers, not part of the department! As a guest you are expected to bring something useful for your students, not to push the department to change the way they do things. Some foreign teachers find ways to have a good experience with their classes. It can take enormous creativity. Get all the practical help and resources you can from people who have had successes teaching in China before you come because once you are here both are hard to find.
Christians, consider joining a Christian organization sending teachers to China. They pool their successes and it is a great resource to have God in your admin.
Hope this helps :-)
Positive energy! The certificate will help you have a good time here I think. Few net any significant income teaching in China. Live now and be happy... if you can :-)
Keep in mind: Peace Corps volunteers are only *allowed* to volunteer for about four years. Many foreign experts/guest teachers in China find that one or two years here more appropriate than three or four.
Roger Chrisman in Beijing
