English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed?

Com Bridge I think it actually is.

Well, yes, because it is easier and sounds more "casual". Surely it has many advantages. But the nasty AmE phonetics demand from the speaker to chew tobacco while talking to gain that Southern drawl ;)

[joking of course]

Maybe you meant it as a joke, but it's not far from the truth!

Lots of different regional accents in the US and in the UK. Variety is the spice of life although it must make students crazy.

British or American accent??. Deos it make any difference for a Pole?. Most of English teachers in Poland speak with a Polish accent anyway.

I knew one teacher in PL, nice guy, good teacher, who was from Alabama and spoke like an extra from Gone with the Wind. Until he entered the classroom at which point his accent suddenly changed to East Coast Social Register WASP.

The way people speak in England involves local dialects, obviously as a Yank you are probably unaware of this. Speaking as a Polish person living, working and teaching in Manchester I've experienced no problems whatsoever in coming to terms, understanding and adapting to all the local customs, traditions and ways of speaking. At least they know how to spell COLOUR.

Merged: Question About Teaching English

Hey, my name is Logan and I'm 19 years old and a student from the United States. I have a couple questions regarding the opportunities to teach English in Poland.

What are the usual minimum requirements? I'm not sure if it helps, but I can also speak German.

Cheers

Hello Logan,

This question has been answered quite a few times in many similar threads. There are a few ways at the entry-level.

Without any experience or qualifications, and given your age, you can try Callan / Direct method schools. The pay is awful and these types of schools are closing all over the country. The work is easy and requires little to no preparation on your part, but it'll suck the very life out of you.

Schools -- at least the reputable ones -- will demand a teaching qualification (CELTA is the only respectable one) and a degree. You could also get work without them, but any school willing to take you on without them will also be willing to stab you in the back, take advantage of you and mess you around.

Privates won't demand anything from you, but your inexperience will shine through and they will have no hesitations in letting you know this.

Do yourself a favour and get qualified, mature a little bit and really give it some thought. There are too many unqualified and inexperienced 'teachers' - with little passion for the work - flooding the market, making it harder for those with experience, qualifications and passion.

Hi Nightglade,

I'm sorry but as a new member I cannot send you a PM.

Are the callan / direct method schools really closing ?

If possible please could you send me a message as I have a few questions.

I can assure you that I don;t work in one of those schools, and I never will.

Thanks for the reply! Are you currently teaching in Poland?

Went for an interview today, very informal.

Proprietor said "You really need to be able to speak Polish if you're going to explain English grammar to the student. If we hire you, you will need to do a free demonstration lesson of an hour with each student so they can see if they find you acceptable. After that, they pay for tuition if they continue with you. Would be 2 to 4 hours a week approximately at most."

I wasn't hired anyway, but found it interesting to discover what the school potentially required of me, as a non CELTA and potential newbie. I suppose as a CELTAless newbie that's the best one can hope for. If I'd paid for a CELTA and heard that, I'd be regretting the money I forked out.

that sounds really odd and fly by night kind of operation.
I mean of course I have been asked to give demo lessons, but only one, and only as part of the interview process.

I tend to agree, just wanted to run it past a few experienced people here in case for my disadvantaged position (non CELTA, newbie) it was the norm.

Thanks for posting :o)

Might be a silly question for you, but would you be able to do the CELTA somewhere locally, maybe part time?

The cost is the problem - a lot of money to invest and then discover either I can't stand teaching or I can't do it well!

(Course cost in the SE of England is £1200 to £1700, depending on the institution. At Wrocław colleges, I have been informed the course is from £750 approx.)

yes but to be honest, inwroclaw, it's going to be hard to get your foot in the door without it.
also, I don't wish to sound snotty but you kind of have to invest something for anything you want to do, know what I mean?

and.....how will you have any idea of how to teach English without some basic training?
what will you do when someone puts you on the spot about grammar?
no offence but it gives the industry a bad name.

I am not denying you make very good points, I don't disagree. My viewpoint is I don't know if I'm going to be able to stand it. I have taught other subjects one to one before and it was bearable but I didn't have to fork out £1000 to teach them. I can't teach those subjects here unless I learn to speak Polish - highly unlikely inside of 3 to 5 years.

Additionally, I need income now, not to outlay £750 or £1000 now. So, for whatever reason and whatever poor planning or lack of foresight on my part, that's the predicament.

Additionally, if it is true that a person needs to speak Polish before being able to explain grammar, then I can forget it :o)

A four-week CELTA course is not going to prepare candidates for intricate grammar questions from students. That takes years of study and experience. CELTA is valuable in that it trains people in methodology, and, of course, you need it to get any kind of respectable job.


That's the risk involved, and it's good that you recognize it. Oh, and you won't do it well at first! That also takes time.

Yes, probably!
What do you think about what the school said to me, re demo lessons for each student and needing to speak Polish ideally?

yeh I do know that, have been teaching since 1995, and most of my real learning was on the job.
but he does need the cert , just to get his foot in the door, and to be prepared for what kind of questions he might expect, and how to parry the questions without looking like a total knob.

Not to mention that he'd better know grammar inside and out and more importantly, how to explain it.


This is nonsense. We teach English. I rarely use Polish in my classroom except to explain the meaning of different fish. Try to define cod so that anyone who has never seen one can understand and you'll know what I mean.

can't you draw a cod on the board scottie? shame on you!!
nobody knows grammar 'inside out' when they start, but a basic grounding is kind of essential.(and a copy of Swan)

Modern coursebooks and their teacher's books are of great help to new teachers. Follow the lesson plans to the letter and you shouldn't go far wrong. As for teaching English in English, that's what EFL courses teach you to do. Early on in my career I taught Russian ten-year-olds. I didn't know Russian but the methodology I'd picked up from my CELTA course helped a lot.

Thanks for the comments and posts - I will post again if I find a school to hire me. At the moment, of course, looks very unlikely that I'll end up anywhere except out-of-pocket and suckered. Will keep looking but anyone browsing this thread would be well-advised to do a CELTA before they come to Poland (if they are 100% sure they want to teach and can do it). Can I also say that there are not loads of vacancies even for those with the basic CELTA - it is not easy at all to find yourself working somewhere decent.

Check out esl cafe. The Polish forum has a lot of good discussions about the need for a CELTA and about schools.


Nope. I eat cod, but I've never seen a real one.

Which reminds me, teaching present perfect so that students who don't have it in their language can understand it isn't easy. Swan helps a lot as does onestopenglish.com

oh onestopenglish is fab, you can lift whole lessons from there.

tbh I have noticed that an awful lot of tefl qualified 'teachers' have no idea what the present perfect is.

they keep insisting it is about 'when' an action happened.

there are also entry level jobs advertised on tefl.net and tefl.com, inwroclaw

have you thought about doing at least an online course?

I will have a look, but I think to teach English properly I would need more knowledge than I can hope to gain in a short time, particularly the grammar side of things. Using grammar correctly is not the same as being able to explain it (I'm not brilliant at either of them!)


Thanks.

I shall end here for now and say cod bless!

I think Polish is much more difficult than English at a basic level but as you progress English becomes progressively more difficult with phrasal verbs and such like


like

There are a lot of everyday vocabulary differences

True and I teach both.

My thoughts on some of the things discussed so far:

Current jobs being advertised can be found through: teachingenglishinpoland.com/jobs.html

Basic advice for newbies: teachingenglishinpoland.com/qanda.html

Do you need a CELTA/Trinity TESOL? Yes. If you want to work in a reputable school, get decent money etc etc. Look at it this way: if you had a school, wanted to keep your clients, would you send them someone who hasn't had any industry specific training?

Does the CELTA teach you grammar? No, but the methodology of the course means that you have to be prepared for the lesson and any related to topic eventualities. i.e. if you're lesson prepping a present continuous lesson, then it makes sense to make sure you know about it before hand firstly using the book's examples or a book such as "Teaching Tenses" which is excellent. So the CELTA (it could be argued) indirectly teaches you some grammar. Certainly, when I did my CELTA in Reading, UK, there was a grammar element introduced.

Do you need Polish to explain English grammar? No, categorically not. Having worked at the BC for x years, if I had been seen teaching English grammar using Polish, well, my observation report wouldn't have been too kind. (I'm an advocate of using limited Polish in the classroom btw as it does have it's uses).