Agreed.TEFL training schools needn't take any responsibility for the poor state of Thai education IMO.
I was just clarifying a point. :chug:
We could all sit outside on banana lounges discussing the best way to rebuild a 4WD transmission and agree, through shared stories of conquests supporting our assertions, that there is no basis to the proposition that those least assured of their persuasions are the first to condemn others for theirs.
Originally Posted by defender
The courses are set up and licensed (those that are) to train students to be teachers of English, EFL or ESL, at some level or other.
The fact that some people take the courses for other reasons is basically irrelevant.
The ones who take it to get a job as a teacher are the ones I am talking about. If you liked your course and you did not take it to be a teacher, wonderful. If you got something out of it, great.
You need to spend some time reading through what is written on some of the websites of the teacher training schools.
Show me where they were targeting you and not people who want to be teachers. Look at their claims. Look at them carefully.
Please.
The point then that you are making then, behind whatever disguise you wish to, is that tecahers at all levels should have degrees.
I simply fail to understand how you attempt to justify your assertion that for this reason, perfectly good companies offering what is a highly sought after experience/qualification should be disqualified from doing so.
The fact that Thai schools and government do not require teachers to have degrees, means that it is a legitimate aspiration for a non-degree holding person to seek to become a teacher here. The TEFL schools offer them some very basic training and give them a certificate that IME most employers aren't really all that fussy about.
How on earth do you perceive this to be unethical on behalf of the TEFL schools - I fail to see any way in which the government is not responsible for this situation. hey are aided and abetted by unethical school admins and teachers who are frankly "kidding themselves"!
If the TEFL schools marketing pitch upsets you (i.e. by their implication that non-graduates can come to Thailand and become teachers very easily) then that can't be helped. They are only using the reality of the situation to sell their product!
Excuse me for not taking this seriously .....
where is kenkennif to put a bullet in this thing?
The operative word in what I wrote was "ethical."
Yeah, I'm not really arguing with you from an ethical standpoint.
I just think that in the OP you completely missed the point by targetting the TEFL training schools. They are a terribly small cog in the education industry in Thailand, and really a very minor player. Of course, there is a strict ethical dimension to the world of education - Thais may discover this one day
In the TEFL world they are more significant, but that is a world of profiteering from service provision in a hugely competitive market, in such a world there is little room for ethics.
TEFL courses are money-making enterprises. It's not for them to molly-coddle applicants. I was told I'd probably need to have a degree if I wanted decent work in Thailand and I knew that before I came. I told them I wanted to test myself and saw this as a interesting course to take, in a country I'd been to before and wanted to spend more time in. I wasn't even sure I wanted to be teacher before embarking on the course. The point of the course was to help me make that decision and give me a set of skills that would help with my further development. Having considered my education, my work experience and the pre-course test, the course tutor decided I was a suitable candidate.
I repeat, surely only a language-based degree can assist a teacher in their career. Therefore, if TEFL courses should stipulate the requirement for a degree before enrollment, shouldn't the degree be language based?
I keep my underwear up with a piece of elastic
I agree - they shouldn't.
The (badly made) point I was trying to make is that posters keep banging on about the need for a degree to teach English as a foreign language. Or rather, with regards to this thread, that TEFL courses should only allow degree holders to enroll. Surely, the only BA that can help a language teacher is a language-based one.
What good is a BA in David Beckham studies to someone teaching English, or more importantly someone learning English?
The guy who finished the TEFL course with me probably had minimal uni. experience, was young and unpolished, and scared to death to teach. Maybe he was in Thailand for the female stuff and needed to support himself, I don't know. Anyway, he did take the course, and learned a lot, and became able to teach at the level required in provincial schools. He probably did better than the guy I taught with in the provinces, who had no degree, no TEFL cert at all.
TEFL courses in Thailand prepare you to teach EFL in Thailand. They probably all do that, to some extent. I think it's worth the money, but I'm often wrong.
...and whoever said Reg Young's statement was incomprehensible, should have known what 'incomprehensible' means.
"The times I've been mistaken, it's impossible to say" - by the Moody Blues
My apologies for the confusion.it woudl if i was an english teecher! and if i wasnt writing on a forum - i think there was a thread yesterday saying as how pedantic some poster on this forum are re: spelling grammer!The mind boggles at the irony.
- Reg
persocally i dont give a rats arse how i speel!
the substance of my post above was re:teh content ... but anyway u go right ahead and deflect critizism based on typos, spelling and lazy grammar!
My comment was directed not at your grammar or spelling, but at the post as a whole.
- Reg
^ ok the i'm confused - how is it ironic ?
Posted after 1 minute 31 seconds:
Re: EFL Teacher Training Courses - Admission Reqs. - Troubli
are therein lies my mistake ! - ok the everyone - "as you were!"
Posted after 1 minute 53 seconds:
Re: EFL Teacher Training Courses - Admission Reqs. - Troubli
\
not sure i like hearing this old chestnut - we're not paid enuff so y bother@!
its the thais fault not mine!
A degree in Biology or even English doesn't mean, jack.
A degree in EFL, yes.
Otherwise, I'm not sure of the benefit.
Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
Benjamin Franklin
If i want to take a typing course do I need a degree?
If I want to take a flower arranging course that gives me a flower arranging certificate do I need a degree?
If I want to take the estates agents test do I need a degreee?
No
Same as teaching English.
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