jobs

In general, teaching certifications aren't very portable. A license qualifies you to teach one or two subjects to one or two grade levels in just one state. Yet there is a teaching certificate that's internationally recognized and can be used to teach every age from kindergarten to adults. It's called TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and one of the country's oldest and most prestigious programs is at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Teaching English As A Foreign Language

"We have TEFL graduates teaching on every continent but Antarctica," says Kimberly Johnson, Assistant Professor - Second Language Teaching and Learning at Hamline University. The TEFL certificate attracts a wide range of students, Johnson says - "not just undergraduates who want to backpack across the world."

Mary Earl was in her mid-fifties when she decided to get a TEFL certificate, and recently retired after more than a decade of teaching at ELS Language Centers, Inc., with a center at the University of St. Thomas. "I took the course and absolutely loved it," she says. "I got a job and never looked back."

Motivated, Interesting Students

ELS offers an intensive English program aimed at adults. "Generally speaking, customers are business people who need English for their jobs or to have on their résumé," Earl says. "The clientele are very motivated, and generally speaking quite interesting." A single class might include students from Saudi Arabia, China and Latin America.

John Madigan got a crash course in TEFL through the Peace Corps. He spent three years teaching in Mongolia, where he "learned on the job," teaching everything from middle school to high school to college. When he came back to the U.S., he enrolled in the Hamline University TEFL course. "I wanted to learn a little more theory, technical things I'd never had a way to discuss," he says. Although he's currently teaching English at ELS and the University of Minnesota's China Center, Madigan says his experiences have made him "more interested in human rights and humanitarian relief," and he's planning to get a Master's Degree in International Affairs.

A Feel For The Field

Earl and Madigan both say that TEFL jobs aren't highly paid, and they tend to be part time. Johnson says that "to make a career, you need a Master's Degree in English as a Second Language (ESL)." Still, she says, the TEFL certificate is a way to "get your feet in the water and get a feel for the field," and credits apply towards the master's degree. Hamline offers the 8-credit certificate through one-month, full-time "intensives" as well as four-month programs that meet twice a week.

How do you teach English to someone without knowing their native language? "It's the first thing people always ask me," Madigan says. "You'd be surprised what you can teach somebody without having to know their language. You pantomime a lot, use visuals. It definitely does help if you have studied a language - not to speak to the group you're teaching, but understand language acquisition yourself - how difficult and tiresome it can be."

Earl and Madigan both express respect for their students, who push themselves through the difficult task of learning English. "I have a profound admiration for their single-minded hard work," Earl says.

For more information on the TEFL program at Hamline University visit www.hamline.edu and search on TEFL, or call the Center for Second Language Teaching and Learning at 651-523-2964.