Page 5 - ELG2102 Feb Issue 474

WELCOME .

EDITORS’ LETTER
Sharing stories out of school

TEFL teachers need to learn to listen to each

other’s voices, says Melanie Butler
theteam
Students around the world are returning to class after the latest lockdowns, masks on and rapid
test kits at the ready. But what of the teachers?
In the USA and the UK, union voices are being heard arguing for vaccines. Union voices are MELANIE BUTLER,
growing louder in the world of EFL elsewhere, but the demands are more basic: legal contracts, editor-in-chief,
started teaching EFL in
holiday pay and – as we report on page 6 – even National Minimum Wage. Iran in 1975. She worked
Language schools around the world, crushed by Covid, may see this as unfair, but the simple for the BBC World Service,
fact is that unions are on the rise again across the West. Besides, membership of a union has Pearson/Longman and
long been part of teachers’ identities across education, so why not EFL teachers? MET magazine before
The oldest union in Malta was formed by teachers. This year, when Maltese teachers were taking over at the Gazette
in 1987 and also launching Study Travel
sleeping in their cars as they waited for Covid payments, it was a teacher’s union that fought magazine. Educated in 10 schools in seven
their corner. countries, she speaks "uent French and
Teacher identity is a major issue. For the non-native speakers there is the fear of being seen Spanish and rather rusty Italian.
as inferior to a native speaker. For the native speaker, it is the fear of being seen as a backpacker, melanie@elgazette.com
interchangeable with any other
Countries around the graduate with the right passport LIZ GRANIRER,
and, shamefully, a white skin.
editor, has edited
Why? It seems pretty obvious
world are demanding that when you think about it that parenting, travel and
magazines for kids, writes
native-speaker teachers bilingual teachers are better: why for a number of print
and online publications,
choose a teacher who speaks one
have not only a degree, language, when you can have a and!has worked on!a
range of well-known consumer
but a recognised and teacher who speaks two? and!contract!magazines.
editor@elgazette.com
Target language level, as the
accredited certi!cate ELLiE project showed in 2011, is
more important for teachers than GILL RAGSDALE,
methodology, particularly with research news reporter,
younger learners. has a PhD in Evolutionary
The British Council seems to agree. As we report on page 10, they are funding a Anthropology from
Cambridge and teaches
groundbreaking experiment using British language schools to deliver digital English language Psychology with the Open
classes to teachers in the developing world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. University, and also holds
There is a danger, though, that language level can become a stick to beat teachers with. As an RSA-Cert TEFL. Gill has taught EFL in
Gill Ragsdale reports on page 8, non-native speaker teachers in Chile, who need to be at C1 the UK, Turkey, Egypt and to refugees in
the Calais ‘Jungle’ in France. She currently
level to teach English at all, are weighed by demands for ever higher levels with teacher efficacy teaches English to refugees in the UK.
given no importance at all.
Local teachers, parents all over the world continue to believe, are always second best to a CHARLOTTE DYASON,
native speaker. But the empirical evidence simply doesn’t bear this out. A 2017 cohort study of senior sales, a graduate
British children learning French in the last two years of primary school found that the children of Canterbury and
who studied with local teachers, whose level of French was below B1, learned next to nothing. experienced education
However, children who learned from a local teacher with a degree in the language did better marketer, Charlotte has a
than those with a qualified native speaker when tested at the end of primary school. wealth of expertise and
knowledge to assist with
When tested again a year later, however, children who had a native speaker teacher in promotional campaigns.
primary did slightly better at certain aspects of syntax (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ info@elgazette.com, tel 020 3137 9119.
lang.12251).
It isn’t all milk and honey for the native speaker either. The days are long gone when an IAN CARTER,
English-speaking backpacker could turns up in a sunny clime with no qualification other publisher, has a
than their passport and a white skin and get a well-paying job. Countries around the world Masters in Strategic
are demanding that native-speaker teachers have not only a degree, but ‘a recognised and Business Management
accredited’ certificate. For an explanation of what that means, turn to our teacher qualifications (Westminster) and
supplement on page 15. And check out the lowdown on the USA from Bridge on page 50. 30 years’ publishing
experience in the
As one Chinese government official put it: a degree, some training and ideally some professional and academic sector.
classroom experience is the least we can expect from someone who calls themselves a teacher, elgazette@media-shed.co.uk,
So, we have two groups of teachers, each with a crisis of identity. The non-native speakers tel 020 3475 6811.
are seen as second class citizens by students and their parents, and are under pressure from
their government to get their language levels ever higher. Meanwhile, native speakers are under
pressure from governments to have ever higher qualifications while parents, students and even Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in EL
Gazette editorially or by contributors do
language schools care only about the nationality on their passport and the colour of their skin. not necessarily represent the of#cial view of
Teacher identity in EFL can form a gulf between the language-anxious local teachers and EL Gazette or Media Shed Ltd, nor is either
qualification-anxious native speakers. Dr Jane Evison, of Nottingham University, has long responsible for claims expressed or implied
researched this subject. As part of their process of professsionalisation, she tells us on page 44 in advertising. EL Gazette is published
the two groups of teachers must learn to ‘share their stories’. under licence by Media Shed Ltd and all
It’s time we started talking. reproduction rights are strictly reserved.
Copyright 2021.

MELANIE BUTLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
editorial@elgazette.com 5