TEFL Job Alert - Mexico City

A Mexico City private primary/secondary school is looking for a male teacher for an unfilled position for the school year that just started. All boys Catholic school in Santa Fe district.

TEFL Reading List - Globish

Next up on our must read list is Globish - How the English Language Became the World's Language by Robert McCrum.

NY Time review.

and Howard Shapiro's review at philly.com

To anyone who travels beyond the United States, it's not news that, for better or worse, English has become the world's language.

No longer will people abroad automatically let you try out your French or Spanish or Japanese at the start of an everyday transaction in a restaurant, or shop, where your American-tinged tongue is more likely to draw an immediate English response, no questions asked. Sure, there remain places where this rarely happens. They are not the world's cities. And they are likely to be remote.

Well, good for us, you might say, we can be understood, a primary benefit of being human.

Well, bad for the world, you might say; it is becoming less diverse as English becomes the universal lingua franca.

Language not only defines a national culture, it also gives its speakers the tools to turn thoughts into something concrete - and among the beauties of different languages is that they offer different ways of doing so.

Robert McCrum, associate editor of Britain's Observer, is not out to wow us with old news about the ever-progressing global advance of English. Instead, his book is a thoroughly researched, cleverly told big-picture tale of how our language got to be that way - and just what that way means: ungovernable, he says, taken for granted, ever-changing.

English Language Oddities

Some things about English leave you scratching your head. For example:

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

If you liked those, here's a site that lists several more oddities in English.

Example: The two longest words with only one of the six vowels including y are the 15-letter defenselessness and respectlessness.

TEFL Job Information Resource - ELT World

David's ELT World has been online since 2007 and is one of favorite sites for TEFL job information from around the world, directly from the teachers working out in the field.

Starting with http://www.eltworld.net/ in the format of a blog, site operator David brings fresh news and insights from around the TEFL world.

Move on the country and region specific forums to interact directly with new and veteran teachers, in Korea, Mexico, China, Turkey, Vietnam, and more.

TEFL Job Forums

Get into the forums and ask your questions. Plenty of people there to help!

Teaching Pronunciation - a Discussion

Over to the ESL Cafe Mexico section for a discussion on teaching pronunciation, or avoiding it.

It seems to me that we really don't teach pronunciation and intonation these days. I know that i am guilty of thinking that maybe it's too difficult (for me to get my head round), so I'll just steer clear of pronunciation and more importantly intonation practice.

Do you do the same? Why is this?

In another thread we are talking about how salaries and teachers values haven't increased over the years- maybe we should re-evaluate what we're teaching!

Any student can arguably learn grammar and vocabulary from a book or off the internet, but pronunciation and intonation is a clear point of difference for us native speakers.

I'm going to be incorporating a lot more of it into my classes from now on. Maybe THIS is the future....?

The "sounds of the English Language", in all its complexity, is indeed a challenge to teach if your students are already too old to be good mimics. But, I'm going to attempt it, and hope to see some improvement you can spot.

Working in the SAC and using the program called, Clear Speech from the Start, Cambridge Univ Press, I'll be offering active practice for those who desire it, as a test of its usefulness. I plan to make before and after recordings, and invite native speakers to identify "which is which".

I'm hoping for an eight week commitment to an hour a week, in two half hour sessions. I hope somebody signs up....

Teachers Latin America - Teaching in Mexico

New Words for the Dictionary

From the Buzz Log by Mike Krumboltz

The English language is always evolving. There was a time when words like email, x-ray, and d'oh were nowhere to be found in the dictionary. Today, we add a few more new words to the tome.

The bookworms behind the Oxford Dictionary of English recently released a list of 2,000 or so new words that will be added to their next edition. Some of the new words include staycation, social media, and the groan-inducing chillax.

The list sparked massive interest on the Web and, we can safely assume, a lot of questions from folks who don't know a staycation from a vacation, or a bromance from a romance. (FYI: A staycation is like a vacation, but you stay at home and save money. And a bromance is a "close but non-sexual relationship between two men.")

Perhaps the most high-profile word to be added to the dictionary this year is vuvuzela. For those who slept through the World Cup, a vuvuzela is the one-note plastic horn that creates a horrendously annoying sound. That's our definition. The official one, via the Oxford Dictionary of English, is a bit more balanced: "A long plastic instrument, in the shape of a trumpet, which makes a very loud noise when you blow it and is popular with football fans in South Africa."

Some other popular additions include frenemy ("a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry"), cheeseball ("lacking taste, style or originality"), and wardrobe malfunction ("an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as result of an article of clothing slipping out of position.")

Frankly, we're amazed it took so long for that last term to make it into the dictionary. Thanks to Janet Jackson, Paris Hilton, and other Hollywood stars, it's been part of the public discourse for years.

Teaching in Costa Rica - A Discussion

Once again to Dave's ESL Cafe for some good tips on teaching at international schools in Costa Rica, a favorite destination for Teachers Latin America students.

The discussion is at the Cafe, Costa Rica section.

Excerpts:

Hello,
I am planning on moving down to Costa Rica next summer to teach and, because I am a licensed high school Business/Computer teacher who'll have 2 years experience, I'd really like to teach in an international school. I have heard the pay in CR is low compared to other LA countries, but that life is better in other ways, is this true?

Are there a lot of international schools in CR? Do many of them offer visa assistance?

Any additional tips you'd like to pass along?

Thank in advance!

I have been there on vacation and would like to teach also. Basically, I would suggest you save up 12k to supplement and then enjoy!

International schools:

- Country Day School
- Washington School
- Falcon School (?)

There's a couple of others that I can't remember the name of right now, and probably more that I don't know about; small schools around the San Jose area. There are also several, including a Montessori school, in other parts of the country (Jacó, for example).

FYI: My fiance and I both landed jobs teaching at Falcon International School in Herradura. Let me know if you would like any info.