Some questions about working in the EFL Teaching field

What does one need to start a career in the TEFL field?  How important is it to be a native speaker?

I tried to respond to Bruna Mendes' mess of a question in my Linkdin group "Teaching Concerns"

I am currently undertaking a course on Instructional Design - area in which I already have experience on; however, this one focus on LMS (Learning Management Systems).

The point is:Most members belonging to the TESOL area are native-speakers (actually, I'm the only non-native teacher), and I realise they struggle to make sts understand some pronunciation and other sbjcts when explaining a topic, exactly for being natives and for speaking English as a mother tongue (and, of course, for not having that problem when they were back at school learning English as a first language).

Question (s) - when it comes to TEFL, being non-native and, thus, understanding more deeply sts' problems, should be a plus in this career? Or mastering the language as a native is more appealing in terms of getting hired? Having a TESOL certificate (only) matters? And not having it, and being native - is that ok?

Here's my response:

Bruna,

Sylvia Pleskova, English Teacher?

I'll try to answer some of your questions as well as I can based upon my experiences teaching in Loma Bonita, Oaxaca, Mexico and watching cable television.

* "when it comes to TEFL, being non-native and, thus, understanding more deeply sts' problems, should be a plus in this career?"

Yes, it should be a plus. That doesn't mean that all non-natives can understand students' problems and it doesn't mean that a native speaker is incapable of understanding.

Many Graduate programs in EFL teaching require that Native Speakers of English acquire profiency in a 2nd language.


* "Or mastering the language as a native is more appealing in terms of getting hired?"

Many employers and students desire only to hire native speakers.

That doesn't mean that a non-native will find it impossible to find employment or that a non-native cannot create opportunities for themselves. It might not be as easy, though.

* "Having a TESOL certificate (only) matters? And not having it, and being native - is that ok?"

Sure it's ok... if they can find a job.

There are many employers that will only consider someone with a State issued Teaching Certificate. There are also employers that will only hire people with a Master's degree.

Sometimes natives can get by without having a certificate. Usually prior experience in teaching or having a Bachelor's degree will be asked for in those cases.

I'm sure that it's possible for a Native speaker to get jobs without any education, certificates, or experience.. I wouldn't recommend it as a place to work or as a place to study, however.

I've heard of cases in Mexico where white/blonde women from non-English speaking countries in Europe were employed as English teachers because they "looked" like English teachers.  I also heard that there was a high student retention rate among males in that school.

 In summary,
A native speaker who has a TESOL certificate will have more opportunities than a non-native speaker who doesn't have a certificate.

  Are you a native speaker but would like to visit your possible future coworkers in Slovakia?  This book has been a life-saver, The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia.  It contains everything you need to know to get off on the right foot with Sylvia.

How to create your own blogger blog and gmail account and use it as ePortfolio

How to Set Up Google Apps for E-portfolio Electronic Portfolios 2.0: Emergent Research on Implementation and Impact

How to make your English teacher happy in 5 easy steps

1.  Create a gmail account at www.gmail.com. 
2.  Save the username and password of your new google/gmail account.
3.  Use the username and password to enter www.blogger.com.
4.  Create a blog.
5.  Send me an e-mail which contains the URL of your new blog.
     
Note:
(URL should be http:// y o u r n a m e .blogspot.com, you have to tell blogger which name to use.  For example, my blog's URL is http://gringoinloma.blogspot.com and my e-mail is gringoeatstacos@gmail.com)

p.s. that's not my real e-mail address!

What are your strategies for learning English by watching movies?

In a class with UNPA professors on Monday morning, we discussed strategies for learning English while watching movies.

These are my recommendation in steps as you progress in comfort and ability.  (If it's too hard and you're not having fun, go back to a previous step!)

Buy/ rent/ borrow a DVD with content that is fun for you.  The main advantage of DVDs are that they have multiple audio and subtitle language options.  By adjusting these you can adjust how you study English with what you are watching.   You can also pause and go back to listen to parts again.  You can't do that with television.


Once you have some materials to watch on DVD you can begin to learn English!  (see below and comments sections for recommendations)

Steps of Watching - Listening and Reading - Easy to Difficult
1.  Watch with Spanish audio.  Pay close attention to body language, non verbal communication, think about how some of the story could be told in English.

2.  Watch with Spanish audio and English subtitles.  Try to pick up some new vocabulary by comparing what you are reading and hearing.  Think about how the translation was made.  Was it very literal - word for word?  What couldn't they translate?  Write down new vocabulary words you remember.

3.  Watch with English audio track and Spanish subtitles.  This is how you are probably used to watching foreign English language movies and television.  What did you understand by listening?  Did you need to read along to follow the story?

4.  Watch with English audio track and English subtitles.  Try to associate with what you are hearing with what is being said and how they are saying it.  How does their speech reflect their character?  Did what you didn't understand keep you from enjoying the story?  If this step is too difficult try again with movies for younger audiences.

5.  Watch with English audio track and no subtitles.  Write down any words you heard that you will want to look up in the dictionary later.  Take advantage of the pause and rewind functions of the DVD to repeat difficult to understand sections.

A couple of questions for you-
What are your favorite DVD's in your collection?  What is a movie you recently watched in English that was easy to understand?

If you are interested in science fiction, Iron Man 2 is a new on DVD blockbuster action movie that you can order online.

If you prefer series from Cable TV, you can buy the series on DVD and watch them season-by-season at your leisure.  One of the better crime scene investigation series that has come out in recent years is Dexter, (Dexter: The Fourth Season now on DVD).  Dexter is a great blend of many genres (CSI Miami - House - Mr. Brooks).

Today I made a table

Today I made a table. No, I'm not learning carpentry. I learned how to make a table with HTML on Blogger.

When I checked out my Blogger this morning, I saw that there were some new entries and comments on 2computacion.blogspot.com the Level 2 English Class Blog. When I went to see the new entries on the Blog, they weren't there.

I have learned that if I get a notification of a new entry but on the blog there isn't anything new it's because the student has saved the entry as a draft or deleted it. Because all students have author privileges but I'm the "owner", I can see what drafts students have been working on. I can even publish drafts, edit entries, or completely delete them.

As a side note, one thing that is important to me is that students retain ownership of their blogs they are using for ePortfolios. I can't directly edit or change their entries on their blogs. It's up to the students to take what I leave in the comment box and revise/improve their published works.

When I saw in the draft box an entry which contained

Possessive
Adjectives Pronouns

singular plural singular plural
1st My----->our 1st mine---->ours
2nd Your-->your 2nd Yours--->yours
His--->their His------>theirs
3rd Her---->their 3rd Her----->theirs

I saw the need to format this information in a way which is a little easier to understand.

Blogger doesn't have an option (at least from what I could find) to insert a table but it does have an HTML editing option. I did a Google Search and found this great book by Andy Harris and Chris McCulloh on Amazon.com  HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

I followed the easy steps and made this

Singular	Plural
my	our
your	your
his, her, its	their

in TextEdit.

I copy and pasted the HTML into the student saved draft HTML editor. I copy and pasted and edited it a few times, introducing more columns and rows, until finally something which looks like this

Possessive	Adjectives	UNPA English
1st	my	our
2nd	your	your
3rd	his, her, its	their
Person	Singular	Plural

and

Possessive	Pronouns	UNPA English
1st	mine	ours
2nd	yours	yours
3rd	his, hers, its	theirs
Person	Singular	Plural

I'm happy it turned OK. It was fun to experiment with some very basic HTML editing on Blogger.
You can see the full student entry on the 2Computacion Class Blog here.

 

3 weeks of class

We've passed the 3 week mark and the groups are really starting to use their blogs well.

My level 2 class are busy publishing their biographies at the moment. We're still looking at how to use Past Simple.
2 compu y mate Class blog

They were having some problems with knowing which blog to publish on. There were quite a few entries being published on the class blog which should be on their portfolio blog.

I'll be checking their work to make sure they have at least three items published on their blogs this week. This is to avoid them procrastinating or having to repeat module for not submitting a finished portfolio for evaluation. Part of the communication, revision, and reflection goals I have for the system depend on the students publishing in a timely manner.

New Semester

We are now officially in semester B!

I have 3 new groups of students.

One class is level 2. They are mathematics and computer science majors.

I also have two classes of level 5. One of the level 5 classes is mostly animal science and computation students. The other level 5 classes is a really good, mixed group of mechatronics, computation, and design.

I gave a power point presentation of how to set up blogger and gmail to my new students. The e-mails are already pouring in and I am busy setting up group e-mail lists and setting up the blogs to follow.

One of my goals for this semester is to set up class blogs that are student authored. I was inspired by DARREN KUROPATWA and his blogs and slidecasts. I hope that there will be a forming of community and a lot of collaboration on the class blogs.

The basic idea is that the students will be taking turns writing entries about what we are doing in class. The idea I got from seeing Mr. Kuropatwa's class blogs. It's a good idea and worth a try in my opinion. This would be an alternative to the learning diary or daily journal options.

One of the main reasons that I want to do the class blogs is to get the students to start reading what their peers have to say. Hopefully this will serve as a catalyst to more reflective entries and higher usage of the commenting function.

Design Matters!

Design Matters V1.1

View more presentations from dkuropatwa.

Dear Agony Aunt: Why don't Guys like me?

Do you remember when we read the letters asking for advice? This type of letter and advice (Agony Aunt) in magazines is very common.

Here are two examples from magazines which are very popular among teenage girls in the United States.

The first example is from Seventeen Magazine. My older sister used to get this magazine mailed to our home every month via subscription.

http://www.seventeen.com/health-sex-fitness/body-types/body-peace-blog/no-boys-liking-me

Amanda, age 17, has a problem with Boys in her highschool noticing her. Jess Weiner, an author and contribuiting writer for the magazine, gives her advice.

In the magazine Teen Vogue, a teenage girl who signed her letter Sick of Being Nice has a similiar problem.

http://www.teenvogue.com/connect/blogs/relationships/2009/11/why-dont-guys-like-me.html

Rachel Simmons gives her advice as part of her advice column, Ask Rachel.

Check your comprehension:

After reading these letters, can you identify what their problems are exactly? Can you summarize the advice given by each expert?

Reflect and share:

Have you ever experienced feeling like this?

Do you think that this is a common problem in the University? What advice would you give a friend with this problem?