{"id":1875,"date":"2011-08-02T20:26:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T19:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltchat.com\/?p=1875"},"modified":"2011-08-02T20:26:04","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T19:26:04","slug":"tourist-teflers-vs-career-teflers-eltchat-summary-27072011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2011\/08\/02\/tourist-teflers-vs-career-teflers-eltchat-summary-27072011\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourist TEFLers vs Career TEFLers – #ELTchat Summary 27\/07\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

ELTCHAT summary 27\/07\/11<\/a><\/h1>\n

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This summary was contributed by Ty Kendall \u2013 @TyKendall (Twitter).<\/p>\n

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Chat topic:<\/p>\n

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\u201cTourist TEFLers versus Career TEFLers\u201d<\/h1>\n

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After suggesting this topic, I was thoroughly disappointed to have missed it due to the Satanic forces of my internet service provider who deemed it entertaining to pull the plug on my internet for the better part of a week. The silver lining here is that I managed to get the opportunity to write the summary\u2026.<\/p>\n

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The inspiration for this topic came to me when I took a new class and during the customary \u201cgetting to know you\u201d phase, the students were interested in my academic and employment background (that seems to be the norm here in Turkey to be quizzed about your qualifications by the students- I guess they want to check you are suitable to teach them \u2013 fair enough). Anyway, the dialogue went something like this:<\/p>\n

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Student:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, what is your job?<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Erm, a teacher.<\/p>\n

Student:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ok, no, what is your job in England?<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A teacher.<\/p>\n

Student:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, what is your REAL job?<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0A teacher.<\/p>\n

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To cut a long story short, it took about 5 minutes to get them to understand that teaching English was my CAREER. They were so used to people of all backgrounds and specialities just teaching because of the virtue of being a native (or near-native) speaker (usually funding travel plans or something similar)\u2026.<\/p>\n

And this got me thinking that traditionally, the EFL profession has divided itself by the native\/non-native speaker dichotomy. However, the Career\/Tourist EFL teacher dichotomy has been somewhat overlooked and less discussed. I thought that the ELTchat forum might be a good place to investigate this more\u2026.<\/p>\n

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Firstly, here are some tentative definitions for the terms in the chat topic:<\/p>\n

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\u201cTourist TEFLers come into the industry for a year or two and want to see the world rather than teach English\u201d (mcneilmahon)<\/p>\n

\u201cCareer TEFLers are those of us who teach English as our careers \u2013 long term, CPD, dare I say professionally?\u201d (ibid).<\/p>\n

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However, the distinction is not quite so black and white. The rest of the discussion investigates the shades of grey\u2026<\/p>\n

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Here are some of the main themes from the discussion:<\/p>\n

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