Ohhhhh, I remember ALL of those books!

Of the two grammar books, Parrott is far more palatable than Swan. For a more user-friendly approach to grammar, I'd recommend the Essential Grammar in Use series.

With regards to the methodology books, I bought them (like everyone else) but other than referring to them on my CELTA, I haven't really used them. Neither of them was an especially riveting read, and so they found their way into a box and there they have remained.

To be honest once you start teaching, the practical side of things and finding out what actually works for you and your students is far more important than the methodology. That said, it's worth noting that most schools own at least one copy of all of these books, which will save you weighing down your luggage with books you'll hardly use.

Hi all,

I would be grateful to hear from you, if you have used any of the following books to assist with your English teacher training skills and, if so, if you would recommend any of them:

For Language Skills:

Martin Parrott, Grammar for English Language Teachers or Michael Swan, Practical English Usage

For teaching English Skills:

Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching or Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching

Many thanks in advance,

Kim

Where are you going to do the CELTA?  I don't really have any good advice at the moment as I'm still working full time and it's seriously hectic trying to sort this out at the same time, not to mention the money difficulties I'm having...

But I've basically got three options; one is that the school I intend to train with has partner schools in China and elsewhere, so that's always an option; two is that I may have a contact through a friend who arranges placements (but unfortunately I haven't really made contact yet); and three, well, like everyone else says, is just to go over there.

I don't really plan to do option three because from what I hear you can secure quite a good deal in advance if you're lucky.  So I guess option one or two... but you sound far more organised than me, and I will definitely be reading all the other advice you get!

Hello Kim

It`s really good to hear from you!Haha,honestly,only some cities in Guangdong and Hongkong ,Macao,people speak cantonese,Mandarin is an offical language here in china.Just like English,People speak it with different accent from different part of china.If you are able to speak Mandarin,you can go anywhere you want in china!

If you want to know more about china you can contact me by skype leoliuenglish or email me:leo@kingdomec.net

Your sincerely

Leo

Hey Kim,

I used an agency (The same one as Rin) to go about finding a job in China, but if you want to teach in the bigger cities (Beijing or Shanghai) I think that our agent couldn't really help you. If you google search for agencies, there are a few around that could no doubt help you though.

I'll be honest with you though, if you want to learn conversational mandarin within a year, it's a lot harder for you in Beijing. Just because the level of english spoken there now is insane. I went there on holiday a few months back and it's almost as if you don't need to speak Chinese at all. Trying to get a Chinese person to speak Chinese at you, is ten-fold harder than in smaller cities.

I live in a small city currently, and with a bit of hard work on my own behalf, my Chinese is coming on really well in just the 4 months i've lived here.

Also, it will be much easier for you to come to China in the chinese new year celebrations, due to the school holiday. Schools seem to be more hesitant to hire teachers within the school term. This year, this would be February time.

If you will have a degree when you come here, finding a job shouldn't be too hard. You could literally just go into a smaller city and ask around for a few days, and I am sure you could get a job somewhere. In Beijing or Shanghai, maybe not, but I can't speak from experience there. Put simply, if you decide you don't really mind where you teach, getting a job in China is easy, even without a degree. The demand still far outweighs the supply.

If you're still interested in a few months time when we are closer to the Chinese new year, I might even be able to help you out myself. Let me know.

Hi there, my name's Kim and I'd be very interested in hearing from you, if you are teaching in China or are planning to do so.  I'm going to complete CELTA in November and have a Master's Degree, have been working in the corporate legal world.  Basically goal is to teach English in China for at least a year, perhaps longer all going well and learn conversational Mandarin.  I have lived the island life in Bermuda for the past three years and therefore current frame of thought is that I'd be game for city life as opposed to country life.  Therefore Beijing is at the top of my list although I am still looking further into this and am not ruling anything out.  Moving back to the homeland, Dublin, Ireland end of October and want to go the sole route to China and secure a good teaching position prior.  Any info., advice would be most welcomed!  It's a all bit scary at the moment but I 110% definitely want to do this.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

Kim