stillhaventfound.org

Introduction

I’ve talked to many Singaporeans regarding TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) or teaching ESL (English as a Second Language). People have asked me what the state of the TESOL industry is like in Singapore and especially where is a good place to get a TESOL certificate. So I thought I’d do a series of posts that would hopefully answer some frequently asked questions. Because this is an industry I’m quite passionate about, I’m interested to connect with other Singaporeans (or otherwise) involved in or looking into this industry/career in Singapore - so please feel free to email me at idealist at stillhaventfound.org to further our conversation. I’m especially keen to link up with Christians considering this industry for missions or for reaching out to migrants (students or workers) in Singapore.

Some terms

TESOL stands for “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages”. It is the general term used when talking about teaching English to people whose first language is not English. Other similar terms include TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and TEFL (…Foreign Language) and ELT (English Language Teaching). For the numerous acronyms used in this industry, see this Wikipedia entry. Some people say TOEFL when they actually mean TESOL. TOEFL is the “Test Of English as a Foreign Language”. This is a test, not a career field or industry as TESOL is.

Past blog posts on TESOL

I’ve actually written 7 previous blog posts touching on the TESOL scene in Singapore. Below are three worth reading if you’re interested in this area:

1) When education becomes a business: Here I bitch and rant (one of the few times I do so on this blog) about an up and coming private school I taught in that’s extremely money-minded and has an awful ESL department.

2) The TESOL scene in Singapore: About the low standards in the TESOL industry in Singapore.

3) Reaching International Students in Singapore: A bit about the private education sector in Singapore and also about Christians reaching international students here.

My experience in the TESOL industry

I had my first teaching experience in Bogotá, Colombia in South America in 2003 through an AIESEC work exchange. It wasn’t quite a good one because as a native English speaker they thought I knew how to teach ESL when I actually didn’t! Speaking English fluently doesn’t mean you can teach it well! But they were so desperate (few tourists or foreigners go to this country, once the kidnapping/murder capital of the world) that they made me do things related to English teaching I could never do as a mere English speaker.

I considered taking the University of Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) before going to Colombia, but didn’t eventually. However, in 2007, I finally took my CELTA in Perth, Australia. There, I taught ESL voluntarily in a church, getting to know many Japanese, Koreans and Taiwanese on Working-Holiday Visas. I returned to Singapore and taught in four private schools till 2009. I won’t mention names but two were small language schools and the two others were bigger (that offered both English and external degrees) and quite reputable schools - one of which I mentioned above and the other of which was the total opposite with great teachers, bosses and a great English department. I’ve also given tuition to many foreign students and adults and since May last year I’ve been teaching a free English class at YMCA weekly (2009) and bimonthly (2010) - this class is open to international students from any school.

I’m no longer teaching ESL full-time now in a school (though I’m still volunteering at YMCA twice a month) even though I still have a lot of interest in this industry. I’m almost halfway through a distance Masters of Education (TESOL) from an Australian University, though I’m not sure if I want to finish it off (I don’t have time and I don’t find a theoretical-based masters helps me to be a better ESL teacher). I’m still very involved in the international students scene in Singapore and while I don’t foresee myself going back to teaching full-time, I will still do voluntary or paid teaching and I may start an ESL school in Singapore or teach overseas as a tent-making missionary in future.

While I don’t have a whole lot of experience above (I don’t have 5 or 10 years of ESL teaching experience), I think I’ve been interested enough to find out information and get familiar with this industry to provide some perspective. When I get into something, I tend to go all out. And I did so for the TESOL industry for about 2 years. I probably have one of the largest TESOL book libraries of a teacher in Singapore!

Introduction to international students and the private education industry in Singapore

It’s only been in the past 5-10 years that you’ve gotten many foreigners (both students and workers) coming to Singapore. In 2002, Singapore initiated its Global Schoolhouse project, which aims to attract 150,000 international students to Singapore by 2015. We’re probably at around the 100,000 mark or slightly under. About 65% of international students study in private schools, while 35% study in public ones (like the public universities, polytechnics and mainstream schools like primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges). The private education industry for foreigners is thus only going to get bigger as more students are being attracted to Singapore by our government.

It’s important to understand the private education sector here not only because most international students study in this sector but also because most ESL teaching is done in this sector. Private education for foreigners in Singapore isn’t something that’s very established - that’s why you’ve had a lot of controversies happening in the private education sector the last few years. This is because the government hasn’t understood how to control the industry well enough simply because this whole private education industry hasn’t been hugely active for very long. Only in the past few years have things been really picking up and so now you have the newly formed Council for Private Education (only established late last year) and other regulatory systems established by it to better regulate the private education industry.

An introduction to the TESOL industry in Singapore

With regards to the TESOL industry here, as I mentioned in a previous post on the TESOL scene in Singapore, a country like Australia has a national ELT (English Language Teaching) accreditation scheme to maintain TESOL standards in Australia. Singapore is not yet up to that level because the TESOL industry here isn’t as developed yet. Currently, as far as I know (I may be wrong, but I don’t think so), the four criteria I mentioned in the above post regarding TESOL academic management, teachers, teacher professional development and program delivery are not dealt with sufficiently or at all under the new Edutrust Certification Scheme or the Enhanced Registration Framework (ERF) - see the Council for Private Education website for more information about these. That’s because these standards are meant to be general and not specific to any field of teaching. But I think it’s only a matter of time before the government or at least a group of private schools involved in ESL teaching start an organization or accreditation scheme that will ensure the TESOL industry maintains good standards.

Overall, the TESOL standard is still very low in Singapore. This means at least two things. Firstly, it’s easier to be an ESL teacher in Singapore than in English-speaking countries with more developed TESOL industries like Australia, the UK, America and Canada. Which also means that many ESL teachers in Singapore probably wouldn’t be qualified to teach in those countries. Secondly, low standards also mean that students suffer because of less qualified teachers with less experienced bosses, little or no professional development for teachers and huge classes. These two things are important to consider when considering moving into the TESOL industry - I’ll touch on more of this in subsequent posts.

So this is the reality. This is not to say that the government totally sucks for not ensuring better standards. Yes, Singaporeans are proud of the fact that our education system is one of the best in the world and we should expect our TESOL industry to be one of the best in the world too. But to be fair, we are new in this industry. We’ve not been traditionally strong in this area and for good reason - as a nation we don’t exactly speak good English and Singapore is not one of the names on people’s minds when they think of a country to study English in. The fact that we’re behind in this field is thus understandable.

I think that in our desire to quickly establish ourselves as an education hub in the region, the government didn’t want to be too rigid with their private education regulations simply because it’ll limit the growth of private schools. There was a trade-off then. But now, they realize that continual growth of the private education industry requires stricter standards because too many schools have been closing down in recent years and this has been giving us a bad reputation. There’s now more regulation in the private education industry and eventually there will be more regulation of the TESOL industry. I think the TESOL industry is a hugely important part of the private education industry because most foreign students who study in private schools would need to take probably an average of 6 months of ESL lessons before starting their actual diploma/degree program.

In the next post in this series, I’ll share my thoughts on the various TESOL certifications available in Singapore - and which ones I’ll recommend for which purposes.

Yesterday night, I went out with a group of Christians for an exposure walk around Geylang. For those not familiar with Singapore, Geylang is Singapore’s infamous red-light district - although also famous for its good food! Each group spent about 40 minutes walking along 4 streets. We also entered the alleys. It was definitely an insightful experience for me.

This group was a bunch of progressive-leaning Christians from the Student Christian Movement (SCM) and Free Community Church (FCC).They’re hoping to start a ministry to the sex workers in Geylang and so this was an awareness trip organized for people interested in the ministry.

I brought an East-Timor missionary friend I met at the YWAM gathering I attended two weeks ago. Incidentally, YWAM has also been working with sex workers. Just before that gathering took place two weeks ago, YWAM held a mooncake party for sex-workers in the same room. Both FCC and YWAM are situated in Geylang and so it’s good that they’re working with these people.

Anyway, this group hopes to use some form of English classes to reach out to the sex workers. That’s definitely interesting and it’s been done before. For example, there’s an x:talk project in London which gives “free English classes for sex workers by sex workers”. A Thai NGO, Empower, also offers English classes to sex workers. From a Christian bent, you have Rehab Ministries.

For these people, improving their English empowers them:

Many foreign sex workers struggle to string a sentence together when they are negotiating prices and sexual acts with clients. When men put pressure on them to provide sex acts without a condom, it is much harder to refuse when they are unable to cajole punters into accepting something safer. The language barrier means they also fail to secure themselves the best possible deals and working conditions with brothel owners.

But of course there are many important issues to think about. For example, by teaching English, are we thus “encouraging them to do the work”, which was a criticism of the Thai NGO Empower (see Robert Preece’s “The Edge of ESP: English for Sex Workers” article in the Aug/Sep 1997 edition of TESOL Matters). That is, are we legitimizing their kind of work?

And if we see this as “ministry” to sex workers, what is the purpose of our ministry? What are we trying to help them for? Should we even be seeing what we do as trying to “help” them? Is that being too condescending? Or should our work been seen as more of coming alongside them? x:talk quoted Australian Aboriginal activist Lila Watson in their website:

If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.

How do we define our success? Do we seek that they quit their jobs and find a new one? But what if they can’t find a better job - in their home country or here? The problem is definitely more complex than just getting them to quit their job, if indeed that is one of our goals.

Do we see this from a moralistic (”oh, sex work is really bad and it’s a sin!”) point of view, or do we see this from another perspective? And very importantly, because we’re Christians, how does the gospel of Jesus Christ fit into all this? A lot of tough questions to think about. And how we answer, I would argue, depends a lot on our ideology and Christian beliefs. The more progressive SCM/FCC would view their ministry differently from how YWAM views their ministry. I’m sure both will have similarities, but also differences. For me, I’m more progressive in relation to most evangelicals, but more conservative in relation to SCM/FCC.

Anyway, this last month or so has opened up my eyes to the opportunities in using teaching English to reach out to people beyond international students. I’ve been working with Christian friends over the past few months to start a weekly free English class for international students. That’s been going well, but we still need more support and help so if you’re reading this and would like to be involved in any (however small) way, do get in touch with me! But along the way I’ve come across people who have asked me to consider free English classes for migrant workers and now I’m thinking about how such can be done for sex workers. I’m not sure I’ll really get into working with migrant or sex workers just yet because working with international students and working with migrant/sex workers is very different. At least I can relate better to the international students who are around my age and with whom I have a lot in common. But I definitely want to move towards working with the migrant and sex workers in the (hopefully near) future.

I attended a workshop at the GoForth National Missions Conference last week. I wish I could have attended the whole conference but I was working. The last time I attended the conference was in 2005 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s so wonderful to be around other Christians passionate about missions. It really brings you perspective - this is what a Christian ought to be living for!

The workshop I attended was called “Reaching International Students in Singapore”. This is of course the topic I’ve been into recently. The session was led by the people from the Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES). These are the people in charge of the Christian Fellowship (CF) groups at the various University and Polytechnic campuses throughout Singapore.

The 2.5 hours session consisted of introductory talks and some activities. I’ll just mention some interesting things that were mentioned. One speaker mentioned that Singapore was previously seen as the Antioch of Asia. That is, we’re a base to send out missionaries to the surrounding countries. And while that’s still true, he pointed out that many people are now flocking to Singapore - foreign workers and students. It’s interesting to see it this way. While there’s still a great need for missions in terms of moving cross-culturally, it’s good to recognize that a lot of students and workers are coming to Singapore and there’s a huge harvest field here in Singapore.

It was also mentioned that the top 6 countries from which foreign students come are, in order, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and South Korea. It’s also important to note that Singapore is aiming for 150,000 foreign students in Singapore by 2015. So there’s only going to be more of them coming.

While I thought the session was pretty OK, I felt it didn’t give a very good big picture of what’s involved in reaching out to international students here. The reason is because the speakers were only from one organization. FES does a lot of good work in the Universities and Polytechnics but it has to be noted that most international students do NOT study in these campuses. Most international students do not enter the Government/Public school systems. It was pointed out that only 35% of international students study in this sector. Meanwhile, the majority (65%) study in the private school system. That is, they study in private schools like United World College (UWC) or Singapore American School, but they also study in tertiary-level commercial schools that are sprouting out all over Singapore. These are the schools that offer external diplomas and degrees. For example, a famous tertiary-level private educational organization is Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS). This is one of the biggest around. There are other big ones like Asia Pacific Management Institute (APMI) or PSB Academy. However, there are tons and tons of smaller organizations too that most of us have never heard of.

For me, I’m interested in the international students in these organizations as opposed to those in the campuses that FES has a base in or those in government Primary or Secondary schools or those in International schools like UWC. Why? Because the international students in schools like MDIS or APMI and also in the smaller commercial schools are the most neglected and isolated of all international students. Ok, maybe not so much the bigger commercial schools like MDIS as you have a lot of Singaporean students studying in MDIS. But for the smaller commercial schools, a lot of them consist mostly of international students and hardly any Singaporean students. That means you’ll have fewer Singaporeans to reach out to such students. An international student in UWC or NUS or in local Primary or Secondary schools will have a lot of connections to Singaporean Christian students or churches. Not so for the international students in the smaller tertiary-level private schools. Not only is it more unlikely for such students to hear the gospel due to a lack of Singaporean Christian friends in these schools, but such students are also so much more open to friendships because most of their friends are fellow international students and so they long to get to know Singaporean friends to practice their English and also integrate to Singaporean society.

Therefore, I think it’s these students that are the most interesting lot. They are extremely open and they are longing to get to know other Singaporeans. Another interesting group of international students is the group that comes to Singapore solely to learn English in language schools. They may stay for 3 months or 6 months or a year. Their purpose is only to learn English and most of them do not have any Singaporean friends and so are also extremely open to friendship.

I’ve taught in both kinds of schools before. Right now, I’m teaching in a language school, but before I taught in private school that offers external diplomas/degrees and where about 90% of the students are from China and most of them do not have any Singaporean friends. These people are so open to friendship with Singaporeans and also pretty open to the gospel.

So how do we reach out to these two neglected groups? I believe the best way is to offer free English classes to them…

I haven’t written for about a week! The last week has been very busy for me! My last day at the school was on Thursday. Then I had a BBQ with about 20 of my students on Friday. I also invited some of my Christian friends who I’ve been introducing to my students over the past month or so. I do love and miss my students but ultimately I made the decision to leave because I could no longer teach there in good conscience. I could very easily continue on teaching, do a pretty decent job (by the school’s standards) and earn some decent money, but I guess I’m too much of a perfectionist to feel comfortable there. I’ll write more about this in another post. I’ve got so much to say :)

I only taught my students for under 2 months, but I know that my friends and I will continue to go out with and reach out to them as we’ve built up a good rapport with them. Again, so many things to say and I’ll write more in the future.

What are my plans now? I’ve sent in job applications and gone for a few interviews already. I’ll most probably start my Master in Education (TESOL) at the end of this month. It’s through distance learning. That means, no classes - just assignments. I decided to do my Masters because I want to improve my teaching. I want to be the best teacher I can be. While I already have a recognized certificate, there is so much more I can learn to help me become a better teacher.

This program consists of 8 modules in all. A full-time load would be about 4 modules per semester. It depends on me whether I want to do it full-time or part-time. If I get a job I like, I may do it part-time. If not, I may do it full-time.

The past two months have been tiring, but definitely rewarding. God has brought me good new friendships and also ministry opportunities, which have been answers to my prayers at the beginning of the year. There’s also been some challenges here and there. But I’ve been growing and learning. I’ve got a lot to say about many other things and maybe I’ll share on this blog one day. We’ll see how! Cheers! :)

I just came back (it’s now 2am Sunday morning) from Easter service at City Harvest Church and a night out with my friend’s CHC cell group. As I write I’m still full of awe and praise towards God for what has happened in the past 9 hours or so! A bit of background first…

As some of you know, I’ve been teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) for just under a month at a private Business School. I got into this field for basically one reason. I hope to do missions in future and teaching English as a foreign or second language is in great demand throughout the world - especially in the mission field where I hope to use this skill to earn a living and reach out to the lost.

When I was in Perth last year, I saw the amazing potential that teaching ESL had in reaching out to the lost in the developed world. And I knew that I wanted to do that in Singapore. The context in Australia and Singapore is different. In Australia, there’s a lot of opportunities to reach out to those on Working Holiday visas. Many churches give free English classes to these people and reach out to them through that. The English classes aren’t just a source of free English lessons but also a place to meet other foreigners and get any help from the teachers there.

In Singapore, you don’t have foreigners coming here on one-year Working Holiday visas. Rather, you have a lot of people from Asia who come here to study in schools. For those who come here to study in Primary or Secondary school, they would be able to integrate into Singapore society. However, many also come here for their University education and go to private schools that offer degrees from Western Universities. Before they are able to start their University studies, however, they normally have to go through English lessons to get their English level up to standard. A lot of these students are of course from China, but there are many also from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam. And I think most of of them do not integrate that well into Singapore society. This is because their English is not very good. And a lot of private schools have students which consist mainly of foreigners. The places these foreigners live (especially the hostels) are also filled with foreign students. The result is that these foreigners tend to mix around with other foreigners - and thus most likely will not come into contact with Singaporean Christians.

There is thus a great need to reach out to these foreign students. And of course, the ideal person to reach out to such students are ESL teachers. And so this is what I wanted to do while being an ESL teacher in Singapore. I loved teaching. And I loved interacting with youth. I think I can relate to them well and am able to build up a good rapport with them. And I put a lot of effort in my teaching because I want to be the best teacher I can to help my students.

I invited my students to City Harvest for its 5:30pm Saturday Easter service. I didn’t invite them to New Creation because it didn’t have any special service and I knew that New Creation didn’t have the community to be able to reach out to them. I wanted a community of people that would be able to befriend them, make them feel welcome, reach out to them and follow up with them. I had a good friend in City Harvest and had visited his cell before. I knew that they would be a community that would be able to reach out to them. One thing I love about City Harvest is their strong cell community. New Creation sorely lacks this.

On Thursday, about 12 students said they would meet me for the service. I didn’t expect all 12 to come because something always crops up! But somehow as I prayed, I prayed for 11 to come. I thought that was perhaps a bit unrealistic, but I wanted to believe God for that. In the end, 11 of my students came and 1 of them brought a hostel mate of hers. In all, 9 mainland Chinese students and 3 Vietnamese attended the service.

The Easter drama was moving at times. I didn’t watch the beginning because I was waiting for some friends who came late. But the part where Christ was crucified was very good. I was glad for my Chinese students that the drama and the sermon by Pastor Kong were in both English and Chinese so they would understand what’s going on. However, I wasn’t too happy with the sermon as I thought the gospel presentation was extremely unclear. In fact, I thought that was probably the worst Easter service message I’ve ever heard. But I won’t get into that here :)

What excited me was the response from my students. Before the service, I was praying for 3 salvations. In the end, God surprised me when 10 of the 12 students actually responded to the alter call and went to the front!! I don’t know if every one of them understood the significance of it all as I thought the message was very unclear and also the alter call. However, I also know that most people don’t understand the gospel clearly when they first accept Christ. Whatever the case, I am full of joy that they did take the step they did. I’m reminded once again that this is the reason why I’m teaching. Yes, I want them to improve their English. But more than that, I want them to know Jesus and find true meaning for their lives.

After the service, my students ate together and got to know my friend’s cell members. This is the reason I brought them to City Harvest. Responding to the gospel is one thing. But it’s so important to be part of a community. And I don’t know any other Church in Singapore that can provide such a community like City Harvest can. Nor do I know any other Church in Singapore which is as passionate for evangelism and missions as City Harvest. While I don’t think City Harvest’s teaching is as good as New Creation’s, I’m quite happy to see my students get involved in the City Harvest community.

God is a faithful God. I’ve already seen answers to some of the prayers I’ve been praying since the beginning of the year. Not just regarding the above, but also in other areas. The teachings of New Creation have challenged me in my faith - especially as it relates to believing God for what we ask for.

Now I’m actually thinking and praying about two things. Firstly, on whether I should continue on teaching in my school. I have to make that decision pretty soon. I’ve already mentioned here that the English department is a big joke. And I kind of decided to stop working there once I finish with my present class next month. However, after what happened yesterday, I am praying about it. I know there’s a great opportunity to reach out to more students in the school. That’s what’s making me think twice about quitting. Yet, I don’t like short changing my students - something I’ll have to do if I continue teaching there.

The second thing is whether to continue to stay on in New Creation. This is not something new I’ve been thinking about. Rather, I’ve been praying about it for a while. I know I’ll never be able to get as good teachings in other churches as I would get in New Creation. On the other hand, my view of Christianity as a community is just so different from the community (or lack of) I find in New Creation. I don’t want to always reach out to people and get them to settle in another church! I want to be able to bring them to my church and I want them to find a loving community there. If I were to commit myself to another church, I could still buy and listen to New Creation’s CDs (or even attend their Sunday afternoon services), but you can’t buy community…

For those of you wondering what I’m doing now (as in work-wise), well, I’m teaching English. Not in a mainstream Singapore school. I’d never survive working under the MOE (Ministry of Education) with the way things are. I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s quote about not letting schooling interfere with education. Going to school nowadays - in most countries but especially Singapore and many Asian countries - is not about true holistic education that values the whole person. It’s not about passion for life, but about exams and money. It’s about doing well so that you can get a good job so that you can earn good money. As with everything done in Singapore, the schooling system is there for just one purpose: to promote economic growth. The ‘god of economic utility’ has become the pre-eminent reason for schooling. That’s in keeping with pragmatic Singapore.

Woops, I didn’t start this post wanting to bash the MOE, the Singapore education system or the Singapore government :) Singapore’s education system, like its way of governing, is but a reflection of society-at-large. Society not just of Singapore, but of the world. So in a way, I don’t blame them. It’s the way things are. But then again, I do. The youthful idealist in me doesn’t stay silent for long. He (Mr. Youthful Idealist) is quite in sync with the whole of creation which groans… (Romans eight)

Anyway, back to where I was. Not only am I not teaching English in a mainstream school, but I’m not teaching English to those who speak it as their first language. I teach English to those who speak it as their second (or third…) language. The common term for the industry I’m in is TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). It’s a huge thing throughout the world because millions of people desire to take up English as it’s the language of the world. And teaching such people is very different from teaching English to first language English speakers (i.e. most Singaporeans) or even teaching any other subjects. The teaching methodology is different and there are so many things to learn in order to be a good TESOL teacher. Like I said, it’s a huge industry.

Anyway, I won’t get too much into all this. Just to mention that I started moving into this last year. I got my Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) - a TESOL certificate - in Perth, Australia. And today was my first day of teaching English in the private school I’m working at. It’ll be a great challenge for me which I’m quite excited about. 90% of my 40 or so students are from China and have only been here for 1-2 months.

Why I went into this area? It’s because I love teaching. I love relating and interacting with students - especially youth and young adults. But why TESOL specifically? I’ve shared a bit here. Basically, I want to do missions work in future and teaching English is a skill that’s greatly in demand in many developing countries. Thus, having this skill would enable me to be a tentmaker.