(32 of 50): CLT & Taiwan: About Fake/Not-Real Teachers of IELTS/English: 1st Sign

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(32 of 50) MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) & TAIWAN: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT

About Fake/Not-Real Teachers of IELTS/English: 1st Sign

In Posts 26 and 27, I outlined the ‘modus operandi’ (= method of committing a crime) that fake teachers can use. Then I explained why you should not automatically ‘respect’ someone who claims authority in IELTS, but instead ask for evidence and proof of all claims. But I also accepted the fact that, in this culture, people are reluctant to ask their teacher for proof of their credentials. Hmmm. That’s a problem.

Even as I write, that fake teacher from Posts 26 and 27 has been putting posts on PTT. However, as I mentioned before, other students have put warning about him. Wow, these current posts of mine on this blog can not be more relevant! Everyone, it’s happening right now.

It’s time to wise upYou need to at least read the signs of fakeness/not-realness in the people who claim authority as English/IELTS teachers, and thus be able to recognise the truth (without asking anything). So now, finally, after all the background issues have been covered, I will move on to practical advice.

How You Can Know the Truth

Now, I will give a list of 6 key signs which show your teacher is either a fake or not-real. Obviously, being a fake is the worst, by far, and if you know this, you should immediately dissociate from that teacher. If the teacher is a not-real teacher (= someone who genuinely thinks they are helping you), you could choose to continue or not, but the learning will be limited.

Before I begin, I’d like to repeat one thing (to answer the criticism: ‘Why do you think you know about teaching?). I’d like to repeat my credentials. Here they are in Chinese (so you can REALLY get the message).

  • 澳洲墨爾本皇家理工學院教育學碩士
  • 擁有英國劍橋大學英語教學證書(CELTA, 1993)和文憑 (DELTA, 1998)
  • 擁有英國劍橋大學英語教師訓練資格(2005),臺灣唯一的教師訓練師
  • 1993年開始擔任英語教師,23年的雅思考試預備課程授課經驗任教過的國家有澳洲、委內瑞拉、泰國、韓國及臺灣
  • 曾任教於澳洲Monash大學語言中心與IELTS測驗研習中心
  • 出版5本雅思著作(Practical IELTS Strategies系列,,寫作一, 寫作二,模擬試題書一)
  • 另外著有A Saharan Jaunt,及Promise Me, Promise Me二本書

The most important credential is that I am a Cambridge CELTA Tutor – someone who taught CELTA teaching certificates to new teachers. I made decisions about whether to pass or fail people. Judging teaching, and what is good and what is not good, was my job for FIVE years when I worked at Monash University. So, I have the authority to give judgement.

If you are an intelligent consumer, if you care about your future and your own money, you should read on. Let us begin with the first sign.

Sign 1 of a Fake/Not-Real Teacher

The teacher speaks/explains mostly in Chinese.

This is the clearest and most obvious sign. If your teacher does this, you should quickly finish with them, and look for another. It’s that simple. They are not teachers, and you will learn very little.

You should know all this from the first 15 posts of this series, which made it clear that …

  • any TEFLtrained teacher knows not to lecture/explain/talk in Chinese,
  • any TEFL-trained teacher who really wants to help you knows not to do this,
  • all the ESL/TEFL/language-acquisition research has proven it does work well at all
  • more modernn teaching methods have been developed in response to this research (e.g CLT!)

Okay, you know all the theory (if you have read all the previous posts), but I’d still like to reflect a little on this situation, since it is so widespread in Taiwan. I will give two personal stories to illustrate this issue. These stories will be in the next post. You need to read them.

Now, check that you know the meaning of the underlined vocabulary (also repeated below).

  • to wise up (v)
  • to dissociate (v)
  • criticism (n)
  • credentials (n)
  • an authority (n)
  • to be widespread (adj)

If you want to find out more about me, go to aisielts.com .