social media – TEFL in Colombia

TESOL International Association is a community of ELT professionals. This association is involved in numerous activities, including publishing TEIS News, which is a newsletter edited by the Teacher Educator Interest Section. When I was asked to contribute to its latest issue, I was more than happy to say yes. You can read my article here, and I recommend that you check out the other contributions as well.

The importance of teacher-led CPD (TEIS News)

I decided to focus on teacher-led CPD, which means taking responsibility for your own development as an ELT professional. This topic is close to my heart because I’ve managed to make decent career progress while living in Colombia, a developing country in which you’re not likely to get much support in terms of CPD if you work for a run-of-the-mill language academy. With the exception of a month-long holiday in Europe, I’ve continuously lived in Colombia since 2017, and I hope that my article can provide some hope to those who wish to develop professionally without having to move to another part of the world.

The TEIS News article is based on my own experience, and I’d like to take this opportunity to provide more details about my own journey. I have no problem admitting that the COVID-19 pandemic was extremely beneficial for my ELT career. Yes, I didn’t enjoy the lockdowns and not being able to travel freely, but I spent those two years working on increasing my chances of succeeding in our profession.

First of all, I was able to finish my Delta from my living room. There aren’t any Module Two providers in Colombia, so I originally planned to do the module in Mexico and actually had my interview with IH Mexico right before the pandemic reached Latin America. I managed to complete my M2 with this course provider a year later fully online, which was extremely convenient in terms of reduced costs since I didn’t need to pay for flights and accommodation. The only Delta module that now requires you to do something in person is the first one, which involves taking the exam at an authorised centre. Fortunately, they are usually easy to find in major cities.

IH Mexico runs the fully online CELTA as well, and being able to get Cambridge qualifications from home without worrying about a huge time difference is a great opportunity for those who don’t have any course providers in their location. Having just a bachelor’s degree and a generic TEFL certificate usually isn’t enough; you need to do much more to stand out, and holding an internationally recognised qualification is usually a step that can’t be skipped.

It has to be said that high-quality courses or degrees aren’t cheap, especially for someone who gets paid in Colombian pesos. What I will mention here is that it is necessary to consider the return on investment. Getting a Delta costs a lot of money, but if you play your cards right, it will open some interesting doors for you. In my case, the Delta gave me the confidence to start freelancing and looking for my own students. It also helped me land some very interesting contracts with institutions, so even though it took me a while to figure everything out, the results were pretty impressive: when I checked my bank account two years after obtaining my Delta certificate, I realised that just one month of my freelance work can generate the same income as what I used to earn in half a year as a language academy employee.

I’m certainly not an advocate of reckless spending, but sometimes it’s necessary to bite the bullet and spend a lot of money on your qualifications. If you’re stuck in an entry-level job, you know that things are never going to change unless you take action. A calculated risk can lead to some significant changes: these days I need to work just 10 hours per week to earn more money and be much happier than when I was spending 30 hours a week at the language institute and doing a lot of lesson planning at home. Since I’m my own boss, I normally choose to work more, which allows me to lead a very comfortable lifestyle.

The attitude shift caused by the pandemic means that you can do a lot of stuff remotely and there’s no need to be based in one of the big ELT markets. If you have the right visa and access to the internet, you can live in a small town in South America and teach students from other countries without using a middleman. You can work as a contractor for organisations based in another country, which comes with some obvious benefits. You can run your own in-person or online courses for local students as well. The opportunities are out there, and it’s important to keep emphasising that being a language academy employee is not the only career path for English teachers.

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of your online presence. I’ve met a lot of brilliant ELT professionals thanks to this blog, and it always feels nice to receive positive messages about my posts. Also, without TEFL in Colombia, I wouldn’t have been able to convince the amazing guest contributors to help me create More Than a Gap Year Adventure. If you are thinking of making progress in your ELT career, I recommend that you get a copy of the book since it contains a lot of useful advice that may have a very positive effect on your development in the profession.

Dorothy Zemach is an ELT professional with extensive experience in a variety of areas. Many teachers have used her materials in the classroom; I did so in the first two years of teaching English in Colombia. She is the go-to person if you want to learn about self-publishing. If you are interested in that, keep an eye on the iTDi website for one of her future courses. When she advertised her latest book All of the Above: Essays on Teaching English as a Foreign Language on social media, I knew that it would be worth reading.

My first impression was that All of the Above would be similar to Scott Thornbury’s Big Questions in ELT, which is another title I recommend to teachers, since both books are collections of unrelated shorter texts. There are some key differences, though. While Thornbury refers to other resources in his book, Zemach’s essays are much more personal and the content is based on her own experience. I’m happy to say that I think it works very well and makes for an enjoyable read.

All of the Above comprises sixteen essays and three additional chapters dedicated to games, so there are a lot of takeaway points one can get from the book. I’d like to use this blog post to comment on a few ideas that made me think about my work as a teacher.

What I really like about the book is that Zemach refers to various teaching contexts in which she has worked. She points out that some teaching approaches may not work equally well in all environments. Having fun in the classroom without any tangible results isn’t ideal, and some students may actually learn useful language through drilling activities. That reminded me of Lightbown and Spada’s book How Languages are Learned, which mentions that gifted students are capable of reaching a high level of English even when their teachers use what many of us would call outdated methods. I’d say this is a good moment to promote the idea of doing meaningful activities in the classroom and providing the learners with feedback on the language (the focus on form approach).

The book also takes a look at tools that can help people improve their written texts. I agree with the author who says that students should spellcheck their documents before submitting them. I do so myself when I write blog posts or send important emails, so I advise my students to use that as well. Zemach then shows screenshots depicting some ridiculous corrections suggested by a grammar checker to warn against using that tool. I think that depends on the kind of software one uses because the spelling and grammar checker utilised by Google Docs is genuinely good. It’s not perfect and I wouldn’t rely on it at all times, but I find it helpful in my online classes. It can give the students immediate suggestions related to grammar, which can provide some good opportunities for learning.

When I read ELT literature, I’m very happy when I encounter practical tips that I can use in my professional life. I have some experience with changing jobs and attending interviews, but All of the Above provided me with an important recommendation I hadn’t thought of before. The author suggests that teachers ask about the institution’s policy on absences during the job interview. That immediately brought back a memory of a situation that took place right after I’d started working at a language institute a few years ago. A colleague of mine asked me to sub for him due to having a doctor’s appointment, and I agreed. Unfortunately, the teacher was then told off by the director for making unauthorised arrangements and the substitution request was declined because of a difference between our hourly rates. My attempt to help my colleague out inadvertently created a bit of an issue, and I wished I had asked about the policy beforehand.

My favourite essay in the book is called My dear. The author says that there are benefits to using social media for professional purposes, but it also causes some issues that should be talked about. This passage of the essay describes a rather curious phenomenon:

Clearly, that is not how everyone uses Facebook, or I wouldn’t get so many strangers sending me the “Hi” messages. Often, in fact, that is the entire message—“Hi.” From someone I don’t recognize. I have no idea what sort of response they are expecting. Do they want me to stop in the middle of my work day and respond with “Hi” as well? Do we then move on to “How are you?” and “Fine, thanks, and you”? But why? Why would we (two virtual strangers, with nothing more in common than that we both teach English) do that?

To put it simply, some people don’t come across well on social media, and that includes English teachers too. I’m aware of cultural differences, but I expect people to have at least some basic sense of decency when communicating online. Some private messages and public posts make me wonder how that individual talks to their students and whether teaching is the right profession for them. I don’t mind being perceived as rude when I don’t want to waste time on conversations that I’m 100% sure won’t get anywhere. Apart from the ‘Hi’ people, I tend to get ‘friends’, who you can read about on the ELT Planning blog, and other interesting characters. I’ve even had to block a few users when I didn’t feel comfortable with the discussion at all.

Zemach highlights the fact that invasive chats are initiated mainly by men. That is related to another huge issue because there seems to be a fine line between being an awkward stranger and something much worse. It’s not a secret that women often receive inappropriate messages on social media, even on supposedly professional platforms such as LinkedIn. I have no idea why someone would think that online harassment is a good idea, but there are people like that out there.

The author suggests that the culture of chat messages should receive more attention in ELT materials. It certainly makes sense to use authentic or made up chats in the classroom and analyse them. In addition, I often communicate with my learners through WhatsApp, and when I get a message that could make a bad impression on someone, I address it in the subsequent lesson and provide the student with some examples of more appropriate language that could be used instead.

There are plenty of other thought-provoking ideas in the book, and I think everybody interested in ELT will probably find something useful in it. The book is also well-written and easy to read, which is exactly what you would expect from a title written by an experienced author and editor. If you enjoy reading TEFL-related essays, Dorothy Zemach’s All of the Above will make a really nice addition to your digital or physical library.

► If you enjoyed this blog post, I recommend that you read More Than a Gap Year Adventure, a collaborative book aimed at those who wish to have a long-term career in our profession.