Unit 6
Professional development
Synopsis
In this final unit we will consider some of the cultural issues you should be aware of when teaching in different regions of the world.
We will then look at ways of seeking, applying for and keeping employment.
We will think about your professional development, by consideration of examinations you can take, and some of the professional associations you can join.
Finally we present a webliography of many contacts that you may find useful throughout your career
Unit 6 Professional development
Cultural issues
We will now consider some areas of cultural difference that we should be aware of when teaching throughout the world.
There are some general rules that you should keep in mind, wherever you work
1 Find out as much as you can about the country or region before you go, by researching books such as the Lonely Planet guide.
2. When in the country, at work, be conservative in your manner, speech and actions until such a time that you are confident that you will not cause offence.
3. Use the formal greetings of the country until you find appropriate alternatives.
4. Never express political or social opinion unless you are certain that your comments will not be misrepresented.
5. Don't make comments about people from the organization if they are not there.
6. Don't be sarcastic with your students (it may not be understood).
A good introduction to this topic is given here: www.tesolcourse.com/tesol-faqs/tefl-tesol/should-we-teach-culture-in-the-esl-classroom
Unit 6 Professional development
Some questions
nHere are som
Here are some questions you should be able to answer about the country in which you intend to work:
n What is a brief history of this country or region?
n How is the population distributed?
n What are the main cities?
n What religious and political denominations are there?
n What stereotypes exist?
n What truth, if any, is there in those stereotypes?
n How friendly and open are the country’s people to foreigners?
n What language is spoken? Is there more than one?
n What are the main points of cultural heritage?
n What dress code will I have to adhere to in the classroom?
n Are there any dress codes I will need to bear in mind in my free time?
n What body language/gestures should be avoided?
n What gifts are acceptable to give or receive?
n What conversational taboos exist?
n Are there formal protocols to cover in conversations/meetings/negotiations?
Rightly or wrongly, your gender and background may affect the answers to some of these questions, which is worth bearing in mind. You may well have your personal views on many of the points above but it’s probably best to keep them to yourself after your arrival in the country concerned.
An excellent resource in these areas is the Culture Shock! series of books, available for many countries around the world.
Unit 6
Professional development
Finding employment
Opportunities for employment exist throughout the world for EFL teachers of young learners. There are a number of ways that you can go about gaining a post.
Through advertising
There are a couple of ways you can use advertising. The internet is a vast source of job opportunities worldwide (See webliography). Here you will find job postings with a brief description of the position and usually something about the school or training centre Newspapers such as the Educational Guardian (in the UK and online), have a section on TEFL posts. You can find postings on some of the larger training company websites:
ITTT: www.teflcourse.net/tefl-jobs/ International House: www.ihworld.com/job
(b) You can also work the other way round and post your CV/resume on the Internet.
Dave’s ESL Café tefljobsworld.com TEFL.net
Footprints Recruiting learn4good.com
Some recruitment sites have a standard resume template that you fill in online. You’ll also need to get a username and password for some of them.
In Country
Many people know where they would ideally like to work and if this is the case it can be a good idea to travel to that country and look for work once you are there. You will need to have some cash reserves and may need to take a general position to keep some money coming in whilst you look for your ideal job.
The benefits of actually being able to go to schools or training centers are that you can see for yourself the working environment, talk to people already employed there about working conditions and generally get a better 'feel' for the post.
This method of searching for a job usually pays off.
Unit 6 Professional development
When searching for work there are a few important things to keep in mind:
n When are the main recruiting periods for the country/region that you want to work in? You will obviously have a greater chance of securing a position during these times.
n Is it possible to work during the school holidays? Many schools offer summer schools, or English ‘camps’ when regular schools aren’t in session.
n Do you know anyone already working in the area? One of the most effective ways of getting a post is through a personal recommendation.
What questions should you ask a potential employer either before you arrive, or at an interview?
Here are our top 50 questions to ask, which are in no particular order of priority. It's probably best not to ask too many questions about holidays or pay right at the start of the interview
1 What is the exact length of the contract, and when does it begin and end?
2. How and when do teachers get paid?
3. Do teachers have to work on Saturdays or Sundays?
4. Are there any extra-curricular responsibilities? If yes, what are they?
5. How many other teachers are there and where are they from?
6. What support systems are there for teachers?
7 What kind of schedule are you going to have (morning, evening, split)?
8. Where will I teach? At a school or language center?
9. How many hours do you have to teach?
10. What does the timetable consist of?
11. Do teachers have to work overtime?
12. Is there an orientation session?
13. Is there a probation period?
14. Is the contract renewable?
15. Are teaching resources and materials provided?
16. Will you have your own classroom or will you have to share it?
17 Will you have to teach at various locations?
18. If yes, who pays for transportation?
19. What kind of students will you have? Age? Education level? Nationality?
20. Do you have to teach at the same age level or will you have various age groups or mixed classes?
Unit 6 Professional development
21 How often are the staff meetings, and what other functions do teachers have to attend?
22. Who supervises the program? Is there a program coordinator?
23. Is the program based on a particular course or do teachers have to develop their own program?
24. Is there a photocopying machine or internet access? If so, do I have to pay for it?
25. What other resources are available?
26. What is the school policy on discipline?
27. Are there any bonuses at the end of the contract?
28. What is the savings potential (salary/cost of living ratio)?
29. Are there legal restrictions on the amount of money you can send home?
30. Is housing provided? Is it shared? If yes, do you get a separate room?
31. What bills are included? (Utilities, telephone, furniture, TV, AC, appliances, etc.)
32. How far is it from school?
33. If not, does the school assist with finding housing?
34. How much is the typical rent? What are the other costs (agent fees, security deposit, etc)
35. Is health insurance included? If yes, what is the health-service provider? When does the coverage begin?
36. What are the holiday entitlements? Do you get any paid vacation time? How much?
37. Are any sick/personal days allowed?
38. Who pays for your air tickets? If teachers must pay for their airfare, is any portion of it going to be reimbursed?
39. Does the school pay for extra baggage? (Personal course and resource books, etc)
40. Does the school pay for a return flight?
41. Is there ongoing in-house training?
42. What is the currency in which teachers are paid?
43. Are teachers paid in cash or by a direct bank deposit?
44. Is any money held back? (Some schools do hold money back!)
45. Does the school guarantee a minimum salary, irrespective of hours? What is it?
46. How much tax is withheld? Is any portion of it returned upon completion of contract?
47. What are penalties for breaking the contract?
48. Who is in charge of any discipline problems that may occur?
49. Will the school buy extra materials I think I need?
50. What opportunities for promotion are there?
Unit 6 Professional development
C.V./résumé
Research on the internet or through books about 'How to write the perfect CV or résumé and you will find a lot of conflicting advice; some of it exact opposites.
The problem is that everyone has their own idea of what should and should not be included on a CV or résumé. You can take the advice of the CV gurus or you can go about writing your own in the following way:
Imagine you are an employer or that you are the recruitment manager for a company You advertise for three new teachers and you get 2000 responses.
It is your job to go through these CVs and résumés and put together a shortlist of 15 candidates from whom you are going to request further information and from these you will call eight for interview.
What do you want to know about your candidates?
These are the basics:
n Name in full
n Date of birth (Political correctness is a Western invention)
n Phone number, including international dialing code
n Email address (make it professional; dreamygrl@hotmail.com wouldn’t be appropriate, for example)
n Current address (if you’re already in country this will be an advantage)
n Nationality (you may not be eligible for visas/work permits)
n Marital status (the reality is that some employers don’t want you to be married or have children as many will provide single accommodation)
n Teaching experience
n Qualifications
Which of the above you decide to put on your CV/ is obviously your choice, but think of this from the employer’s résumé perspective; if they have to contact you for information they feel should already be there, then they may not bother
Unit 6 Professional development
Following your personal information the other two most important sections are your work experience and your qualifications.
Qualifications usually come first and are presented in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Only include relevant information here – you may have a certificate for swimming 100 yards underwater but it doesn't really help your job prospects.
Bear in mind that for work permits in some countries you will need to provide original transcripts of degree certificates and therefore you can only put on your C.V. those things you have documentation for. or résumé
Employment history should also be in reverse chronological order. If you have a lot of work experience this section of your C.V./ can become bulky, so just write the dates of employment, the employer and job title, then after your list résumé summarize all the experience in one block so there is no repetition of similar experiences.
The person reading your C.V./ may well end up working with you and so it is useful to put some information about résumé your personal interests. If your employer doesn't feel they would want to work with you then it is probably just as well you don't get the job, as you have to be comfortable at work as well.
In summary:
n Keep it brief and relevant.
n Be totally honest (or at least have proof to back up any claims made)
n Try to give a flavor of your personality
n Use a readable font.
See the sample C.V./ on the next page, and the sample cover email on page 10. résumé
Unit 6
Professional development
Sample C.V (this is a minimum)
Peter Andrew Davis
Objective
Date of Birth
Nationality
Contact details
Current residence
Marital status
Qualifications
Employment history
Personal interests
Skills
References
To obtain a position teaching 6 to 11 year-old children in Japan
21st February 1960
American pad2003@yahoo.com, tel (+66) 4 745 2236 Bangkok, Thailand
Single
TEFL certificate in Teaching English to Young Learners (50 hours), Phuket, Thailand, June 2004
TEFL certificate (120 hours), Barcelona , Spain, July 1999 (Taught ten one-hour lessons, completed language awareness examination with a score of 97%)
Bsc. Mechanical Engineering class 2(1), Bristol University (UK) 1988
Phuket Daw Sahn School: July 2002 to November 2004
Senior EFL Teacher at Elementary school. Managed seven foreign EFL teachers and taught 16 hours of general English per week to mixed classes
Patchaburi High school, Chumphon, Thailand: August 1999 to June 2002
Teacher of English as a foreign language at mixed sex state school; taught 25 hours per week
British Aerospace Research and development, April 1989 to February 1999
Turbine blade development
Travel, reading biographies, football, hiking, languages.
Skills Basic Spanish, elementary Thai, computer literate.
References available on request.
Unit 6
Professional development
Sample cover email
This is a sample cover email that you can use to send out your resume to potential employers. Put the ideas below into your own words, inserting your name and contact details, and personalizing as much as possible. This should be treated as a minimum guideline, and be a lot more detailed in reality.
Be careful not to duplicate information on your .C.V./résumé
This should be completely re-written, in case two people using this template apply for the same job!
To whom it may concern,
My name is XXX XXXX, and I have recently completed the certification course in teaching Teaching English to Young Learners with International TEFL and TESOL Training (ITTT).
I’m contacting you with regard to the current vacancy you have advertised at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. I believe you or currently have a vacancy at your institution. I am very enthusiastic to continue my teaching career with your organisation.
My experience of XXXXX and its people has been of great benefit to me in many ways. I intend to remain in XXXXXX [country] for the foreseeable future, to gain a greater understanding of the culture and attempt to exchange my knowledge of the English language with the people of XXXXXX. [Brief summary of YL experience, if any]
Please find attached my C.V., detailing my qualifications, experience and suitability to positions that you may have available.
Please contact me at XXX@XXXX or call me on xxxxxxxxxx for any further information or to schedule an interview.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
XXX XXXX
Unit 6 Professional development
Additional qualifications
If you intend to pursue a management position, you would benefit from further qualifications, and may want to consider a diploma course.
Bear in mind that you will need at least two years of teaching experience or a prior TEFL certificate-level qualification to take a diploma course.
Typically a diploma course can be taken over a period of eight to ten weeks as a full-time course, or as a distance learning course with no fixed timeframe.
ITTT offers a 250-hour Diploma course in TESOL (DipTESOL), conducted online. Full details here:
www.teflcourse.net/online-tefl-courses/diploma
Certain countries such as those in the Middle East tend to prefer a Masters degree-level qualification to the Diploma level, as typically teaching positions in those areas pay very well.
Many British universities offer MAs in TEFL and TESOL with particular reference to Young Learners.
You will find information on these courses at the websites for these British universities: Edinburgh, Leeds, Strathclyde, York, Kent, Lancashire, Salford, Middlesex, Birmingham, Reading and Warwick.
Another option to consider would be the Master of Education in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (M.Ed. in TESOL) offered by Paris University of International Education. More information here: https://puie.ac/graduate/med-in-tesol
Unit 6 Professional development organisations
Associations and
There are many professional bodies and organizations that you can be a member of, or have an affiliation with.
These bodies provide a wealth of information for teachers and often hold conferences where you can learn about new developments and take part in discussion forums.
Here are some of the Associations/organizations you could become involved in:
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
The Australian Council for TESOL Association
The British Council English Language Contacts Scheme (ELTECS)
The Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
The European Council of International Schools
Japan Association of College English Teachers (JACET)
International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)
Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
The TEFL board
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)
There are inevitably costs associated with joining certain groups in this list but they can repay themselves with information that you will find useful.
Unit 6
Professional development
General EFL webliography
Book publishers
Cambridge University Press: www.cambridge.org
Longman ELT: www.pearsonelt.com
MacMillan Heinemann: www.macmillaneducation.com
Oxford University Press: www.oup.com
WWW Virtual Library: www.comlab.ox.ac.uk
This final section lists useful websites arranged by function.
We would recommend that you visit as many sites as possible to gain further practical information, both for your teaching and professional development.
The web addresses were correct at the time of going to print.
TEYL sites
https://yltsig.iatefl.org/ https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/ www.cilt.org.uk www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies www.bogglesworldesl.com
Unit 6 Professional development
Reference material
Encyclopaedia Britannica: www.eb.com
Oxford English Dictionary: www.oed.com
Roget’s Thesaurus: www.thesaurus.com
Online dictionaries: ,www.alphadictionary.com www.dictionary.com
Journals and newspapers
The English teaching professional: www.etprofessional.com
The English Language Gazette Online: www.elgazette.com
The Financial Times: www.ft.com
The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk
Other useful sites
Holiday and seasonal educational activities: www.theholidayzone.com
The Teacher’s Corner: https://seasonal.theteacherscorner.net
Drama Resource: www.dramaresource.com
TEFL Games: www.teflgames.com
Unit 6 Professional development
Task sheet
Check your knowledge before attempting the unit test.
Please note that this task sheet is solely for checking that you have understood the course unit content. You do not need to submit this task sheet – just use it to check you have understood the major points.
Note: not all the information needed for the answers can be found in the unit, so you may need to do further research from other sources.
Task 1 –
Complete a C.V./résumé and an accompanying cover letter, written as if you were applying for a position teaching English to young learners.
Task 2–
List, in detail, some of the unique problems you might experience while teaching young learners in each of these countries:
a. China
b. South Korea
c. Viet Nam
d. Kuwait
e. Oman
f. Bulgaria
Unit 6 Professional development
Task 3 – Using the lesson plan below, write a full lesson plan that will address one of the problems that you described in task 2 on the previous page. Complete all the boxes. At this stage of the course you should be able to be precise with the learner objectives and anticipated problems with solutions.
Teacher:
Class level:
Language point:
Teaching aids: Learner objectives: For the students to be able to
Anticipated problems for students:
Solutions:
Solutions: Personal aims: Time: Room:
Date and time:
Expected number of students:
Anticipated problems for teacher:
Lesson Plan
Unit 6
Professional development
Unit 6 Professional development
Task 4 –Task 5 –
4. List five things you should never do (due to cultural issues) in a country of your choice: (i) (ii) (iii)
(iv)
(v) Describe what you would be expected to study on an MA TEFL course:
Unit 6 Professional development
Supplement
Very young learners (under 4)
This course has been written with a particular age group in mind. The teaching of Young learners may bring you into contact with students outside the range considered here.
For example students as young as 2 years of age are now learning English as a second language, and there are obviously many situations where your students will be older than 13 years of age.
As a postscript to the course, here are some brief considerations to bear in mind for very young and older learners.
n Activities should be constantly varied to take account of shorter attention spans.
n Activities should be visual and based around the use of motor facilities, e.g. painting, movement, follow the leader, etc.
n Verbal instructions should be minimized.
n Time may have to be built in to your lessons for sleep.
n Learning should take place through the medium of play rather than any formal instruction.
Older learners (13 to 18)
n Learners at this age feel they are adults and will not appreciate being treated otherwise.
n Learners at this age have a lot of experience they can bring to the classroom, try where ever possible to use it.
n These learners have very clear ideas about likes and dislikes and can be quite pedantic if they consider a topic boring.
n Be prepared to justify the usefulness of any topic you ask them to study
n Be aware that students at this age will invariably prefer to be anywhere else other than in a classroom, so you should
endeavor to bring their outside interests into the classroom.
