CELTA for non-native speaker

jbombon

Hi everyone!

I have already posted this message in another thread, but I wanted to make sure it would be seen by everybody so I created a new one... If this constitutes spamming please do say so.

I want to do a CELTA course in Dublin next September, I am a French native and I currently live in France but my bf is Irish and we are planning on moving to Ireland.

I am a fully-qualified ESL teacher at secondary-school level in France (I have been teaching for a little more than a year) and trying to get my qualification recognised for QTS status, but it's a bit of a drag and I am not very hopeful since France doesn't have the same training system for teachers at all

My question is: do you think I can find employment in an English language school once I get CELT although I am not a native speaker? This question has probably been answered before sorry....

Thanks!

odds_on

From a personal perspective, if I was either living in Ireland or going to Ireland to learn English, I would expect to have a native English speaker teaching me.

If I wanted to learn French correctly, I would prefer to be taught by a native French teacher whether that be in Ireland or France.

I think your best bet would be to write to some of the language schools in Ireland and get their position on the situation and if they use non native speakers themselves.

I have never taught English in Ireland (though I am Irish) but I have taught in many European countries and South America, over the last 40 years or so.

jbombon

Thanks odds on that's also my opinion, I think schools wouldn't hire me because I am not

jbombon

a native speaker. I think my only solution might be to study again towards becoming a French language teacher!

Columbia

I'm a native-speaking English teacher, and I've always been of the view that people who learned English as a second language (to near-native level, of course) would be far more suited to the job than the 80% of underqualified chancers currently working in the industry.

If you can prove that your formal knowledge of grammar is better than the school's current staff, you could have a chance. I don't think the students would be too put off by getting grammar lessons from a non-native speaker. If they're adults, they will likely be aware that most native speakers don't know their own grammar rules too well. As someone who has studied the language from bottom to top, you have a lot of offer that a native speaker doesn't.

(feel free to use some of this in an interview )

who_me

Columbia wrote: »

I'm a native-speaking English teacher, and I've always been of the view that people who learned English as a second language (to near-native level, of course) would be far more suited to the job than the 80% of underqualified chancers currently working in the industry.

If you can prove that your formal knowledge of grammar is better than the school's current staff, you could have a chance. I don't think the students would be too put off by getting grammar lessons from a non-native speaker. If they're adults, they will likely be aware that most native speakers don't know their own grammar rules too well. As someone who has studied the language from bottom to top, you have a lot of offer that a native speaker doesn't.

(feel free to use some of this in an interview )

In my experience (had over a dozen different language teachers), I think there's a lot of truth in this.

Speaking a language fluently and being able to teach it don't necessarily correlate. It wouldn't surprise me if anyone who had learned a language (plus then had experience practising it) would be better prepared to teach as they'd be well aware of the grammatical rules. Certainly in English, I'd struggle to explain a lot of grammatical constructs without having to give some thought to the patterns/rules behind them.

That said, I do think there would be a lot of bias against a non-native teacher. For a lot of non-Irish friends I have, learning English from native speakers was a big part of their reason for being here. Paying to join a language school and being taught by a non-native teacher could well be an annoyance to some.