Deirdre Cijffers is back with some more insights for anyone considering a career in language teaching.
Getting your dream job
Many schools worldwide really only accept the CELTA or the Trinity equivalent as an ELT qualification. Even if you have a degree in Education, you may still need one of these. The rationale is that the CELTA is a very hands on, practice based course whereas many university degrees can be quite theoretical. When accredited schools are inspected, if a teacher doesn’t have a CELTA, the school has to justify why they hired him or her in order to keep their accreditation. The justification can be complex, so it’s easier just to hire teachers with those qualifications.
If you plan to get, or already have a different certificate, make sure you can give good examples of how practical it was and what you learned from that experience in your application and in interview. If necessary, do some volunteering or approach a school to see if you can observe some teachers in action. Take notes and think critically about what the students need, whether that need is satisfied and how you might do better next time. The ability to reflect on your own practice and improve is highly prized in teaching!
Show us the money… or not..
Teaching will never make us rich… unless you want to teach very large classes in Korea. ELT ‘service provision’ is also a sector that is not very well regulated so your salary and job security will vary vastly between countries and institution types.
Once you’ve survived the initial teaching ‘boot camp’, think seriously about where you want your teaching career to take you, both geographically and in terms of teaching types. Have a look at some job ads for places you’d eventually like to work and identify skills and experience that they are looking for but that you don’t have. Then make a conscious effort to get those skills and experience by volunteering, for instance, to teach the IELTS prep class, or more young learners.
Also, get on and do your DELTA (or equivalent) as soon as you decide to stay in teaching. I didn’t do mine for ages and regretted not doing it sooner. The opportunities it led to were so much greater than anything I’d had access to before.
Adoration
This section looks like it’s in the wrong place, doesn’t it? It’s not.
Remember, a few weeks ago, I talked about personal connections? It’s true, and it’s great! If you are a good teacher, your students will love you. If you are a halfway decent teacher and a nice person, your students will love you. Even if you are not that great a teacher but a nice person, they will still like you a lot. And if they like you a lot, they’ll let you away with being late, not marking their assignments on time, not coming up with anything original in class.
This is a very comfortable place to be in, but if you are late, sloppy with assignments and uncreative in class, your students may still forgive you, but they won’t learn much and you risk stagnation and boredom – and no-one wants to be taught by (or observe) a bored and boring teacher. So, don’t let the adoration go to your head! Keep pushing ahead with your own development. You students love you – give them your best! Try out new activities and approaches. Make every lesson a learning opportunity for you as well as them and everyone’s a winner!