Best Teaching Positions

[Harry Palmer]

as many of you know i hold an on-line surgery once a week at which time i try to answer the myriad of concerns & problems that face the average ELT in the LoS...

one of the common questions that i'm asked by would-be ELT's goes something like, 'which TEFL certificate should i study for, one that would then enable me to be accepted for employment in thailands most esteemed hall of academia'... the 'plum' jobs if you like to put it that way...

now what do you think my response is?

[Spellbound]

Harry

your answers is

Same - Same but different ( well at least in Thai )

[Ijustwannateach]

Shame, shame, Harry. Looking for a cert. slag, you are. This alone is a good reason for you not to be a mod!

I say it doesn't matter which one and pass the the salt, please.

If you've had a job already, it's worth more experience than any TEFL cert. And if you haven't had a job, none of the certs. will replace experience entirely, but you'd be crazy not to try to get one to have SOME kind of footing to stand on when interviewers ask about your qualifications. And in the tiny, incestuous world that is TEFLing, most people probably don't give a darn which one you have unless they're already profiting from the issuance of a particular brand anyway and wouldn't hire you without *THEIR* brand*, which is not many of them. So do the shopping, find the deal you like best, and get the cert. Forget the slagging.

"Steven"

[Harry Palmer]

you are wrong ijwt, there are teaching institutions that won't entertain you without a certain level of qualification, if you don't know that then i would assume you are one of the khaosarn road teaching brigade... in that case this thread is irrelevant to you... so sod off!

i recall a certain lady on the ajarn going into great depth on this one in the old days... bless her little cotton socks...

[kenkannif]

Please let us know who these institutions are Harry? And the lady's name was? Did it begin with an R?

Edited August 23, 2004 by kenkannif

[Harry Palmer]

Please let us know who these institutions are Harry? And the lady's name was? Did it begin with an R?

Yes & the "real" international schools.

[kenkannif]

Harry, for a 'real' international school you'd need a minimum of a specific teaching degree (generally), the certificate would be the least of your worries. Come on 'fess up?

[Ijustwannateach]

Harry, in general I've enjoyed your posts, however if you assume I'm one of the KSR brigade then I must assume, after all, that you are a troll. If you're going to continue to post these "mysterious" requirements then I agree with Ken that you need to name names or lose credibility.

As Ken says, at the "real" international schools a TEFL will be the least of your qualification worries. Got anything else?

"Steven"

[mbkudu]

I'm pretty sure that to get your foot in the door at a good international school like ISB, RIS ect.., you need to apply from your home country. They also require that you have had experience teaching in your home country. This means teaching students who are native speakers, so the TEFL or CELTA is irrelevant to them as a qualification. This is one of the reasons why I think it is absurd to require a degree

to teach English to non native speakers in language schools in Thailand; a TEFL or

CELTA should suffice. Experience never hurts either.

[Ijustwannateach]

^{applause}

"Steven"

[Harry Palmer]

Harry, in general I've enjoyed your posts, however if you assume I'm one of the KSR brigade then I must assume, after all, that you are a troll. If you're going to continue to post these "mysterious" requirements then I agree with Ken that you need to name names or lose credibility.

As Ken says, at the "real" international schools a TEFL will be the least of your qualification worries. Got anything else?

"Steven"

let the thread develop a bit more...

me a troll... nope... a laugh, a joke, a beer & a smoke .....

does anyone have a smoking smiley that i can use?

[Ajarn]

as many of you know i hold an on-line surgery once a week at which time i try to answer the myriad of concerns & problems that face the average ELT in the LoS...

one of the common questions that i'm asked by would-be ELT's goes something like, 'which TEFL certificate should i study for, one that would then enable me to be accepted for employment in thailands most esteemed hall of academia'... the 'plum' jobs if you like to put it that way...

now what do you think my response is?

Personally, if someone is planning to teach just in Thailand, I would recommend Text and Talk, or maybe the other local TEFL course offered, since both programs seem to try to relate their teaching to the Thai market, from reports I've heard, and local schools are mostly familiar with these local certs...

CELTA is internationaly recognized as being among the best entry-level courses, and it maintains it's reputation for quality partly because a rep from CELTA inspects EVERY course for quality and continuity. I was one of these course inspectors, for a time....If one's plan is to teach internationaly, this is the only course I would recommend. But, not if you're teaching just in Thailand, because I don't feel it gives adequate training in teaching kids, by far the biggest market for most newbie teachers in Thailand. CELTA is mostly designed for teaching adults. Admittedly, I'm pretty much out of the loop now on this issue, so there may have been some recent course changes I'm not aware of.

In any true International School, they demand real, qualified teachers. A CELTA or other such cert is only meaningfull in combination with a university degree related to your field of teaching, and/or a real Govt Teaching Certificate, such as required for teachers teaching in Public schools in the States or the UK.