I have some experience teaching business English to employees of large companies; In 2002 I taught some people at Amway Korea because they had to send emails and whatnot to their home office (that's when I started working on my business email writing tips handout). Later, I taught some people who worked for Korea's National Tax Service (kind of like the IRS).
That was a really interesting class. It always helps when you like the students, but also the content was neat. Now usually when I tell people that our text was an OECD publication on principles of taxations on transfer pricing for multinational enterprises they roll their eyes and groan. But I love unique CBI opportunities and if anyone ever needs an English teacher to do a CBI course on transfer pricing and tax implications I figure I can name my own price.
So anyway, I've been wondering what it would be like to teach business English in one of those big corporations. I found where those companies turn when they need their employees to learn a language. This British company's clients include Siemens, First Choice, BP, Ernst & Young, GE, Citigroup, Royal Opera House, and Pfizer. That must be a fun job. I haven't filled out the application form yet - I start my new job at Hangook University of Foreign Studies in March and plan to stay there a while, but it is on my list of places to consider in the future.
I was in the mood to complain about my heavy workload until I read this article about Chinese employers abusing foreign English teachers. This reminded me of my first job teaching English in Korea, at terrible school in Chinju (Jinju) named English House.
None of us ended up dead at English House as one man did in China recently), but we did experience a number of scary incidents that really just can't happen in America.
I guess my point is that if you're taking a job in China, Korea, or anywhere else really do some research. You should be able to do some networking and then find a place that recommended by someone you know and trust. If not, make sure you can escape if you need to.
So in order to take the new position I've been offered with SMU TESOL, I need to add a date to my CV. I wasn't sure where to put the date so I serached for example resmes. This one doesn't have a date, but it sure looks nice.
So I work at the Catholic University of Korea, but not for long. They just changed the 4 year limit for non-tenure track teachers to 3 years making this my last semester.
Unfortunately for students, this means that teachers familiar with the departments course offerings are going to be in short supply next sememster since one of my colleagues was just fired (in the middle of the semester) after students complained quite a bit.
Next semester students will ahve one teacher who has taught the department's content courses before and two who have not. I know from personal experience that the second time teaching a course like Public Speaking or Intercultural Communication is much better (for students and teachers) than the first time. But the university would rather save a few dollars (some Korean law dictates that after 3 years of employment, Korean employers must contribute more to the pension or something) than put experienced teachers (experienced with these particular courses that is) in the classroom.
I recently had the opportunity to do 4 workshops with TESOL trainees at a university in Chinju. Two were on writing and two on communicative tasks and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed telling people how I created my activities and why in more detail than I can go into with my students.
It also gives me some valuable teacher training expereince (even if not much) though I'm not sure if I'll be trying to move toward teacher training in the near future.
I recently got this email about teaching privates. I'm answering it here in case other teachers have similar interests.
Dear Jim -
I have recently come accross your website and think it's fantastic.
I need some advice.
I have taken an ESL course from Trinity / Windsor but have not had classroom experience outside the course. The course was great in giving us a basic set of skills, but I would like some advice on how to give a private student value for money.I am taking on some private students but would love some clues on how to tackle estcablishing a curriculum for a student - are there skill indicator tests for grammar and the like ; should i use one particular set of text books (and do i need to buy the student, teacher and exercise books as many come in these sets and the cost can be astronomical) as a basis - any particular recommendations?; any other ideas.
Any help greatly appreaciated.
Thanks
So I don't suggest trying to come up with your own curriculum. Find a book that works for both you and the student. If you want to ask questions about that specific book, try my message board (if you don't see a forum for whatever book you're using send me an email and I'll add whatever you need).
The best skill indicator test I know of is talking to the student. This shoud allow you to find out what the student wants to learn, what situations the student will be using English in, what kind of grammar mistakes the student makes, and what level of vocabulary the student posesses. Make sure to ask the student what books s/he has studied from in the past so you don't try to use a book the student has already completed!
When it comes to who pays for the book, I would say that this is a question of personal preference. There may be a precedent wherever you are, but I don't know of one here in Korea. If the student is paying above average for your services, strongly consider paying for the book. Otherwise go with your gut. My wife normally makes students pay for their own book (but not for the teacher's manual). I never ask students to buy the book (unless I'm teaching a class; no way am I buying 10 books!).
Hope that helps.
I thought that being the KOTESOL CALL SIG facilitator would really impress people when they saw it on my CV. Now, however, I am beginning to think it's not very impressive.
My first clue was when I interviewed for a higher position here at Catholic University. They asked me if I was able to teach a CALL class. I was taken aback by the question; hadn't they seen "CALL SIG facilitator" on my CV?
Then recently I tried to resign. Only one person expressed an interest in the position and that interest was limited to one email and may have been more about curiosity than anything else.
And I remember when I got the job back in 2003. I went to join this SIG and noticed a message on the KOTESOL web page "The CALL SIG is currently in need of a facilitator". There just aren't that many people who want to do the job.
Now if I somehow turned the CALL SIG into some monster organization like Kip Cates has done with the Gloabl Issues SIG in Japan, I would end up making a name for myself. But just being a facilitator does not seem to impress.
So you may remember the teacher who helped the university out by taking on numerous extra classes. Then he learned that the university couldn't pay him for all 33 hours he's teaching.
There seemed to be no way around this (which bothers me because it seems that the university doesn't realize how indebted they should feel to him) so he offered to teach 3 hours free and not do office hours (he would be available by appointment only).
The university should have agreed to this right away or offered to take one of his classes. They have done neither.
You may remember me complaining about my schedule. Well I recently learned that a friend of mine has too much overtime. The university does not ahve enough teachers and my friend is doing 15 hours overtime. But it seems that a Korean law prevents him from getting paid all that overtime.
So he is ready to drop a few classes if the university won't bend the rules for him. Of course, we all feel we have too much work (though I think he wins) and no one wants his classes. This might become an interesting story so I'll keep you posted.
Well I had complained about my schedule and it has gotten a little better. I now ahve 6 classes instead of 7 and one less writing class so fewer papers to correct. Of course i still ahve 6 preps as no two classes are the same so i will be planty busy this semester...
I'm asking for a change, but if I don't get one I'll be quite busy during the Spring semester. My contract calls for 12 hours, but my schedule calls for 21!
The workload is a real problem because I have 7 classes with 6 different preperations. 4 of these are writing classes which will require lots of correcting and public speaking also requires much correcting. Also on Tuesday I begin teaching at 9:00 AM and finish at 10:30 PM (but only have 3 hours of classes) while Thursday is only slightly better. I can live with a 5 day work week, but as the schedule stands now I'm not sure if I can handle all the classes effectively.
Sponsored by Puppies for Sale, a good place to look for puppies.
So I'm moving to another department at CUK. My previous director was fantastic, especially when my grandfather passed away and I had to leave Korea for a week and a haf, but after two years of teaching New Interchange (three if you count my previous job) I was looking for a new challenge. I was having difficulty being creative with only two hours a week and a requirement to cover the text.
Plus as some of the regualr readers will know (almost 300 different people/day now), I was having issues with some teachers being given raises and a warning that the raise promised me might not be given. At the new department I get more vacation time - I teach only the two 16 week semesters with no summer or winter camp.
And there's a bit more prestige within the university as every teacher in my new department has at least a Masters. In my old one a few of us had Masters, but not all (I'm not saying that you need a Masters to be a good language teacher, just that when everyone has a Masters the department gets more prestige).
I'm told that one of us had no teaching experience of any kind - just an undergrad degree. Again, this person might be a brilliant teacher (though no experience makes this more unlikely than no advanced degree), but some people must wonder why the school calls us visiting professors.
One of the most stressful things in life for me is the job hunt. I don't enjoy wrtiting cover letters and going to interviews. One of the books I got for Christmas, Purple Cow by Seth Godin, has some advice for making your job hunt easier:
Be remarkable. Do an outrageous job. Work on high-profile projects.
Think about Dave Sperling of Dave's ESL Cafe fame. His teaching qualifications are pretty standard but he gets more speaking invitations than me. He did something remarkable.
I do a lot of academic things; I make presentations, publish papers, faciliatate the KOTESOL CALL SIG, have a Masters. I used to think that made me special, but that's what professors are supposed to do. It's expected.
Maybe what I really need is for ESL go to take off. Or this blog of course...
A complaint about my job. Last semester I was promised a raise when I completed my Master of Applied Linguistics. I completed it, waited a few months for them to mail me the diploma, did a bunch of paperwork, and was told I wouldn't get the raise until next year because they couldn't change my current contract.
The other day they asked me to stay and I agreed. Then they told me I might not get the raise I was promised. My colleague got a raise when she finhed her Masters, thanks to some strong lobbying from the previous coordinator. I've asked the new coordinator to do the same for me but she ahs only been here a few months while the previous one had been here a number of years.
This whole thing is very upsetting. I don't like thinking that the university won't back up the previous coordinator's promise. I don't like thinking that my colleague will be making more money than me while we have the same qualifications. I was wondering if I should be mad because another colleague who has been here only 6 months told me they promised him a raise next semester. I'm not going to be angry if that's a raise for the entire staff, but otherwise I think I'll be very angry.
So the 20 minute sample lesson was OK, but not spectacular. The students didn't seem to know each other and were a bit uncomfortable talking to each other. In a real class we would have been playing games to break the ice...
Anyway I didn't get the job but want to write down the questions they asked before I forget them all.
Your sample lesson was a vocabulary lesson. Do you use any other methods to teach vocabulary?
What is your approach to teaching writing?
What is your greatest strength as a teacher?
Are you willing to work many extra hours?
Why do you want to leave your current position?
A while back, why did you leave a school after only one year?
What responsibilities do you have at your current school other than teaching?
How do you assess students in your current school?
There must have been more, but I can't remember them now. What I noticed and didn't like was that they didn't allow time in the schedule for me to ask questions.
So the 20 minute sample lesson and interview went pretty well. I'll write about the interview in another post, but here I'll share my sample lesson. The biggest problem was that the class didn't know each other and the students weren't really comfortable speaking to each other. A 20 minute game would have been better to make things more fun, but I don't think the 5 obervers wanted to see a getting to know you activity...
11/27/2004 - Ewha Women's University - Sex & gender lesson - James Trotta
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students should understand the vocabulary items (sex, sex-typed, sex-typing, gender, gender differentiated, and gender stereotype) well enough to define each item and discuss the concept represented by each item with personal examples.
Gender - Socially defined behavior regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex.
Gender differentiated - More suitable for one gender.
Gender stereotype - Actions and qualities associated with being a "real man" or "ladylike."
Sex - The biological categories of females and males.
Sex-typed - viewed differently for males and females.
Sex-typing - treating males and females differently.
An excerpt from "Parental Influence on Children's Socialization to Gender Roles" by Susan D. Witt, Ph.D. The entire paper is available at http://gozips.uakron.edu/~susan8/parinf.htm
Parents encourage their sons and daughters to participate in sex-typed activities, including doll playing and engaging in housekeeping activities for girls and playing with trucks and engaging in sports activities for boys. Children's toy preferences have been found to be significantly related to parental sex-typing, with parents providing gender-differentiated toys and rewarding play behavior that is gender stereotyped. While both mothers and fathers contribute to the gender stereotyping of their children, fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often than mothers.
1. What are some gender differentiated toys for girls? Boys?
2. What are some sex-typed activities for girls? Boys?
Discussion
When you were growing up, did anyone in your family reinforce gender stereotypes (i.e. encourage you to be more ladylike or more manly)?
For example, were you encouraged to participate in sex-typed activities?
Were you given gender differentiated toys?
Did your parents reward play behavior that was gender stereotyped?
Lesson Plan: 10:00-10:20, Ewha Women's University Interview - 11/27/2004
Based on Mosaic 2 (intermediate - high intermediate) - chapter 3 "sex & gender"
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students should understand the vocabulary items (sex, sex-typed, sex-typing, gender, gender differentiated, and gender stereotype) well enough to define each item and discuss the concept represented by each item with personal examples.
Minutes Phase Roles
1-2 Introduction Teacher speaks to students
2-4 Vocabulary Teacher speaks to students
5 Reading Students work individually, Teacher checks answers
7-11 Discussion Students work in groups, Teacher monitors discussion
1-2 Summary Teacher speaks to students
Introduction: Teacher's name, Learning objective, Students can ask questions
Hand out worksheet
Vocabulary:
Difference between sex and gender,
Gender differentiated (dolls are considered feminine toys, cars are considered masculine toys),
Gender stereotype (to be manly you should be tough, athletic, aggressive - to be ladylike you should be sensitive, kind, pretty),
Sex-typed (I was allowed to play baseball, but not tennis. My sister was allowed to play tennis. My father said "real men don't play tennis"),
Sex-typing (My sister and I were treated differently. If a boy hit me at school, my dad wanted me to hit him back. If someone hit my sister, she wasn't expected to fight).
Reading: Notice how the vocabulary words are used and try to answer the 2 questions. Can check with partner.
Discussion: 3 groups of 3-5. These are academic vocabulary words related to academic concepts. You should be able to discuss these concepts by using personal examples. This is similar to what I did at the beginning of class when I gave some personal examples for each vocabulary word, but you should go into more detail.
I'm going to come around and listen, and maybe speak a little. Please ask questions if you have any.
1 main question divided into 3 smaller questions.
When you were growing up, did anyone in your family reinforce gender stereotypes (i.e. encourage you to be more ladylike or more manly)?
For example, were you encouraged to participate in sex-typed activities?
Were you given gender differentiated toys?
Did your parents reward play behavior that was gender stereotyped?
Here's a web site about someone complaining about how he was fired in China. He seems to blame the school and students for everything (though admittedly I have not read all 93 chapters). However, it seems to me that he himself made several mistakes and that the blame is partly his. Remember that this is an American man teaching Chinese college students.
For example he called his female students in their dorms after 10:00 PM. I don't think calling students at home is all that common. He had dinner with one of his students several times. I can see going out with an entire class, but going out with one student is asking for trouble. When students complained about his teaching, he seemed to become rather hostile, first assuming it had something to do with the school using poor evaluations as an excuse to pay him less money, and then demanding to know how he could improve. I would say his job is to improve but his students job is not to show him how to teach.
It also seems that he spent far more time with his female students than with his male students, taking them to dinner (where they -not him- started talking about inappropriate subjects), asking them to take him to the hospital where they saw his chest (he had a chest rash), etc. If I were the boss, I would've confronted him too.
In response, he seemed to deny everything. When told that students were complaining, he said he didn't believe it. When asked why he only invited girls out, he answered that this was untrue (though he now admits that he invited boys only rarely). When students suggested they needed more background knowledge to understand the readings (many about American culture), he said they were wrong.
I'm not saying that his university handled this well, but I would have fired him too. Look at the respect he had for his students:
The mantra was being intoned again: why why why, a girl wanted to know, did I invite girls and not boys?What gave a silly young girl like her the right to question me about my personal choices? I asked her. "You're forgetting the respect due your teachers."
Posted by James Trotta at 6:23 AM | Comments (1)
I recently read an article on TEFL that was better written than most rants about my chosen profession but equally short sighted:
So while teaching English is fine if you want to spend a year abroad, and great for meeting pretty foreign girls, considered as a career that might offer some degree of professional fulfilment, it fails on every count. No one with a scrap of ambition can possibly consider it. As the philosopher Alain de Botton says: "You become a TEFL teacher when your life has gone wrong."
From the point of view of career, social advances, financial gain, the last two-and-a-half years had been completely wasted. More that that, they had left him physically exhausted and mentally addled by all these stupid lessons, besieged by boredom and mediocrity . . . He had reached the end of his tether . . . What was a language teacher in the end? A nobody. A mere failed somebody else.
What strikes me about the article is the talk of hangovers and mediocirty. A mediocre TEFL teacher may have trouble making ends meet but since when are hangovers and mediocrity rewarded in any profession? And sure, I know an excellent TEFL teacher who sometimes struggled to make ends meet. Although an excellent teacher, he never rose to the top of his profession. He now works in Korea (where salaries are higher than in many other EFL countries) and makes enough money, but when I suggest that he apply for a position at a university he says it's not his style.
Yet here I am, working in a university, 15 hours a week, pursuing my masters, making speeches, working on ESL go - free English as a second language learning and teaching, and planning my career (and what to do over the next 5 weeks or so while I'm on vacation).
EFL is a highly competitive field, with far more bad jobs than good ones, but the good ones do exist. I can't agree that it's a deadend profession.
For the full article: http://education.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xml=/education/2004/01/17/teftefl17.xml
I had an interview with IH Moscow on Nov. 12, 2003. They threw me a curve by starting off with "How do you like Korea?" and related questions. I'm used to that sort of thing from interviewing in Korea, but I didn't expect BKC International House Moscow in Russia to care. If you're curious about what they asked me, keep reading.
When were you born?
What kind of passport do you have?
When does your passport expire?
How many hours of instruction was your CELTA?
What grade did you receive on your CELTA?
Do you have business English experience?
Have you taught ESP?
What books have you taught with?
How would you explain the difference between "be going to" and "will"?
Why do students have trouble with the future tenses?
Why do students have trouble with phrasal verbs?
How do you teach phrasal verbs?
How would you handle a teen who is disrupting class?
How would you handle a good student who is so enthusiastic that he dominates a class?
ADOS questions
Do you have any administrative/ supervisory experience?
How would you deal with complaints from teachers?
Have you observed other teachers?
How would you conduct a class observation?
By the way, if you're also dealing with them you might want to know that they told me this interview would only be about teaching and that if it was successful, there would be a follow-up interview about being an ADOS. As you can tell from the questions they asked me, the IH Moscow interview actually covered both topics. Perhaps they wanted to get answers that I wasn't prepared to give because they prefer a "gut resonse" to a planned one. Maybe they're just a bit disorganized.