TEFL London

TEFL Career Development & life at IH London

Helen Barker talks to Cactus TEFL about her rise through TEFL to the position of freelance writer and trainer, and talks about the CELTA course at International House London where she worked until recently as Director of Studies for Teacher Training.

I started teaching in Japan in 1989. I fell into teaching by accident, as I’m sure many people do - in my case I wanted to be able to live and travel in Asia, and teaching seemed as good a job as any other. In fact, it was better paid than most of the other options I investigated. After teaching for a year or so I realised that I quite liked teaching and was reasonably good at it - this is when I really started to consider it a career, I think. I actually stayed in Japan for almost 3 years, and finally left because I was offered a different job rather than because I didn’t want to live there any longer!

I went to work in Prague in January 1991 - the school was very new and there were a lot of problems with facilities, erratic electricity supplies, a total lack of private accommodation for teachers to live in etc. It was a fun first year - we worked hard and lived on our wits. I really fell in love with Prague, especially with Czech beer!, and it was an interesting time to be living in Eastern Europe, politically, so I decided to stay. I became Director of Studies, and again, stayed for 3 years - that seems to be the optimum period for me to live in one place!

My next move was a career one - I wanted to become a teacher trainer, and was offered the chance to train up if I went to live in Egypt. Cairo provided a refreshing change form Prague and Tokyo, and I learnt to scuba dive in the Red Sea. Again, I stayed for 3 years, and gained lots of valuable teacher training experience.

In 1996 my husband and I decided that we’d had enough of travel for the time being, and that it would be nice to spend some time with our families - a comment at Christmas of “Who’s that lady?” from my niece may have contributed to the decision! We returned to temporary summer contracts at IH London, where I stayed until April 2004. I was Director of Studies for Teacher Training for the last 2 years that I was there. I have now chosen to work freelance. This is partly a decision which will allow me to have a greater amount of professional variety as I will be involved in teaching, training, writing, assessing, testing and travelling. It is also a question of location - we are about to relocate to Dorset to escape London life.

How do you think the ELT industry has changed since you started teaching?

That’s a tough question as I have doubtless changed as well as the industry changing. I think it has probably grown hugely during the time I have been teaching, there are certainly more concrete career patterns and paths, and I think it has probably been generally more professionalised. I think there may be fewer unqualified teachers teaching these days, but I may be wrong. Also, the most popular areas for teaching have changed radically - Japan, Korea and Taiwan were really popular when I started teaching, then Eastern Europe, and now China, Vietnam, even places like Libya, Iran and Cuba are all opening up. Teaching methodology has also changed considerably. There is a far greater emphasis on the teaching of natural sounding language, and in research and coursebook writing we are now paying greater attention to authentic communication and the use of English by ‘real’ people for ‘real’ purposes.

How many people take the CELTA course each year at International House in Green Park?

In total, between 550 and 650 people choose to follow a CELTA course with IH London every year. Of these, around 90 follow the 12-week part-time course, and the rest do the course full-time.

Why do you think the course is so popular, and what is the advantage of taking it at IH?

CELTA is an extremely popular course mainly because it is so empowering - it enables people to go wherever they would like to in the world to apply for an English teaching post. I also believe that the fact that it is possible to gain an initial qualification in just 4 weeks makes it attractive - there aren’t many professions that you can enter after such a brief time, and start to gain experience. It is also often very different from the training that people have experienced before, and for this reason it is much talked about by people who are following or who have just followed a course. It is extremely practical and experiential - for many people, it is quite literally life changing.
There are several very good reasons for considering doing a CELTA course with International House in London; IH London offer a wide choice of dates, running CELTA courses every 4 weeks throughout the year, and there is the added benefit of being able to offer 2 start times for each set of dates, so trainees can choose if they would like to follow a course running from 9.00 to 3.45 or one from 12.00 to 6.30 daily. Being one of the largest teacher training centres in the world means that facilities are excellent - as well as free email and Internet access, all trainees are able to use a huge and well-stocked library for reference and borrowing purposes, they can watch lessons taking place in the modern, well-equipped Self-Access Centre and Language Lab facilities, the location is second to none, and the tutors, on average, have a very broad base of experience. Many of the tutors and teachers are involved either in coursebook writing or academic research, and so CELTA courses at IH London are at the cutting edge of the profession.

There is a perception that with so many people qualifying with a CELTA or CertTESOL every year, that TEFL jobs for newly qualified (TEFL) teachers are becoming more scarce. What is your view on this?

I had honestly never heard that hypothesis before. With so many people qualifying each year, it would probably be right to assume that the number of qualified teachers is on the increase. However, it is worth remembering that not everybody who follows a course goes on to use the qualification, and also, there are many people who use it but for a limited period - for example for the duration of a partner’s overseas contract, or as a means to travel. My impression is that there is plenty of work out there, but that it may not be possible to have a choice of locations as a newly qualified teacher. Ultimately, the more flexible and open-minded you are about where you would like to go and work, the more likely you are to quickly find your first job.

A lot of people are unsure whether they need to take a full 4-week intensive course, especially if they only plan to teach for a gap year. What are your thoughts on this?

I can see why people might think this, but I believe it’s absolutely essential to gain an initial teaching qualification. Remember that for the teacher it may only be a means to an end - a gap year experience, but for the people they teach, the lessons may well have been extremely expensive, and employment or educational prospects may depend on their success in improving their English. For this reason, I believe that you owe it to your students to know a little bit about what you are doing. Speaking a language fluently does not automatically mean that you will make a natural teacher of that language, not least because you may have no memory of how you acquired it! Following an initial course will also give you confidence and plenty of practical ideas to help you survive when you first start teaching, and it will also mean that you can apply to the best language schools thereby increasing your chances of earning a reasonable wage.

Can you give us an idea of how easy it is to find work in the UK, especially in London, as a newly qualified teacher?

Work in the UK tends to be seasonal. It is not the easiest place to get your first job as the number of people coming to the UK to study English overall is declining. This is partly because we are victims of our own success - many people have gone overseas and set up language schools after training in the UK, and they are now providing excellent language provision for students in their home country at convenient times for the learners, and at more affordable prices. It is also the case that the pound is very strong relative to most other currencies, making London a phenomenally expensive place to be, and it has perhaps recently been perceived as a dangerous place to be. Having said that, there are still thousands of people coming to the UK to learn English every year - particularly during the summer months (June to August) there are summer schools and it is relatively easy for newly qualified teachers to find work at these. At other times of the year there is work available, but it is often not very well paid, and teachers find that they work quite long hours, often working for more than one language school, travelling between schools at different times of day. Demand for teachers in universities and Further Education colleges has more recently been a growth area as the number of overseas students coming to the UK for academic study increases.

What are the best tactics to employ when looking for work in the UK.

As I’ve mentioned above, flexibility is the key. You usually need to start off working for more than one school and then bide your time. If a school is happy with the work you are doing, they will eventually offer you more work, and you will be able to drop other contracts and focus on working for one organisation. It is also worth thinking about other areas of expertise you have - if you have a background in business or law, this may give you the edge over other newly qualified teachers. There is no guarantee, though, that you will find work, and this is something which you need to seriously consider and investigate before you apply for a place on a course. If you have a big mortgage to service, this may not be the profession for you!

Is there a good time of year to apply for this kind of work?

As I have already said, the period between Easter and the summer is probably the best time to apply, but teachers can find work at any time of year. Most language schools in Britain don’t run courses over long terms, they have rolling enrolment, so there is no academic year to consider.

What sort of teachers move on to take the DELTA qualification?

Having stayed in the profession for 2 or 3 years, and decided that this is something that they want to do for a while longer, teachers are well advised to consider taking the DELTA. It allows them to continue with their own professional development, and opens doors in terms of career progression - to become a senior teacher or take on an educational management post, it would be unusual not to have the DELTA; it is also a prerequisite for anybody aspiring to be a teacher trainer.