Interview
Marc Helgesen
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On Professionalism
A significant number of schools in Japan, particularly in the conversation school sector,
don't require teaching job applicants to have any formal teaching qualifications. Some people
argue that knowledge of EFL methodology is essential in providing students with good quality
lessons, others say that it is not. What are your views on this?
I think knowledge and some kind of training is essential. But we all know that a lot of people in
this profession stumbled into it. At some point, many decide, "Yeah, I'm not just a tourist.
I'm teaching. What do I need to know?" A lot of people decide to go for a degree. It's wonderful
that we have programs in Japan like Columbia University Teacher's College (I mention that one first
since I teach there part-time), Temple University and the many distance education programs.
But just making use of other resources is a lot of help. There are local JALT meetings, seminars at
the British Council and some universities. David English House is starting a series of seminars
around the country. There are lot of options.
And of course, there are a lot of excellent books and magazines available. Not to mention web sites.
One simple place to start is with the Teacher's Manual of the textbook you're teaching. Many TMs are
essentially teacher training courses.
I really think the more teachers get involved in the profession, the more they really find that
there is a lot of support for them out there.
What resources (e.g. books, web sites, teacher organizations) have been beneficial to your
professional development as an teacher? What resources would you strongly recommend to a teacher?
Where should I start? I guess a beginning teacher should start with a basic methodology book like
Penny Ur's 'A Course in Language Teaching' (CUP) or Jeremy Harmer's 'How to teach English' (Longman).
It's been out a few years but 'Handbook for Teaching English in Japanese Colleges and Universities'
by Paul Wadden (Oxford) is still a very helpful book.
I'd also recommend 'Inside Teaching' (Heinemann) especially for people who've been teaching a few
years and want to reflect on what they do and why. Another good one is 'Challenge and Change in
Language Teaching' (Heinemann).
There are a lot of good websites. I stop by your site every morning, just to see what's going on.
I'm involved with Extensive
Reading which has a useful site. I like the Internet
TESOL Journal as well. And I'd be
remiss if I didn't mention the English Firsthand
Cafe. One of the things I really like about it is Teacher Discussion. Teachers can talk about
the books, ask questions, give suggestions, recommend activities and other sites -- whatever. What
I really like is the democracy of the web. Even in the best of workshops, it is largely the
presenter's show. In something like 'Teacher Discussion' everyone writes in the same size font.
I like that.
And people really should get involved with the professional organizations like JALT, TESOL,
IATEFL. Really important way to learn and to network.
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