4 Attachment(s)
Travellers teaching English overseas without qualifications cause alarm
---
I can't link the article so it will be displayed in full 1/2
---
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=20399&stc=1
Education experts in Australia have voiced concern over the number of unqualified foreign English teachers hired overseas because of their "token white face", and the lasting negative impact it could have on students.
Key points:
- Learning English has been growing in importance in Asia over the last few decades
- Recent report says two-thirds of the 400,000 foreigners teaching in China are unqualified
- Some schools "would rather pay a fine" than hire local teachers
China is one among many Asian countries — including Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam — struggling to regulate unqualified foreigners teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).
A recent report by state-owned Xinhua news agency said two-thirds of the 400,000 foreigners teaching in China in 2017 were unqualified, with some also working on incorrect visas.
Lynette Kim, director at TESOL Australia, told the ABC that foreigners becoming teachers without formal training could have a lasting negative impact on both students and the teachers themselves.
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=20400&stc=1
She said it could affect students' pronunciation, vocal expressions, their ability to learn how to form sentences, and even their interest in continuing to learn English.
"They are coming in thinking I'm going to … make some money and get out of here," she said.
"[They] get very exhausted, they get very stressed, they start to hate [teaching if] they'redoing it only for the money."
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=20401&stc=1
Former Gold Coast resident Jake Sharp (above) was 27 when he decided to move to Vietnam because he, like many other young Australians, enjoyed the adventure of living in a new country.
Mr Sharp, now an accredited English teacher, said teachers in Vietnam earned a good wage and many Australians decided to stay for the long-term because living costs were much cheaper.
However, many English language centres in Vietnam hired native English-speakers without qualification — as long as they looked the part, he said.
Schools 'would rather pay fine' than hire local teachers
Ms Kim, as well as several other teachers the ABC spoke to, said that many schools overseas hired foreigners for their "token white face".
"People think unless you have that western person [teaching in the school] you're really not going to get that culture right, and to some degree that's true," she said.
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=20402&stc=1
French-British national Nathaniel Kempster (above) arrived in China on a student visa in 2006.
He told the ABC he was approached to teach in a kindergarten on his second day and did not have a valid working visa.
"You don't even have to be a native [speaker] to get good pay, you just have to have a 'white face' — that's the most important — that's the first criteria," he said.
He taught on weekends for six months before officials questioned his credentials.
"One Saturday morning I was teaching. All of a sudden, about ten different agents walked in, all with cameras filming us," Mr Kempster said.
"Kids were absolutely terrified, and no one understood what was happening. And I spent the night in the police centre."
But Mr Kempster said schools with foreign teachers made a lot of money, so his employer would prefer to pay a fine than hire local teachers."[The school] knows that they are going to make an enormous amount of money from that teacher, so paying a fine is a very small thing compared to the amount of money they will make over time," he said.
"In China, being western is viewed as being superior," Mr Kempster said.
"Also, the fact that you're western, [people think] you are obviously super good at English, even though some people aren't."
The absence of vetting procedures has not only led to untrained teachers, but criminal backgrounds have also gone undetected.
Mr Sharp said in Vietnam, foreigners were often hired without background checks."The [English] centres are often not regulated — people are working with children without having to show a police check," he said.
