Teaching In China: thoughts on certification

6:39 p.m. - 2005-11-28
A thought about certification

In order to get a certificate in TESL or TESOL, you need to pay money, attend or participate in courses, and do a practicum experience. In order to recieve certification with accredidation you need to pay money, participate or attend courses, and do a practicum experience with a certified company. Although there is often a difference in quality of programs, some programs are more complete than others.

I created a training program. Useing materials from several certified programs, I have had my students, teachers every one, participate in the course volontairily. They attend a lecture (2 hours every week) in which I cover the materials that a certified program usually covers. Sometimes these lectures are actually student centered discussions where the teachers discuss how the information is related to what they are doing in the classroom. I have tried very hard to work their classroom experiences into the discussions as part of a practicum experience, but this is hard work for someone who is inexperienced as a program administrator. I realize that I am not the official program administrator, but with the TESOL program that I am working on here that is the role that I am playing.

I have to say that this is an incredible experience regardless of the outcomes. I have regular students who attend the class every week, and a few students who come and go as they can.

So my thought really is that these students deserve more than I can give them. But I do not charge for my lectures (I know I probably should). I do not charge because it is my strong belief that these teachers would benifit more from haveing this kind of training as a steady part of their experience here. I am working slowly with the administrators of the Chinese school to work my program in as a requirement for all new teachers at the school, as opposed to a volontary program.

Either way I will continue to offer a certificate of completion of this non-accredited TESOL program.
It may not be much, but they deserve to have something to show for their efforts beyond the improvements they have shown in the classroom.