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| Miss Kukky Ho: |
Which ELT program should I choose as an English Teacher? |
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| 陳筱芬: |
Original Question:
I am a in-service teacher with 3 years of experience in teaching English in secondary school. I have obtained a Diploma in Education and MA in Linguistics from local universities. I would like to advance in English language teaching (ELT) and gain more qualifications in that area. Would you recommend any programmes which are well-recognised? Are overseas programmes always better than local ones?
Thanks for reading my question!
Answer:
Dear Kukky,
Thank you for your question. Whenever my friends or colleagues share with me their plan of further studies, I will usually ask why are you doing it, what is the purpose that you want to achieve at the end of the study? Is it for career advancement, for compulsory new skills needed for work or is it for interest only? How will study help you to achieve your purposes, be it a career advancement, may be a bit of everything, there is no straight answer.
But spending some time and trying to answer those questions will put you in a better focus of “why” and “what” you want from your planned study, hence making a sensible decision to choose a course most suitable to your career or life road map ahead.
You mentioned you wanted to do an ELT course for advancement, ask yourself “why”? There are a number of job possibilities for ELT teachers, first, of course being the big demand of teaching our local students to improve their English; second, it is a “mobile qualification” for many English teachers to travel. English is now the 'lingua franca'; the global language for business communication. There are many English teachers needed in non-English speaking countries where learning English is in huge demand such as China, many Asian cities and South America. Having an ELT qualification with solid teaching experience will definitely be a teaching asset in a non-English speaking country.
However, as a teacher you should realize that effective language teaching and learning involve crossing a cultural context, as such the students you are teaching now are Chinese, and as a consequence the practice and experience you gain will accumulate in the Chinese student learning context. This point is important in contributing to the great potential value of your teaching experience when there are generations of Chinese students who want to learn English. This experience will be of course being different if you teach Spanish students English for example. This point is quite important to note when you consider advancing study in ELT course and which course provider to choose from because if you want to learn to teach Chinese students, then the best teaching practice and research will most likely to sit with the more established local universities with a department of education and with research in teaching Chinese students English here in Hong Kong, having accumulated years of teaching insight and experience.
Furthermore you should take a step further to consider what other benefit an ELT can bring you? There are two ways of looking at it, from a practical point of view; you may want to do some “Professional Upgrading Program” with ELT related courses with qualification endorsed by EMB of HKSAR, i.e. perhaps to keep your job. On the other hand you may enjoy explore the joy of learning, so you want to choose an overseas programme what brings you into another perspective of teaching ELT regardless of any insight of teaching Chinese students learning English. If you do prefer the latter, then you should be careful in choosing overseas program with good local teaching and student support resources, apart from the programme content itself.
Finally let me divert you thinking a bit more, since you already have an MA, if you are dedicated to a teaching career, why not start nice and early and consider a doctorate level qualification in education. They are very hard, but in years to come, you can teach the teachers and progress to more senior administrative role in the academic world where you know very well that qualification is the key pre-requisite for advancement. I wish you best of luck in your study whichever path you decide to embark on.
Fanny Chan
Dr Ed Forum Q & A
www.eduplus.com.hk
[email protected] |
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