There were allegedly over 14,000 applications for the FET program this year (according to the MOE). The number of actual FETs hired is a few hundred. This is because most applicants didnāt meet the basic requirements, not because of selectively. Meanwhile, Fulbright continues to provide unqualified cheap labor as they bring in increasingly larger numbers of increasingly less qualified ETAs while also pushing the Fulbright advisors on the FETs. As in, FETs have to sit through programming by the Fulbright advisors during training this year. Keep in mind most Fulbright advisors havenāt spend much actual contact time with students in real classrooms anywhere across the globe, let alone know the first thing about Taiwanese schools. They have to have a masters degree in TESOL and thatās about it. Many of them went and chilled out in the peace corps (note, thatās not in Taiwan) for a hot second while getting their masters and their qualifications to speak on Taiwanās English education system or teach FETs how to teach ends there.
Itās odd for so many people to apply for jobs when they donāt reach minimum requirements. A problem with the way FET positions are advertised, perhaps?
The only language teachers Iāve ever had worth their salt were teaching in their L2 (L2= any second language, as opposed to L1, which is first language/mother tongue). They were good teachers because they knew how to teach a second language to someone learning a second language. They were trained in teaching effective L2 instruction. Some of them didnāt even have a good verbal grasp of the language, but they knew where to find AUTHENTIC audio resources for us to listen to.
Iām going to continue saying this until the MOE takes more than three seconds to think about their English education program: Taiwan does not need ANY foreign teachers. Taiwan needs to train their local teachers how to teach English and at the same time change ALL testing to reflect English as a form of communication and not a grammar and vocabulary process. Anyone with any qualifications to talk about SLA (second language acquisition) would point to that as āmost obvious failure number oneā, but they continue to cry about how they donāt have enough native speakers in the classroom.
Also, the majority of ESL teachers that I know in the United States are non native speakers. They all have accents, yet their students learn just fine. Can you imagine if one of us was a CSL teacher in Taiwan? There would be riots in the streets. Native proficiency does not make a good teacher. Your knowledge of comprehensible input and RELEVANT follow-ups and RELEVANT testing does.
They went waaayyyy overboard on the advertising this year and put a lot of emphasis on the amount of $$$$ you can make. People were all over the Facebook pages asking about how they could make themselves qualified, as opposed to accepting that needing a college degree and teaching license arenāt negotiable requirements.
Their schools are also all basically Montessori ā classroom prepared in a way that invites learning, based on what the students want to learn and explore, not test-focused. Teachers use comprehensible input to teach language and they are motivated to watch American TV and enjoy speaking English with one another. I wouldnāt believe they spend more than a few seconds per class on grammar, if that. CI embeds grammar learning right into the lesson. The absolute opposite approach is used in TW ā explicit grammar instruction only with limited input at allā¦
It may also be unclear if a requirement is negotiable or not. I know I used to hear advice to apply for a job anyway, even if you donāt meet supposed requirements, since you may still wind up the best candidate and get hired.
Itās the MOE, Iām sure they were incredibly unclear about the qualifications needing to actually be met. Since the US has states hiring anyone with a GED to teach, with the licensed teacher salary to boot, it would make sense that some people think a teaching license is optional in a public school somewhere else in the world. But 14,000? Does Taiwan even have that many foreign teachers across all private, cram, etc. schools in total?
That is the effect advertising through Facebook. A few years back, when only onshore wind industry exist in Taiwan, a leading wind turbine maker, VĀ£&#@$, advertise an opportunity as wind turbine technician through Facebook. The job itself need at least an engineering degree, and physical ability to climb 80-100 m ladder, with advertised salary of 70 K a month, which is above average for most Taiwanese. Everyone and their grandmother flocking to get to be interviewed and applying. (I was interviewed, but seems the hiring manager didnāt convince of my physical ability, which probably justified)
Thank you @nz for your reply (second paragraph). When English is not used for normal day today conversations forget about its retention. Kids here canāt use English at home and they prefer to speak in Chinese with their classmates. Best way to achieve 2030 goal is to create English immersion all over Taiwan and any plan to import as many native teachers wonāt help.
Sometimes, I do stumble for correct words as I didnāt use them in many years.
Makes sense. One has to think, too, the Scandinavians always seem to want to work with us. Whereas non-Germanic-language-derived-countries (France for example) never want to admit they know and understand English.
āThank God for the English Channel!ā
Iād argue this point. In my experience, the USA has not been very successful teaching second language acquisition. Nearly everyone studies french or Spanish in school. How many people who arenāt already native Spanish or French speakers can speak Spanish or French?
If parents ever asked me the best way to improve their English I always would say listen to music in English and watch movies and TV Shows in English. Itās the only way to get some English in the home for most families.
I use the classroom to teach the basic skills and the practice those skills. Any further development will have to happen outside of the classroom.
Learning by rote does not always work as intended. Sometimes I meet new students who should have a high level of English but they canāt answer basic conversation questions. Their grammar is good. But you can only ask the set questions they learned the answers to otherwise they donāt know what to say.
Culture (including but not exclusive to willingness to learn about Western things) and education system (e.g. Montessori style vs grammar and vocabulary testing) also play a part, and more; as always these things are not down to one or two simple reasons.
I have a good friend from Portugal, he says his English is good because when he was a kid there was a TV station that was free and showed things he wanted to watch, but in English with no subtitles. So he learned fast and in a natural way (as @nz would agree, with extensive input above his ability but within his grasp; see Krashen and Vygotsky for further reading)
Has Finland used TV to teach English like this? I donāt know. Does language similarity help people learn a language? I would say yes. Are there other things besides culture, education system, similarities in language, and TV offerings that would help the Finns? Almost certainly. Am I an expert on Finland? No, I am not (I couldnāt even tell you how they compare to Norway and Sweden in terms of English language use)
Are there even adequate resources for that? If you wanted to learn an indigenous language, the only option right now is to go heavy in immersion and live with the people.
My guess is because its what they use to talk non Finnish speakers, such as recent immigrants or visitors. Example last month, in the market I got a SIM card, the cashier who seems to be a new immigrant was told by his boss in English how to process the sale (boss lady was not happy as the guy was somewhat not used being a cashier haha), so bit surprised but if anything Finns are practical and it means learning English so be it. Lithuanians the same somewhat, though older folks speak Russian more to regional immigrants (Ukraine), but younger people speak good english as they āNeedā to. Taiwan needs to open up to immigrants where people can speak more English, even in Japan now I see many immigrants working at 7-11/Lawsons, ect., I can not remember seeing any in Taiwan or any retail.