Why Teaching English
We have all had questions on Why Teaching English before. Below are the top questions posed by visitors just like you to our. We hope our answers located below will help you solve your teaching problems today. Feel free to ask another question, or even comment on what has been written.
There has been a lot of debate recently regarding Why Teaching English, and it is therefore critical for you, the reader, to grab all of the information that is out there on the vast topic of teaching. Your teaching can have a huge impact on your future, so don’t procrastinate any longer. Read up on Why Teaching English today!
Sherry Said:
are there any jobs for americans in japan other than english teaching?We Answered:
The type of work you are able to do depends entirely on the type of visa you have. If you're spouse is Japanese and you are able to obtain a spouse visa then you pretty much can do any job you choose.If you've got highly qualified in a certain specialty field (computers, finance, etc.) then it's quite possible that you could find a decent job on those skills alone. There is a high demand for certain types of skill sets in Japan.
However, if as you say you have no college degree and no Japanese skills to speak of then it 's going to be hard. Manual labor type jobs, convenience stores/restaurants, cleaning/sweeping, etc. might be available to you but not knowing hardly any Japanese is going to hurt.
It is true that you need a college degree to get an instructor visa to teach English. But, if you have a spouse visa than you won't need that. Without a college degree it will be very hard for you to find a job at any of the big chain English conversation schools or with a local school district. But, if you're friendly and outgoing and enthusiastic, some small private school might take you on.
You won't make tons of money and conditions might not be so great but you never know you might get lucky. Also, you could probably advertize for students and do some private teaching/tutoring on your own.
Katie Said:
why so many unqualified non-teachers teaching english abroad?We Answered:
I'm a very well qualified teacher of EFL with many years experience of training other teachers and this really pisses me off - there is an attitude around that anyone who speaks English can teach it, and this is completely untrue. There are loads of useless 'TEFL weekend' courses around, churning out people who consider themselves fit to teach after 20 hours of lively fun and games. What of lasting value can you learn about ANYTHING in 20 hours?RK- I know of nowhere in the world where TEFL is easy money - it is badly paid just about everywhere. The way things are going it will finish up so dumbed down that TEFL teachers will be paid at the same rate as waitresses.
''You know the old saying. Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.'' It isn't a saying, it's a quote from George Bernard Shaw in reference to private crammer schools in the early 20th century. In fact, a good EFL teacher needs a lot of knowledge - grammar, phonology, discourse, sense relations, stylistics, learning psychology, materials design, theories of language acquisition. It is NOT a job for airheads.
SophyC - the chances of Spanish or any other language supplanting English in the USA any time soon are vanishingly small.
Salvador Said:
why do americans start teaching english in reply to a moral question?Why cant they pick up the lesson?We Answered:
Because it's the only thing they think that they know (and they do not).Rebecca Said:
Why students in many countries should learn English?We Answered:
I think it is a combination of the fact that English has a wider technical vocabulary than most other languages, the fact that there are more technical books written in English than any other language, and the fact that America does business with many countries.Roberto Said:
English Majors or English professionals don't approve simple people teaching english, why?We Answered:
I have a bachelor's degree in English and I have rather poor grammar myself. I don't think you shouldn't teach. However, I think we should always be trying to better ourselves. So, if you know something wrong in your grammar, you should notice, embrace it, work on it, and fix it. Don't be so stubborn that you won't work on bettering the very language you want to teach.Dwight Said:
why are they teaching english to saudi students from the forth grade? not like they will use it in day to day?We Answered:
People lean English all over the world and the main aim is not whether they will use it in to discuss their family problems in English.In Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Lebanon and so on...........the aim goes well beyond this point spreading to many areas of the individuals life.
One of the reasons they introduced English at an earlier level here is the following: many saudi students at the moment are facing problems at universities due to the fact their basis in english was weak. Thus there is a direct link to the education of these individuals.
Apart from Medicine that all syllabus is in English and they also travel to the US and Canada to specialize, there are a number of other courses where few Arabic books are available for them to read. And again.....even in those other courses the official syllabus is English.
Currently the best university in KSA- KFUMP in Shargia teaches all the courses in English and the same pattern will be followed in new univeristies to come, as many of them are working directly with international institutes.
In order for a student to realistically do well in the above context they have to know the language.
Also in most of the jobs here in Saudi Arabia, knowing English is a bonus for someones salary.
Go to King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh. No one can even secure a job if they do not know English. Many people from Saudi Arabia had to train in the laguage for a year in order to re-apply for such jobs.
There is currently no person that aspires to lead in his field from anywhere in the world that does not know English and the society is becoming very competitive.
Even in this forum we would not be able to discuss and exchange ideas with people from all over the world, if we did not know English:)
P.S. Yes your observation has some truth in it, but this will change, give it some time. Currently there are a number of factors that lead to what you notice, but also dont forget that many of them can understand more than they can speak, especially if they are not used to it.
Once I was talking with a girl and I was getting no responses at all. So I asked simply: do you understand me?
and she said yes. Ok then I said show me that you do.
So she took out a small piece of paper and wrote me the answer:) I will never forget it.