Is There A Future In TEFL
We are back to our monthly TEFL polls and this one revolves around our future in TEFL. Is there a future in TEFL? Is this a career that we can work at for years to come or will we all reach a dead end eventually? What do you think? I want to hear from you.
Loading …
9 comments
I’ve just come back from a conference in New Zealand of some 500 TEFL/TESOL people from 47 countries. They ranged across people working in language programs, university lecturers and researchers, PhD candidates, teacher trainers, consultants and system/school administrators. Apart from straight TESOL (TEFL/TESL/EAP etc.), people were working in bilingual education, indigenous education and multilingual education. There’s certainly a future in TEFL/TESOL if you understand the term a little broadly, take your work seriously and are prepared to do further study - at least to Master’s level in the field. The TESL-L web-based discussion forum has 30,000 members and various sub-forums. TESOL is a serious and rewarding profession and can pay well if you have the qualifications.
TEFL/TESL has been around for a long time. Demand for it is only increasing in breadth.
I recall how in the 1970’s I considered going to the then most fertile TEFL/TESL teaching area, the Middle East but decided against it after consulting with several Americans who had done it. Their major complaint was the isolation imposed on the Western foreign teacher in Arab/Muslim societies and cultures which wanted us to teach English but simultaneously required that the native English speaker be essentally quarantened from their societies and cultures lest we pollute, soil and sully them even in the slightest.
The concern of the Western whose native language is English being isolated in a foreign land, or of being constricted to social and professional interaction with one’s own native English speaking colleagues has since largely ceased to be of concern. The internet and, before that, cable-satellite TV enabled even the most strictly “quarantened” Western foreigner access to the outside world, albeit in a secondary way. (But to Americans, being unable to see baseball, basketball, American football on TV was a major negative to venturing abroad to teach TEFL/TESL.)
Concomitant with the emergence of East Asia as the major economic growth area of the world has come an increased demand for the Western whose native language is English and, additionally, for the European who because of his country’s advanced system of education has attained a proficiency and fluency in the English language that has given him/her a certain niche in the global market.
As TEFL/TESL education expands in demand and supply increases for a myriad of reasons, academic qualifications and certifications are becoming of greater concern to the countries where the demand is greatest. In the recruitment process, experience is another factor that weights greater in the world of TEFL/TESL. The question, One’s answer to the question of “Why do you want to come to (country X)?” also plays a greater role in securing a position in TEFL/TESL than in the past.
A continent by continent and country by country analysis of the TEFL/TESL market both from the standpoint of supply and demand is yet another matter to examine and explore.
I ran a poll similar to this over at http://www.eltworld.net and the responses were generally positive. I’ve written an article based on the responses for the upcoming issue of the ELT World journal:
http://www.journal.eltworld.ne.....t
That’s a very good complimentary poll. I suggest everyone taking a look at it.
I also highly suggest reading the ELT World Journal. I know I look forward to the article.
I think that there will be a definite need for TEFL in the future but I think that TEFL will be a much more professional field in the future. I think that in the future the jobs avaliable to people who want to run their endless vacation are going to get fewer and fewer as a demand for trained TEFL professionals increases. Who regard TEFL as a profession and wnat what’s in the best interest of the students they teach.
TEFL/TEOSL quality varies greatly from continent to continent, from country to country.
My TEFL experience in Korea made clear that the foreign teachers who go there are serious educators, professionals, whether or not they are specifically trained or credentialed in TEFL/TEOSL. Korea itself is a tightly organized and structured society, has a strict social and cultural hierarchy, takes matters seriously and is not viewed by foreign teachers as a playground or an easy ride. Koreans have serious aspirations as evidenced by the fact they’re developing a space program.
Thailand in tropical South East Asia stands in stark contrast to Korea, which is in a temperate climate and in North East Asia. Thailand is considered my many to be a tropical paradise and is in fact a major tourist destination. Thailand is much more a playground for foreign TEFL/TEOSL teachers; it’s a loosely organized and structured society even when it’s at its most hierarchical.
Initially, stardards in Korea were low but have increased considerably. All the same, foreign teachers there always have been serious about their work. Thailand is trying to develop higher standards for TEFL/TEOSL teachers than its nearly non-existent standards of the past, a matter which has caused farang teachers in Thailand to howl and complain about being picked on, singled out.
Another major difference between Korea and Thailand is that Korea has universal education thru Grade 12, which makes educators and the school systems in Korea directly responsible to the taxpaying parents and to society as a whole. Conversely, Thailand always has relied on proprietary, ie, family owned schools for the few who can afford it. The consequence is that the levels of professionalism and ethics in Korea always has been far higher and much greater than in Thailand. Unfortunately for Thailand, there is no forseeable change in sight to the radical differences between the two societies, their cultures or their civilizations, each one in its different region of East Asia.
I don’t see much of a future for TEFL jobs in Thailand for serious professionals who are fairly normal people. The pay is half that of the other major TEFL areas in Asia, respect for foreign teachers is low, employers don’t bother to inform when they will not renew a contract and often decent blokes end-up doing visa runs because of the unbelievably bad immigration visa requirements and the repetitive costs to carry one to the next step to be legally employed.
I’ve worked in Seoul, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. The only thing Bangkok has that the other cities don’t have are the numerous foreigner bars with easy bar girls and live sex shows. If you like that sort of thing, better to visit on holiday than to work here.
Is there a future in TEFL? Yes, of course, but not in Thailand.
I’ve heard of this taking off really well in China… I think there will always be a need for TEFL jobs there. I have a handful of buddies that have already participated in this and the need just keeps growing and growing. Sounds like a great thing to get involved with.
Leave a Comment