Delectric, why Taiwan? Are your options open to other countries? Uni jobs in the Gulf pay about 3-4 times more than in Taiwan, and additionally offer free housing and loads of other perks that Taiwanese unis don’t.
This could interest you:
[quote]The Foreign Language Center at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C) invites applications for several full-time English teachers. The successful applicants would be expected to teach College English courses. The employment will begin on August 1, 2009.
Qualifications:
- Master degree holders;
- TESOL-related specialty;
- Native-level speakers;
- Assistant Professors with teacher certificate issued by Ministry of Education preferred;
- At least two years of English teaching experience preferred.
Required Application Documents:
…
Deadline: All application materials must be arriving at the following address no later than March 3, 2009:
…
Shortlisted candidates will be informed within a week to attend a presentation and an interview.
For further information, please send an e-mail to flcenter@nccu.edu.tw or contact us at 886-2-2939-3091 Ext. 62396.
[/quote]
nccu.edu.tw/english/ann/bull … &partid=92
There is also part-time available. As these are for the language center, MA is still OK. Notice these examples for degree coursework:
[quote]Employment Opportunity
Position: Open rank – assistant professor, associate professor, or professor (begins August 2009)
The following fields are preferred:
- World History (excluding China/Taiwan), especially Japan/Korea
- Modern China, especially Social/Economic History
…
Required application materials: copy of doctoral diploma (or letter from dean’s office showing successful defense before February 28, 2009), copy of dissertation, master’s thesis, and other writing sample (with Chinese language synopsis), doctoral and master’s degree transcripts, curriculum vitae, list of publications, research plan, proposed courses to teach and sample syllabi
…
The Department of Business Administration at National Chengchi University invites applicants for tenure-track positions at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in the fields of Operation Management, Marketing, Strategic Management or HRM. The anticipated starting date is August 2009. A Ph.D. degree in related field and demonstrated experiences or potential in research and teaching are required. Responsibilities include developing recognized research publications, directing graduate students, and conducting related services. The normal primary teaching responsibilities are four courses per year including both undergraduate and graduate ones.
[/quote]
all require PhD.
Delectric, what is the pay like at unis in China these days? I used to work at the Yunnan Agricultural Uni for 800 RMB per month (sic… and I had to pick my pay up at a quiet time because it was embarrassing that I earned 4 times as much as local colleagues).
But this has all changed, right?
delectric: You might try one of the better private high schools here. Do you have your PGCE or whatever Brits need to teach in the UK? That would do it for the American School, the European School, Yenping and Wego schools. Those are the best private schools in the Taipei area, I don’t know about the rest of the country. Wego I think only needs the CELTA. Then you could wait around until a good teaching job at uni appears. It may just be that the unis here are more used to recruiting foreigners in person, I don’t know.
Don’t always need an MA either. Helps if you already have an ARC though, or worked previously for them.
I am not sure that teaching basic freshman English classes to students who just want to pass is that enlightening either. Yes, working in university community can be interesting.
Is this really true:eek: ? are you talking nt$250K+ a month. How qualified do you have to be for that, I’m taking it that a simple DELTA wouldn’t be enough? 7
I’ve been thinking of applying to the gulf for a while but the booze restrictions have put me off but a sage packet that huge might change my mind
I plan to be in south TW end of December. I hv a masters degree (MA ELT) and some teaching experience. Where do I start looking? Do I email, or must i track them down and hv an interview? Are there agents specializing in universities?
Pls give me some advice.
If you found a job advertised now it would be for September. They recruit for specific postions when a specific need arises. Universities have no special interest in recruiting native English speakers, and there are zillions of Taiwanese people with PhDs in ELT. So basically forget it.
[quote=“Joburg”]I plan to be in south TW end of December. I hv a masters degree (MA ELT) and some teaching experience. Where do I start looking? Do I email, or must i track them down and hv an interview? Are there agents specializing in universities?
Pls give me some advice.[/quote]
Get over here and take it from there. Bad time for uni posts, but something might come up later, in Jan/Feb or again around June - August. Until then you could get something else and settle in and/or decide where you’d like to live on the island.
If you found a job advertised now it would be for September. They recruit for specific postions when a specific need arises. Universities have no special interest in recruiting native English speakers, and there are zillions of Taiwanese people with PhDs in ELT. So basically forget it.[/quote]
These days, I find myself disagreeing with Dr. Smith quite a bit. This is not one of those times. There are many, many Taiwanese with advanced degrees in ELT. There are so many that my school has hired several M.TESOL holders as teaching assisstants to help local staff lab teachers. This is a menial clerical job that was designed for BA holders with marginal English skills. Local teachers with graduate education in TESOL from American universities are willing to do this because it’s the only opportunity they have to get the experience that might qualify them to a local staff lab teacher.
I don’t want to be too discouraging because there probably are still jobs available for foreign MA holders. I have no idea how to find them. Generally, I think the idea of the native speaker English teacher with an MA is pretty much dead in Asian universities. Or at least universities in the kind of places that provide a decent standard of living.
scottsommers.wordpress.com/2009/ … s-in-asia/
[quote=“ScottSommers”]
These days, I find myself disagreeing with Dr. Smith quite a bit. [/quote]
Really? Let’s discuss this over a beer?
I accept the challenge.
Anyone know where the actually advertise uni jobs in Taiwan? Despite being here a while TEALIT is the only place I know and they always have the same 2 or 3 jobs.
I’m assuming this is a Chinese word of mouth, not-what-you-know-but-who-you-know kinda deal, would that be about right?
Isn’t there another thread on this?
Some unis will advertise on the Linguist List. Then there’s the (Higher Education?) Chronicle, and even occasionally jobs.ac.uk. Usually they just advertise on their own website (often in the “bulletin” section which is normally on the uni home page). Many candidates get to hear about vacancies from classmates and colleagues; so, yes, word of mouth.
You could try phoning round all the English departments as well as “English language centers” and “foreign language centers” of all the unis within commuting distance of where you live.
There is a large number of applicants for most positions. You have to prepare a lot of paperwork before your application will be considered, including a copy of your dissertation or representative publications (which they have to send off for review, if they are considering you) and a copy of your PhD diploma which has been stamped by the Taiwan rep office in your country.
There is no preference for native English speakers for these jobs; in fact, hiring committee members are much more likely to vote for Taiwanese applications. There are several reasons for this:
There’s a lot more bureaucracy involved employing foreigners.
Foreigners are more likely to make trouble in the department, or ask difficult questions at meetings.
“Foreigners will have trouble communicating with the students.”
Foreigners may realize that some TW colleagues don’t speak English especially well.
(Also: There is a whole (EIL/ELF) literature that says native speakers no longer have “ownership” of the English language. This research has rather gone to the heads of quite a lot of Taiwanese English teachers.)
Dr. Smith, this is one of those points on which I disagree. Although it is irrelevant to the post and your points that are relevent are cogent, insightful, and contain valuable information. For example, your point that…
[quote=“smithsgj”]There is no preference for native English speakers for these jobs; in fact, hiring committee members are much more likely to vote for Taiwanese applications. There are several reasons for this:
There’s a lot more bureaucracy involved employing foreigners.
Foreigners are more likely to make trouble in the department, or ask difficult questions at meetings.
“Foreigners will have trouble communicating with the students.”
Foreigners may realize that some TW colleagues don’t speak English especially well. [/quote]
Is entirely correct. It should not be presumed that a native English speaker M. TESOL-holder has any competitive advantage in this market. Schools are looking for researchers that can publish papers - and that’s the end of the story. The idea that you can chat better than a local teacher has no market value here. Rather, I should say there are such jobs, but they are not at the university level. Some of them are even quite good jobs, but they won’t be at a university.
This is also a good point. Some people are hired almost automatically in the frenzied kind of thing that hiring in Taiwan sometimes becomes. More generally, it is a huge ordeal. I was hired 8 years ago when it was ‘simple’. I spent the entire day being interviewed by 3 seperate committees and giving a demo class. It was easily the most exhausing job experience I have ever had.
One of the aspects that Dr. Smith misses is that university faculty in Taiwan are issued a license by the Ministry of Education. If you have one, you can be hired very quickly. I was recently offered a job at another school. In fact, the interviews for this were still a long and exhausting ordeal, but perhaps the biggest factor in offering me the job was that I already have a faculty license.
Excellent article. I enjoyed reading it. Much food for thought there…
Scott, what would you advise one do. I’m committed to Taiwan for the long haul, but I’m not interested in teaching buxiban for the rest of my life. Additionally, I’m more interested in research than “chatting” to people.
I have tinkered with the idea of doing an MA and then a PhD, but I’m at a cross roads as to what would be best, if anything at all. I’ve thought about the MA in English lit, or Linguistics at NCKU, as well as their MA in History or Political Economy. However, besides having a field of interest that is too wide (difficult to make a decision) I’m not sure which would be best (if any at all) towards securing a future position at a local university. I’m also in process of naturalizing, so I guess I wont have to worry about the hassle of being hired as a “foreign” worker.
Is university still a viable career option, in your opinion, or would I be better served just opening a tea shop? Following this thread (and looking in on your and Michael Turton’s blogs from time to time) paints a somewhat grim picture…
I am not currently in the TW university scene, but I was previously. What gives me pause is the extreme ease with which a distinction is drawn between “local” and “foreign” faculty. Once that has been done (and it was done long ago) there is nothing to prevent the distinction from being enlarged at will. So I would not count on long-term guarantees as a non-ROC national. I might be overly conservative but for my money I’d open the tea shop instead. (Plus, too many tea shops have disappeared of late for my taste…Shita night market ain’t what it used to be.) 
Excellent article. I enjoyed reading it. Much food for thought there…
Scott, what would you advise one do. I’m committed to Taiwan for the long haul, but I’m not interested in teaching buxiban for the rest of my life. Additionally, I’m more interested in research than “chatting” to people.
I have tinkered with the idea of doing an MA and then a PhD, but I’m at a cross roads as to what would be best, if anything at all. I’ve thought about the MA in English lit, or Linguistics at NCKU, as well as their MA in History or Political Economy. However, besides having a field of interest that is too wide (difficult to make a decision) I’m not sure which would be best (if any at all) towards securing a future position at a local university. I’m also in process of naturalizing, so I guess I wont have to worry about the hassle of being hired as a “foreign” worker.
Is university still a viable career option, in your opinion, or would I be better served just opening a tea shop? Following this thread (and looking in on your and Michael Turton’s blogs from time to time) paints a somewhat grim picture…[/quote]
I came to Taiwan in 1996 and things have changed enormously since then. Before I came here, I taught in Japan and S. Korea. My feeling is that the situation here for foreign English teachers has followed the trend set in those places.
When you talk about opportunities for English teachers, I suppose you’re talking about institutional opportunities. My point in the post on my blog is that opportunities here are increasingly looking like opportunities in the USA or Britain. I don’t mean to be discouraging, but what that means for BA holders is that opportunities in education in Taiwan look pretty much the way they do for BA holders in the USA or Britain. That means if you want to teach at the university level, you have to have the same qualifications as local professors here and as professors in your home country.
There are still good jobs available for non-PhD holders and non-researchers. There are teaching institutions other than buxibans, and they are always looking for committed teachers. This would include the many private high schools and increasing numbers of public high schools that hire foreign teachers, also organizations like TECRO that run post-graduate training institutes. These are high quality jobs in terms of pay and benefits. I don’t know how long-term they are designed to be. Foreign citizen at Taiwan national universities still don’t quality for full pension benefits, so I doubt there are any private non-international schools that offer this.
The real problem is going to be that BA holders will increasingly get beat out even for these jobs. MA holders in academic disciplines may be competitive for teaching courses in schools willing to offer them in English, but increasingly EFL teachers will have to have the kinds of qualifications that local teachers would need for these jobs. Sure, there will always be jobs available for lesser qualified people, but since we’re talking about the best jobs, we might as well just deal with the qualifications those jobs will need.
I don’t know if this sounds discouraging. I think there’re lots of opportunities still available and lots of money to be made in EFL as an industry. It’s getting harder and harder, especially for people starting out right now. If you start with the attitude this is what you want to do and are willing to do what you have to do to be competitive, there’s still a great deal going on, but it’s a lot of work. And it’s a lot more work than it used to be with much more disappointment than there has been in the past.
I don’t know if that helps. Do you have any specific questions?
Hi Scott, thanks for your contribution to this thread and for painting a realistic picture. Tomorrow evening for the beer challenge?
Dr. Smith, this is one of those points on which I disagree. Although it is irrelevant to the post
[/quote]
What do you disagree with here Scott? The fact that EIL (and also NNS teacher) research exists (surely not)? or the fact that many Taiwan local profs do believe, because of this research, that native English speakers are no better qualified to teach Taiwanese students than they themselves?
If I’m right, then the remark was relevant to my post, I think, because I was listing reasons why a Taiwanese hiring committee might prefer Taiwanese teachers. But of course I could be wrong!