Thery're on to you!

Just watching the news, the Government seems to be making plans to “clamp down” on the quality of foreign teachers in Taiwan.

Mentioned was the recent case of that deported Australian foreign teacher who opened a school with his wife but after period of time, had sex with a Taiwanese co - teacher in the classroom.
Apparently, he didn’t even graduate from high school.

While it seems proficient teachers will not be affected, it is reported that more stringent vetting procedures may be applied in the near future when foriegners apply for work permits, and may even include random “quality control” checks at random schools/cram schools.

It should get rid of the Riff Raff.

Veting? Did you mean ‘vetting’? :bouncy:

I was just making sure that English teachers browsing this forum meet the required proof reading skills as dictated by the Ministry of Education here in Taiwan.

Orange+Blue - Well done. I have no reason to turn you over to the government for incompetency.

I’m not an English teacher Dangermouse. :bouncy:

[quote=“Dangermouse”]Just watching the news, the Government seems to be making plans to “clamp down” on the quality of foreign teachers in Taiwan.

Mentioned was the recent case of that deported Australian foreign teacher who opened a school with his wife but after period of time, had sex with a Taiwanese co - teacher in the classroom.
Apparently, he didn’t even graduate from high school.

While it seems proficient teachers will not be affected, it is reported that more stringent vetting procedures may be applied in the near future when foriegners apply for work permits, and may even include random “quality control” checks at random schools/cram schools.

It should get rid of the Riff Raff.[/quote]

It isn’t possible to get rid of the ‘Riff Raff’ here. It will just be replaced with other, more qualified 'Riff Raff". Besides, how would they run the quality control checks? Are they going to station language police at the airport to conduct grammar quizzes?

If someone is married here and has no trouble staying in the country, there’s no reason he/she shouldn’t be able to teach English. How else would he/she make a living?

[quote=“wipt”][quote=“Dangermouse”]Just watching the news, the Government seems to be making plans to “clamp down” on the quality of foreign teachers in Taiwan.

Mentioned was the recent case of that deported Australian foreign teacher who opened a school with his wife but after period of time, had sex with a Taiwanese co - teacher in the classroom.
Apparently, he didn’t even graduate from high school.

While it seems proficient teachers will not be affected, it is reported that more stringent vetting procedures may be applied in the near future when foriegners apply for work permits, and may even include random “quality control” checks at random schools/cram schools.

It should get rid of the Riff Raff.[/quote]

It isn’t possible to get rid of the ‘Riff Raff’ here. It will just be replaced with other, more qualified 'Riff Raff". Besides, how would they run the quality control checks? Are they going to station language police at the airport to conduct grammar quizzes?

If someone is married here and has no trouble staying in the country, there’s no reason he/she shouldn’t be able to teach English. How else would he/she make a living?[/quote]

You’re not saying that those who are married to locals are not good enough for anything but teaching English, are you? I’d hate to think that is true. :noway:

Well, I’d imagine it be the same way they stop taxi drivers getting jobs in medicine. If you don’t have the educational qualification (or possibly appropriate experience, depending how lenient they are), you can’t legally get the job. And if they do frequent checks on schools for a while and boot out those not meant to be there and fine the schools heavily, sooner or later the point will get through.

How about by doing a job they’re qualified for?

[quote=“Bassman”]
You’re not saying that those who are married to locals are not good enough for anything but teaching English, are you? I’d hate to think that is true. :noway:[/quote]

I’m sure they’re qualified to do much more than that but if they aren’t fluent in Chinese, then they aren’t even qualified to work in a 7-11 or Pizza Hut. That’s the same everywhere, isn’t it?

Improving the quality of teachers is not a high priority because buxiban owners know qualified teachers will be more expensive and result in lower profits. Hence the huge numbers of inexperienced / unqualified Canadians and South Africans being welcomed with open arms into the buxiban industry. I am not saying they would be any less able to teach than those who have been here for years, but the teacher who has been here a few years will want more than NT$600 an hour.

If anyone was interested in quality, there would be centres offering the CELTA or DELTA and it would be mandatory to have something which shows you have some knowledge of the field of second language acquisition. And I really don’t get the Bachelor’s degree requirement. A BSc in Basket Weaving from the University of Nowhereville doesn’t mean anything in this context.

[quote=“Tetsuo”]
How about by doing a job they’re qualified for?[/quote]

If they aren’t fluent in Chinese, then they probably aren’t qualified for anything but teaching English. There are engineers and businessmen who work here and never learn Chinese. Since this is the ‘Teaching English in Taiwan’ forum, businessmen and engineers and whatever other jobs that don’t require Chinese or Taiwanese, are excluded from the equation. If they want to do jobs they’re qualified for, they ought to go to a place where their qualifications actually matter. What’s next? You require everyone to learn English so that they can accommodate the foreigner who can do the same job that hundreds, maybe thousands, of locals can do? Come on. Use your head!

As a buxiban owner, I disagree. I don’t mind paying more if I get more. However, if a teacher thinks that experience, alone, is worth something, then that’s another issue. If the experience has actually led to a better understanding of what it takes to do the job, then I’ll gladly pay more. If an experienced teacher thinks that he’s worth more than anyone else without actually showing something–simply because he’s more experienced-- then I have a problem with that.

You may be right about this. A BA or BS means nothing. However, a CELTA or DELTA doesn’t necessarily mean much either.

The most important qualifications are teaching experience and adult acquired second language capability. If a person is intelligent, creative, friendly and curious and he has been reading and perhaps travelling all his life he can become a good ESL teacher. University has very little to do with it.

Bob makes a good point.

That was part of the qualities that my university ESL program looked for when hiring ESL tutors for their TA program. I spent 3-6 months in the training program before allowed to take students without supervision. The director of ESL at the time believed that an ESL tutor with a second language helped the tutor empathize with the student’s struggles and thus make him/her a more effective teacher. World-wide experience was also important.

The director didn’t care much for teaching experience, she was going to train us in the proper teaching/tutoring skills and didn’t want to be bothered with having to “unlearn” us.

I think these are some of the qualities that make the best teacher for any subject matter.

I agree with this. Experience helps you learn how to better to control a group of kids. Adult acquired second language capability helps you better understand what the students are going through. I often find teachers expecting students to do more than they’re capable of doing simply because they–themselves–never had the experience of learning a second language. In the beginning, our school insisted that all teachers at least be able to understand Mandarin. We found out later that there weren’t enough of those teachers to fill our needs and dropped the requirement. I feel that we lost something there, but what can you do?

Hire me.

[quote=“hexuan”]Improving the quality of teachers is not a high priority because buxiban owners know qualified teachers will be more expensive and result in lower profits. Hence the huge numbers of inexperienced / unqualified Canadians and South Africans being welcomed with open arms into the buxiban industry. I am not saying they would be any less able to teach than those who have been here for years, but the teacher who has been here a few years will want more than NT$600 an hour.

If anyone was interested in quality, there would be centres offering the CELTA or DELTA and it would be mandatory to have something which shows you have some knowledge of the field of second language acquisition. And I really don’t get the Bachelor’s degree requirement. A BSc in Basket Weaving from the University of Nowhereville doesn’t mean anything in this context.[/quote]
A valid observation but I still think that if people need a CELTA or DELTA or special university training to teach English in Taiwan then there will be a severe shortage of teachers here because people with these qualifications can find better jobs in a less ‘hostile’ environment.

Apply.

:smiley:

Are you interested in someone who is developing a learning system based almost entirely on the HBO special program “Six Feet Under”? No, I am not kidding.

The program is pretty boring and I assume you’re interested in teaching adults.