ESL School

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The native English speaker seems to have all the advantages when it comes to finding teaching posts. A native speaker with few or even no qualifications to teach English often has greater credibility with employers than a highly qualified non-native speaker. To understand ...

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Discussions of ageism in ELT crop up fairly regularly and cause me to think about the topic in a way that goes beyond the simple complaint that employers often discriminate against older teachers.

The first question I ask is whether ageism is more...

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Is it an epidemic or a pandemic? I suspect that if you are a teacher working in Mexico you won’t be pedantic about it. With the country virtually shut down, what protection do you have?

I doubt if hopeful teachers ...

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People have been asking whether ELT is a good choice of career during the recession. It’s not an easy question to answer. Undoubtedly some schools will be casualties as in earlier recessions. Thus the chances are that fewer ...

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I have often touched on the issues that western teachers face when they venture into new cultures to further their careers. Meeting new ways of thinking is...

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I received a comment following my post about teacher satisfaction, which painted a very sorry picture of an organisation’s bad treatment of teachers. Underlying the poor management,...

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I want to tackle a slightly unusual topic in this post. I hope you will let me know what...

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It is generally accepted that English language teachers are not in it for the money. The motives for choosing this field of teaching are varied of course. Young people fresh...

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I am posting the second part of my entry containing recruitment tips.

6. Interview
It is crucial to give careful thought to your interviewing technique before you meet the candidates as you want to ensure that the interview, which is the most important stage of all, is structured to produce the best results. You will need to think about pre-interview activities, the layout ...

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Teachers are a language school’s greatest asset: on their performance lies the major part of your reputation. You may have wonderful premises and state-of-the-art equipment but without first-rate teachers your students will be unimpressed. It follows, then, that successful recruitment and retention of staff is one of management’s key priorities.

Remember that recruitment doesn’t happen as if by magic. It is a strategic process for ...

Hello again,
Teachers are a language school’s greatest asset: on their performance lies the major part of your reputation. You may have wonderful premises and state-of-the-art equipment but without first-rate teachers your students will be unimpressed. It follows, then, that successful recruitment and retention of staff is one of management’s key priorities.

Remember that recruitment doesn’t happen as if by magic. It is a strategic process for ...

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The recent natural disasters in Burma and China are devastating for all those affected. It may be that teachers are among the victims. What should family and friends do if they are fearful for the safety of a teacher working in the disaster zones?

The first point is...

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I am unable to express my full views about Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher arrested in Sudan for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed. But no incident highlights more aptly the clash of cultures between countries that allow religion to operate as the rule of law and those that ...

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Once you have drawn up a shortlist of suitable candidates for a teaching post the really hard part of selection begins. Ideally you will conduct a face-to-face interview, or, failing that...

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Having given some tips about how to spot unscrupulous employers, I’d like to outline a strategy for getting the job you really want.

First research the region...

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It is clear from occasional forum posts that teachers sometimes find themselves involved with schools that are of suspect status. Unfortunately in the wider world...

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It’s always a controversial issue, isn’t it? I’m talking about teachers’ pay. I must admit I was shocked when the English Language Gazette published an article earlier this summer saying...

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We all know that teachers are undervalued and underpaid. For many, the attraction of ELT is the chance to travel and experience new cultures, meeting...

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Whether you intend to advertise or use a recruitment agency, you will need a full and accurate job description in order to attract candidates of the right quality and deter those who are unsuitable. Include age groups...

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Creating a candidate profile is essential for clarifying your ideas on what you are looking for in a teacher. It helps if you involve everybody in this process because the new teacher will have to fit into an existing team. I suggest ...

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Reading various forum posts, I note how often teachers raise the issue of unfair discrimination in ELT recruitment. It seems that schools might reject a teacher on the basis of race, gender, being a non-native speaker,...

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I have noticed some recent forum posts by teachers who have found themselves caught out by bogus schools, unscrupulous schools, dishonest schools. Unfortunately the cowboys...

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Helen Keller

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The teacher alone in front of a group has a star role but within the school is just one of a team. It's important to get your team all pulling together, being mutually supportive and furthering the aims of the school. An effective team is one that shares goals, understands and values the roles of its members and cooperates willingly. A team that is functioning well will thus work hard, be self-motivated, share responsibilities, and actively seek solutions to problems. But the team needs nurturing—it won’t necessarily jell by itself. When we hire a new member of the teaching or admin staff ...

No man is an island entire of itself.

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Today I'm turning my attention to the need to help your staff work in harmony. An effective team is one that shares goals, understands and values the roles of its members and cooperates willingly. A team that is functioning well will thus work hard, be self-motivated, share responsibilities, and actively seek solutions to problems. But the team needs nurturing—it won’t necessarily jell by itself. When we hire a new member of the teaching or admin staff we usually focus on the qualities of the individual. Once the appointment has been made, however, we mustn’t just sit back see what happens. Each addition to the staff will have an impact on the team as a whole and this is where some conscious team-building helps . . .

Greetings ESL experts,

Allow me to say thanks to Jake for his introduction of me and for giving me the honor or presenting to you the newest member of the ESLemployment team, Brenda Townsend Hall, PhD.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with her work, Dr. Townsend Hall is a communications consultant trainer and course designer. Now, she’ll be blogging for ESL School and writing for the ESL Expert newsletter. She offers face-to-face and distance training in the fields of interpersonal communications, business English, written communications and cross-cultural awareness. She also has runs a distance-learning training course, Teach Business English, for teachers wishing to enter the field of business English . . .

Much discussion has been taking place recently on the topic of an EFL/ESL teacher's pay. My own guess is that English language teachers in the private sector probably earn less on average than teachers working in the state sector.

Readers,

This entire compensation issue for teachers is highly complex. Given that English language schools are so widely scattered across the world, it is impossible to apply any salary benchmarks for the profession as a whole . . .

I have the distinct impression that many ESL teachers suffer from low morale.

In recent months we have seen a spate of reports about English teachers running into trouble with the authorities in the countries where they work.

I was asked to write a reference recently for a teacher I hadn’t seen for some years.

I recently gave some tips about interviewing ESL teaching applicants in my ESL Expert newsletter. I am posting them here for people who may not receive the newsletter. You can sign up for it from this page!

It struck me recently that many employers set the recruitment ball rolling without having a clear idea of what they are looking for in a teacher.

Hello again. Many new teachers will be preparing to set off for exciting new locations to take up teaching positions in September. I have already posted some entries about culture shock and how the teachers need support during their period of adapting to a new way of life. But the truth is that a proportion of teachers will have accepted posts from schools they know little about and they run the risk of being exploited by unscrupulous employers who know that they are vulnerable.

Here I am again. I met a retired engineer the other day and she told me she was half way through a TEFL training course. She wanted to know what I thought her chances were of finding a teaching job when she has completed the course. Well, I can't disguise the fact that there is a lot of age prejudice in the world of ELT. I think all sorts of reasons combine to make this a profession dominated by young teachers.

First, it appeals to those who want to be able to see the world and gain experience: inevitably it's the young who fit this profile. Second, if we're honest, pay is often unattractive in comparison to other professions and young people will tolerate that in a trade-off with their travel ambitions. Then schools themselves often appreciate the enthuisasm and energy that is associated with youth, not to mention that the young are more tractable.

I wrote about employment contracts in a recent edition of my monthly newsletter. It's not easy to strike a balance between an over-legalistic document and something too vague to be useful. But I think it's important to remember that it's a protection for both the employer and the teacher.

Of course, the laws on employment vary from country to country, so make sure you explain what is required to the teachers. Some countries stipulate that the contract must be written in the home language. If this is the case, your teachers will need a clear and accurate translation into English. Some countries require the contract to contain full details of the teacher’s visa and employment permits. There may be restrictions on the number of hours a teacher can work and on the number of hours overtime permitted.

Hello again. I often hear teachers complain that employers issue contracts and then ask them to do more than the contract requires. From the other side of the fence, employers sometimes feel that teachers are too rigid in their interpretation of the terms of the contract. It is certainly a tricky area, so what can you do to make sure that the contract offers proper protection for both teachers and the employer? My suggestions are as follows:

I guess nobody likes thinking about what can go wrong with the recruitment process. We all like to think we are reasonable employers, offering a fair package in return for a professional job. Yet we do operate in a market that is prone to certain complications. Think about it. We recruit mainly young teachers who travel a long way from their home and friends, perhaps to a country they don't know anything about. There you are: already you can see how emotionally vulnerable they are. And if all this causes them stress, they could more easily fall prey to physical illness, infection, be more accident prone.

Hello again. This is an entirely unscientifically proven theory, but I have the impression that, although women account for the larger part of the English language teaching workforce, they are disproportionately represented at management level. I say this because whenever I talk to the senior staff in schools, I seem to talk to more men than women.

First, I'd really like to know if this perception is true. If I'm wrong, then I'd be relieved because I'd like to think that in a "people" profession, women have a good chance of reaching the top. But if I'm right, I'd like to know why. Is this just another example of the continuing discrimination against women that seems so difficult to overcome? Do men and women go into ELT for different motives? Perhaps once the female teacher has seen the world, she goes back home and enters a different sphere. Or perhaps women see promotion as taking them into administrative areas when they'd really prefer to stay in teaching. I'd really like to get the fuller picture on this issues so please let me know how you see the balance of the sexes in ELT.

Back soon, Patricia.

Hello again. I thought I'd post a few tips for writing a job ad that really attracts the best candidates. Of course, from the employer's point of view an effective job ad is one that will attract the right candidates and thus make the employee selection process easier. But there are two sides to the coin because, for the candidate, an effective ad is one that makes the job sound attractive enough to be worth applying for. To reconcile these two needs, you have to make the information accurate and tempting without being misleading. If you hype the benefits of the job you may attract a bumper response but you are less likely to achieve a successful recruitment because the candidates will find their expectations are not met.

How do you think of teachers? As employees? Subordinates? Shop-floor workers? Good teachers keep students happy and happy students recommend your school to their friends. It's a virtuous cycle. If you want to keep the good staff that enhance your school's reputation, then start thinking of teachers as stakeholders in your school.

From a teacher's point of view, a successful school means more students, happier students. And more students generate income for better resources and probably better salaries, so of course teachers are stakeholders in the enterprise. And you can start treating them as such with the recruitment process itself. When you're hiring, do you have teachers on the interviewing panel and do you involve them in the hiring process from start to finish? If not, why not?