2. Visiting China, and at the same time working as an ESL teacher, could be very
exciting, especially as China is currently engaged in an economic revolution
due to the more relaxed policies emerging from the central China government
in Beijing. The burgeoning sea port of Shanghai, nestled on Chinas the Eastern
seaboard, for instance, has become hub of new nouveau rich commercial
business.
China's emerging major industrial and commercial manufacturing base,
together with a huge spending on the public civil engineering works that
including reconstruction programs for the transportation arteries of road, rail,
sea and air adds an urgent air to this economic “great leap” forward. The civil
works programs stretch from the Three Gorges Hydro Electric Dam, that spans
the Yangtze River in the central province of Hubei to the competitive
revitalisation of the Pear River Estuary water front which also aims, one day, to
rival Hong Kong's economic prosperity, to China's growing space program
which recently scheduled a scheduled a manned moon landing mission in the
near future.
3. Against this souring economic backdrop for the new ESL teacher to have
good general knowledge of China is probably as important as having an ESL
teaching degree. One absolute about classrooms1 in China, that permeates
all teaching levels, is the student's view that ESL teachers are like their
national state school teachers, persons of absolute knowledge, of all that a
student might enquire about, albeit that they may not actually, consciously,
think in those terms.
In China the teacher is seen as a knowledgeable person who is never wrong,
and Chinese children are shocked by teaching errors, seeing them as both
incompetent and lazy. This is probably a product of the state school
teacher/student relationship that has been structured in this way in Chinese
schools for a long time, and therefore, any divergence from their norms would
be incomprehensible to K1-K12 students and university students.
4. It is said that “To be fore warned, is to be f ore armed”, so the acquisition
of a reasonable amount of local geographical and historical knowledge,
especially a little about the school that the teacher is attached to, and the
immediate local environmental is a good idea. Recommended also is a
good review of all aspects of a prospective teachers TESOL teaching
degree for a first time ESL teaching position in China. This fits the view in
China that the teacher (ESL, and otherwise) is a learned repository of
knowledge and is prepared to share it for the benefit of student learners.
The competent TESOL teacher would, of course, have few problems with
students and would, without a doubt, enjoy a rapport with the Chinese or
Korean students that would make their experience memorable.
5. Classroom numbers in both China and Korea can be between twenty and
thirty students, in state schools and generally co-teaching system is used.
Teaching hours vary between twenty five to thirty classroom hours per week,
expect to spend a further ten hours in lesson preparation test and homework
marking, and student reports.
In China it is the teachers responsibility to
divide up the course text book and present an
incrementally graded teaching program and to
present it in clear and precise terms to allow
the students the highest degree of learning
from them. Where a student falls below the
expected learning quota, it is the teachers
responsibility to return the student to a
progression of high capacity learning; not to
do so is seen as the fault of the teacher.
The Korean economy is also vibrant and it has
a very lively artistic approach to night its life
with restaurants and clubs in abundance.
There are many displays of cultural wealth in
its of its modern architecture, and street
displays of stone sculpted works, bronze
statuesque castings and vibrant street lighting.
Clubs an restaurants abound. Teaching in
Korea is similar to teaching in Korea although
teaching in Korea maybe a little more relaxed
from the teacher/student point of view.
6. Placement of ESL teachers in both China and Korea is usually through
Australian Universities, or the training college, or school from which the
TESOL teacher has graduated. Otherwise most, if not all of the available
teaching positions are through internet sites that are either hosted by an
internet company that has earned a reputation for only posting positions
7. vacant form vetted schools that have government accreditation in the host
county. Dave ESL Cafe is the best know, longest running, one site fits ESL
job resource site that is very experience with quality ESL teacher's job
boards.
Dave's ESL Cafe allows resume posting for free, and charges ESL schools
a fee to post job vacancies. The prospective ESL teacher has free access to
Dave's internet cafe, China job board, and the Korean Job board, and is
able to read all of the advertisements and approach prospective employers
on the face value of their advertisement.
Different single company agencies from both Korea and China will advertise
many job vacancies within a single job posting. These agencies are highly
competitive with similar ESL agencies and are useful for making several job
applications at one and the same time, on a preferential selection basis.
After registering with one of them , many more ESL job vacancies are
offered through the agencies email contact follow up systems.
8. In Korea, Work n Play.com are a similarly trusted job board as is Dave's ESL Cafe that
carries many attractive ESL positions together with weekly up dates. A thorough in depth
on site registration is required, but registration will allow resume posts, and resume
updates. Many agencies use this Koran site to scout for prospective ESL teachers, and
they also make many email job offers . Work n Play themselves constantly email their
current job board to registered ESL clients.
Having made contact with a prospective employer by sending a resume, a letter of
introduction, a current (smiling) photograph ,and a photo copy of your passport page if
requested in the job advert, (passport must be usable for at least 6 months). If interests are
mutual, email contact or telephone contact is usually made by the prospective employer .
At this stage you may be asked to provide two University transcripts of your degree for
government work visa purposes, and a notarised version of your actual degree diploma,
and the TESOL teaching diploma. If the original version is required you must insist that you
will bring the original version to the destination country after contracts have been
exchanged through the overland mail system or by electronic signature in the email
system.
9. There will then be talk about contract length, possible start dates, salary,
accommodation (usually a free studio accommodation) and air fares
(golden rule is not to pay your own air fare, ask for an eTicket as a sign
of good faith) If the air fare is reimbursable immediately then an eTicket
is just as attractive in the bargaining negotiations.
It may be that there is only a provisional sum set aside for the airfare for
a China contract, if this is so then the prospective ESL teacher will need
to evaluate the worth of the added cost contribution they must make
towards the air ticket against the salary package at large together with
the value of the teaching experience to be gained. Korean schools by
contrast, usually send an eTicket, and pay the return ticket in two halves,
subject to contract fulfilment. Korean contract procedure are similar.
10. Well, that's the end ACC4300-8 Learning unit: Teaching in China and Korea
and Placement, which was the last unit of this introductory overview of
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I hope that you have
enjoyed our brief journey and learnt a little of what you would like to know
about ESL teaching in the TESOL context. I wish those of you going onto one
of the accredited TESOL teacher training courses every success in your
TESOL teacher training adventure and the subsequent first ESL teaching.
