ELT World » new zealand

Samoan classes bridge gap in NZ

david — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:59:50 +0000

New Zealand: The Kingsland school now offers bilingual Samoan classes to pupils from bilingual primary schools such as Richmond Road School in Ponsonby, and Rosebank Primary in Avondale. John McCaffery, senior lecturer at Auckland University’s faculty of education, is among the team conducting the research, and says, “It helps deliver quality English, quality Samoan and quality curriculum knowledge.”

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Parents protest at bilingual decision delay in NZ

david — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:50:17 +0000

New Zealand: The parents of five Christchurch primary school children say they have nowhere to go next year after plans for an intermediate-level bilingual class were put on hold, according to Radio NZ.

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New Zealand: Not so lost in translation

david — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:18:28 +0000

Bridging the gap between cultures and language has been made a little easier at Baverstock Oaks Primary School, with the addition of two new English language assistant teachers.The primary is one of the first in New Zealand to adopt specialist language aids to help the more than 165 of 800 students that are English as a second language learners.

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New Zealand: English language students’ spending still rising

david — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:55:29 +0000

Expenditure by international students studying at English language schools was $242 million in the year ended March 2008, Statistics New Zealand said today. This expenditure was $7 million higher than for the year ended March 2007.

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When Reading is Stupid…

david — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:10:00 +0000

Further to my question about the importance of reading that I posted a couple of days ago, I recommend “When Reading is Stupid; the Why, How and What to Do About It” by the excellent Kate Marie Ryan, which appears over on the Australia / New Zealand blog.

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Asia Pacific in the Spotlight

david — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:19:45 +0000

I myself have never had the dubious pleasure of teaching English in Asia. For those of you who have, or are, or will, here’s the latest lowdown on TEFL in the Asia Pacific region:

Vietnam: Teaching English: TOEIC Suitable to Vietnam?

Many, ahem, ‘experts’ say that TOEIC (Test of English International Communication) will not be suitable to Vietnam, warning that the application of TOEIC on a large scale in Vietnam will repeat the bitter lessons of the A-B-C certificate-based English teaching movement several years ago. Sure that advice will be followed, then.

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Look where you’re going for God’s sake

Singapore: She Puts the Fun in English Lessons

Mrs Whiston, co-managing director and chairman of Lorna Whiston Schools, has come a long way since setting up the school in 1980.The Lorna Whiston English as an Acquired Language (EAL) School received a Singapore Education Award for Best Enrichment Programme. The EAL school was formed in 2005 for foreign students who do not speak English as their first language and are seeking to get into schools here. Since it started, it has seen over 200students pass through its doors. For Mrs Whiston, the school was formed simply because there was a need for it. It was the same reason she had set up her first study centre 28 years ago. Good old Mrs Whiston, eh.

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New Zealand: School Highlights Language Barriers

The happy sound of children in primary schools around Queenstown these days is beginning to resemble more of a United Nations assembly than a school one. About 30 percent of pupils at Queenstown’s 160-pupil St Joseph’s School do not speak English as their first language and at nearby Queenstown Primary School that figure is 77 out of 598 pupils.St Joseph’s School principal Phil O’Connell-Cooper said it was an increasing challenge to find the resources to help some of these children, who could arrive at the school speaking no English or a moderate amount. Welcome to the 21st century.

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Taiwan: The Best Time for Learning English

Taiwan has been awash with ‘English fever’, apparently. Sounds a bit painful if you ask me. Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) has been a national craze for years. Parents want their children to learn English as early as possible — preferably before elementary school — as evidenced by the ubiquity of language schools. More than 30 percent of all elementary school students study English at some form of language school.This phenomenon is largely based on the ‘assumption’ that kids naturally pick up languages more effortlessly than adults do. Although having children start to learn English at an early age seems to be the sole means of enhancing the nation’s English proficiency, many English teachers might still feel that younger learners do not necessarily perform better than others. Research has also shown no significant difference between the two groups in terms of final ability. I’m losing the will to live…

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Asia Pacific TEFL Headlines

david — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:13:00 +0000

I myself have never had the dubious pleasure of teaching English in Asia. For those of you who have, or are, or will, here’s the latest lowdown on TEFL in the Asia Pacific region:

Vietnam: Teaching English: TOEIC Suitable to Vietnam?

Read the full story…

Look where you’re going for God’s sake

Singapore: She Puts the Fun in English Lessons

Read the full story…

New Zealand: School Highlights Language Barriers

St Joseph’s School principal Phil O’Connell-Cooper said it was an increasing challenge to find the resources to help some of these children, who could arrive at the school speaking no English or a moderate amount. Welcome to the 21st century.

Read the full story…

Taiwan: The Best Time for Learning English

This phenomenon is largely based on the ‘assumption’ that kids naturally pick up languages more effortlessly than adults do. Although having children start to learn English at an early age seems to be the sole means of enhancing the nation’s English proficiency, many English teachers might still feel that younger learners do not necessarily perform better than others. Research has also shown no significant difference between the two groups in terms of final ability. I’m losing the will to live…

Read the full story…

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TEFL News from around the World

david — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:30:00 +0000

South Korea: The Korea Times – English Education Needs to Start at Earlier Ages

The English frenzy in Korea has produced many popular teachers who are good at helping students get higher scores in English tests. A famous former English instructor says some of these “star teachers” are misleading English learners. Read the full story…

China: Livemint – Beijing Games: English on a winning streak

Come August, and all eyes will turn towards Beijing, the venue of the 2008 Olympics. The question we ask ourselves will be whether the US will retain its supremacy in the medal tally, or make way for China, which is competing on home ground. Whoever wins the most laurels, there will be one champion who will come out victorious: the English language. Read the full story…

New Zealand: The New Zealand Times – Teachers in a tizz: is texting destroying the English language?

EAST Auckland teachers are divided over whether texting is changing the younger generation’s approach to English. Read the full story…

South Korea: The Dong-a – Native English Teachers Speak Out on Education Plan

What do native English speakers who teach their language in Korea think about the incoming government’s plan to bolster English education, including the proposed introduction of English immersion classes? Read the full story…

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Issue 3 of Horizons: Available for Download

david — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:36:00 +0000

Here are highlights of what you’ll find in the new, action packed edition of Horizons:

What Would Motivate you to Take a New Job?

What do we want from our jobs? There must surely be a reason for us to move on to bigger and better things at one time or another. So, what are our motivations? What are those bigger and better things? Why do we make the decision to up and move to a new school? The poll that ran on the blog and the forum during December shed some light on to why we move from one job to the next… read on

Interview: Teacher Reflections, Global Connections

Last month on the ELT World Blog I highlighted the excellent Teaching without Borders blog: Teacher Reflections, Global Connections, explaining what a great idea I thought it was to reflect on the different teaching experiences of the different countries of the contributors. I’m delighted that Jennifer Uhler and Jeff Mattison have taken the time and considerable effort to tell Horizons about their blog… read on

Teaching Collocations

Whilst learners often focus on the acquisition of new grammatical structures as a guideline to their progress in learning English, the same cannot always be said of an English learner’s regard for the importance of progressive vocabulary acquisition. Whilst it is true that language structures form the basic skeleton of a language , vocabulary provides the flesh to these bones. Without words, what do we have?… read on

Was your Initial Training Course Worth it?

The four-week TEFL course, a starting point for so many of us in our careers as English teachers. But is it really worth it? What do we really gain from these short, intensive courses that can’t possibly hope to adequately prepare us for a career in teaching? A great deal, it would seem, according to the poll that ran on the blog and the forum… read on

The EnglishUK Teachers Conference

Anyone who’s ever attended a TEFL conference will tell you it can be something of a mixed experience in terms of what you gain from it. It’s not unlike gold mining: you have to sift through a lot of stuff to get to anything even remotely of use to you. Presenting at a conference is, on the other hand, a whole different experience. Anyone thinking of venturing into the conference circuit would be well advised to read the following article… read on

Academicus Electronicus

For this edition of the journal, I offer you, my dear friends, two websites dedicated to the development of TEFL professionals… read on

Teaching English in New Zealand

My Favourite Waste of Time

At a certain point, we all get fed up with certain aspects of living in another country. The little things suddenly become big problems in your life. Some of these things, however, bug everyone, and not just us poor expat teachers. Facebook, for all its sins, seems to be becoming a way in which we are able to find kindred sufferers, as M. le Prof d’Anglais explains… read on

Politically Correct Revisited

Last issue’s article on political correctness was well received by many of you, who were able to relate to the ideas being explored. Luckily for Horizons, Istanbul’s Stranger has decided to follow up on the previous article, exploring further the linguistic barriers to the cross-culturalization of the notion of political correctness… read on

The Ideal English Teacher through the Eyes of ELT Trainees

Do you remember what you thought about teachers when you started out as a trainee? How much have your perceptions changed? This article explores the way that trainee teachers in Argentina perceive those already in the profession… read on

Interview: The Latin America Job list and TEFL Tips

Sharon de Hinojosa, whom members of the ELT World forums know better as Naturegirl321, has been kind enough to answer a few of my questions about her internet projects. After years of gathering information about teaching on the South American continent, she has decided to make this knowledge available to others via her excellent websites… read on

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Teaching English in New Zealand

david — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:43:00 +0000

Thanks once again to the marvellous mmcmorrow for posting this priceless information over on the Australia & New Zealand forum, essential advice for anyone thinking about working in the country:

The situation regarding English language teaching in New Zealand is pretty similar to Australia and not so different from the UK in many respects. As in those countries, there is a private language school sector in addition to state provision through various ESOL programmes. Like Australia, private language schools in New Zealand are regulated by a government agency (NZQA). The main focus of the government regulation is to ensure schools are honouring the Code for Pastoral Care of International Students. The regulatory scheme doesn’t include observation of lessons etc. You can read about it at:

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?indexID=6663&layout=index

Private language schools can be found all over NZ with Auckland having the lion’s share. The NZQA list all educational providers in New Zealand at:

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/providers/index.do

But you’ll have to work your way through the list to identify the English language schools there. One way to narrow it down would be to use the search facility. If you go to the page of the college, you should be able to access the last audit report. Established colleges should be on a two or three year audit cycle – less than that indicates there was a problem last time round. But bear in mind the main focus of the inspections is on financial and welfare arrangements – the inspectors do not necessarily have any background in language education and do not focus on teaching issues in any case.

There is a national organisation of English language teachers – TESOLANZ – with members across all the sectors from private language schools to state schools, community colleges and universities. They also have a useful links page on their website:

http://www.tesolanz.org.nz/

And as in the UK and Australia, there’s an organisation of language schools, which has its own conditions and accreditation process (which, unlike the NZQA scheme is run by language teaching specialists and includes lesson observation). There are about thirty or so member schools – membership of this organisation is not compulsory and not all schools are members – in particular, newer schools have to wait a couple of years before applying to join. You can access a complete list of members on their website and that could be a good place to start your job search:

http://www.englishnewzealand.co.nz/

As in Australia and the UK, private language schools in New Zealand accept CELTA and Trinity TESOL Cert, as well as certificates awarded by local universities, as their basic qualifications – schools may be willing to accept other certificates, but you’ll need to check this with individual organisations. Teachers who have DELTA or Trinity TESOL Diplomas will be in a distinctly stronger position in the jobs market, as will teachers with experience of teaching IELTS. It’s also an advantage to have other skills and qualifications in schools which offer mixed courses, such as English with tourism etc. If you’re applying to particular schools, have a look at their programmes on their websites and aim to highlight any related skills or experience you have in those areas when you apply.

Demand for English language teachers tends to fluctuate but there isn’t such a strong seasonal effect as there is in the UK and Australia. The summer season – from November to February – sees a moderate rise in demand, principally because of tour groups from South America etc. At other times of the year, schools will need teachers for short contracts to deal with influxes of students – for instance, from Saudi Arabia or Korea. Schools vary quite considerably in terms of their main nationality – for some it is Korean, for others Saudi and Brazilian. Compared to the UK and Australia, NZ has far fewer Japanese students. But this situation is volatile. For instance, the four year period up to 2004 saw a very rapid growth in Chinese students at private language schools, but the three years afterwards saw an even sharper fall. Although there are still many thousands of Chinese in universities, they are no longer a significant presence in private language schools. This slump in Chinese numbers (and to a lesser extent in Japanese students) brought about a huge contraction in the private language school market, which is only now in a period of renewed growth – with large increases in Saudi and South American students in particular. However, many schools are still carrying the losses of the last few years, while there are still many underemployed TEFL teachers around (including some of the 200 NZ TEFL teachers who have returned home having lost their jobs for NOVA in Japan). This means that schools are pretty cautious about employing teachers, generally offering short-term contracts. Pay is also modest – in Auckland something like $25 – $35 per hour, though there’s considerable variation. Bear in mind that a room in a flatshare will set you back $150 – $200 a week and you can see that you’re not sitting on a goldmine as a TEFL teacher over here.

In order to apply to private language schools in New Zealand, you’ll need the right to work here. If you don’t already have it, there’s no point applying for any job, no matter what qualifications you’ve got. Schools won’t sponsor you. So, who has the right to work in NZ? NZ and Australian citizens – also permanent residents and holders of visas which give them the right to work. The easiest route for most people wanting to work here on a short-term basis would be to get a working holiday visa – but only if you’re under 30. You’ll need first to check that the country you hold a passport for has this arrangement – Italy does, Spain doesn’t. The USA, Canada and Ireland are all part of the scheme. British citizens are also eligible, but only those who are also ‘domiciled’ in the UK. Check this information on the NZ immigration website:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/workingholiday

Essentially, having a working holiday visa entitles you to work in NZ under certain conditions – you’ll need to check the details on the site. There’s a quota on numbers from each country each year so get in early! Typically, you’d be able to work for a single employer for up to 3 months and, I think, for up to 12 months altogether, depending on which scheme you come out under (eg with a number of different schools for 3 months each). There’s a certain amount of variation among national schemes – with the UK one, you can apply to stay up to 23 months, for instance (Brits also get to stay up to 12 months on a tourist visa, as opposed to 6 months for other nationalities). You need to go through an application process, including medical and character checks. I think it would also be useful to contact potential employers over here in advance, telling them of your plans and seeing how willing they are to employ teachers on working holiday visas (some might be put off by the extra admin and the short-term nature of the contract, though I’ve known various teachers who have worked successfully on working holiday visas, some of whom have come here to New Zealand from Thailand and Australia and on their way to teach in South America as part of a one or two year teach-and-travel experience.

As I said, if you don’t qualify for a working holiday visa and you are not Australia or Kiwi, then your chances of getting English teaching work in NZ are remote. Come and visit instead. If you like it enough, consider migrating – details of the skilled migrant scheme are available on the website. That’s what I did!

Kia ora

Learn more over at the Australia & New Zealand blog and the forum .

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