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diploma necessary to teach a language when a native speaker?

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  • 18-10-2014 7:27pm
    #1
    Reveuse
    Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭


    Hi,

    I'm French, I will soon have a degree in English (hopefully), and I am planning to do a Master. Do you know if there is any other diploma or test to take to teach French here in Ireland?

    Thanks,
    Rêveuse
    Tagged:


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    #2
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,237 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Reveuse wrote: »
    Hi,

    I'm French, I will soon have a degree in English (hopefully), and I am planning to do a MasterS. Do you know if there is any other diploma or test to take to teach French here in Ireland?

    Thanks,
    Rêveuse
    Sorry. Given the context, I couldn't resist correcting. :D

    To teach in a secondary school, you will need a post graduate teaching qualification. To give private lessons, no qualification required, but people would, I'd imagine, be happy to hear you have a degree.


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    #3
    Frankly frank
    Registered Users Posts: 57 ✭✭Frankly frank


    As well as the teaching diploma you will need a degree in French to teach regardless of being a native speaker.
    Your degree decides your subject(s) so if your degree is in English you will be qualified to teach English, etc.


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    #4
    Reveuse
    Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭Reveuse


    Thanks. I did hesitate though :p .

    So does this mean I would need a degree in French and then a Masters in Education to teach in schools? Is there no other way?


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    #5
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,237 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Reveuse wrote: »
    Thanks. I did hesitate though :p .

    So does this mean I would need a degree in French and then a Masters in Education to teach in schools? Is there no other way?

    Remember, it is an Irish system you're dealing with here. Irish systems often n'ont pas de sens.


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    #6
    Reveuse
    Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭Reveuse


    That's the least we can say if a degree in French is compulsory... Back in France my Chinese teacher (a native speaker) was a Doctor in drama, and that's the only thing she had ever studied. Would that be impossible here?


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    #7
    Frankly frank
    Registered Users Posts: 57 ✭✭Frankly frank


    Reveuse wrote: »
    Thanks. I did hesitate though :p .

    So does this mean I would need a degree in French and then a Masters in Education to teach in schools? Is there no other way?


    Continue with your degree in English and subject x.
    Do masters in education and later on do French degree part time which would cost but would give you 3 subjects perhaps more, depending on your combination.
    It sounds crazy I know but there are Italians and Spanish not teaching native language as subject but their degree subjects, eg English! They can always teach language privately/night classes etc. That said many native speakers/students make many written errors despite obvious spoken prowess!
    C'est dingue mais ..


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    #8
    Reveuse
    Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭Reveuse


    Well I might as well teach English then... Do you know if a lot of people take private lessons?


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    #9
    gaiscioch
    Registered Users Posts: 1,530 ✭✭✭gaiscioch


    Reveuse wrote: »
    Well I might as well teach English then...

    Assuming you will have a degree in English and the PDE/Postgraduate Teaching Qualification (the necessary teaching qualification for secondary school teaching), it is quite possible that you could apply for a job as an English and French teacher in a school, that the principal will call you for interview and give you a full-time job as a teacher of both English and French (based on being a native speaker).

    This would be acceptable to the TC/Teaching Council by virtue of the fact that you are a registered teacher, despite your teacher registration being for only one of those two subjects, English. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will get a full-time (22 hours) job as a teacher of English alone.(English, along with History, is the most ridiculously oversubscribed subject in terms of the number of teachers chasing jobs.)

    I would, however, strongly advise you to secure the necessary 60 degree credits in French asap. You can do this through doing a Higher Diploma in Arts, choosing the subject of French. Most teachers who do this do it over two years (30 credits per year), but it is possible to do all 60 credits in one (quite intensive) year. That HDA is available in most (all?) universities as a day course, and may be available at night in one or two of them.


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    #10
    born2bwild
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,419 ✭✭✭born2bwild


    endacl wrote: »
    Sorry. Given the context, I couldn't resist correcting. :D

    To teach in a secondary school, you will need a post graduate teaching qualification. To give private lessons, no qualification required, but people would, I'd imagine, be happy to hear you have a degree.
    Isn't it a possessive adjective?

    As in; Master's Degree?

    So; Master's.

    Sorry, couldn't resist &c.


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    #11
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,237 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    born2bwild wrote: »
    Isn't it a possessive adjective?

    As in; Master's Degree?

    So; Master's.

    Sorry, couldn't resist &c.

    Yep. Ya got me!


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    #12
    RealJohn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,099 ✭✭✭RealJohn


    Probably worth pointing out that while your can't be employed as a French teacher without a degree in French, if a school employs you as an english teacher and you're a native French speaker, you can be fairly sure that you'll be given French classes to teach if the school needs them covered. I would guess that a large minority of Irish teachers teach at least one subject that they're not officially qualified to teach.


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    #13
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,130 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    RealJohn wrote: »
    Probably worth pointing out that while your can't be employed as a French teacher without a degree in French, if a school employs you as an english teacher and you're a native French speaker, you can be fairly sure that you'll be given French classes to teach if the school needs them covered. I would guess that a large minority of Irish teachers teach at least one subject that they're not officially qualified to teach.

    As RealJohn says, that's what happens in the real world.
    Be careful of getting into that situation come an inspection as from what I have heard, they tend to target 'unqualified' people and in at least one situation I know of, where an unqualified native speaker was teaching a subject, they were quite nasty to the person, who was really only doing the school a favour.


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    #14
    Powerhouse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,428 ✭✭✭Powerhouse


    endacl wrote: »
    Remember, it is an Irish system you're dealing with here. Irish systems often n'ont pas de sens.


    We don't automatically allow native speakers of English to teach English in post-primary schools, or automatically allow native speakers of Irish to teach Irish in schools. They are required to study the subjects to degree level. Does that seem equally illogical to you?


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    #15
    Powerhouse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,428 ✭✭✭Powerhouse


    born2bwild wrote: »

    Isn't it a possessive adjective?

    As in; Master's Degree?

    So; Master's.

    Sorry, couldn't resist &c.



    My, your, his/hers, our, your, their, are possessive adjectives.

    Master's is a noun in the possessive case.


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    #16
    RealJohn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,099 ✭✭✭RealJohn


    Powerhouse wrote: »
    We don't automatically allow native speakers of English to teach English in post-primary schools, or automatically allow native speakers of Irish to teach Irish in schools. They are required to study the subjects to degree level. Does that seem equally illogical to you?
    Not comparing like with like there in fairness. In foreign languages (other than english), the vast majority of the emphasis is on being able to speak and write the languages, or at least it certainly was when I was in school and I haven't heard of there being a big change. Do they have to critically analyse poetry and novels in French, German etc. nowadays? Or write long compositions?

    english and Irish teachers have to teach those things, as well as teach the language where necessary (and maybe we'd come out with more people who can speak Irish if there was less emphasis put on those things rather than assuming that the average student has the level of Irish required to do that, which they don't). I would say you need the in depth experience of doing those things that you get from a degree to teach those skills.

    If you're just teaching the speaking, writing and understand of the language itself, I'd say a native speaker would usually have the depth of knowledge required already whereas non-native speakers would need the experience of a degree to get to that level.


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    #17
    unknowngirl!!
    Registered Users Posts: 389 ✭✭unknowngirl!!


    RealJohn wrote: »
    If you're just teaching the speaking, writing and understand of the language itself, I'd say a native speaker would usually have the depth of knowledge required already whereas non-native speakers would need the experience of a degree to get to that level.

    I totally disagree. Often native speakers, who have not been educated to teach their language, make the worst teachers. You have an innate ability to speak your L1 so you can't always break down the language to explain the mechanics behind it.

    I am glad you need a specific qualification to teach any MFL in Ireland. I think it makes perfect sense. As an anglophone you need a TEFL qualification to teach English to non native speakers, why should it be different for other languages?


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    #18
    evolving_doors
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    cest tout... cest fini !

    A+
    le mod

    Edit: sorry that was a bit abrupt but I think the OP knows their options now... Get in under another subject or Get a French degree


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