Teaching English in Greece
For many expatriates whose first language in English, teaching is a natural choice of career. In Greece, there are thousands of schools that employ native speakers of English, so wherever you are based, it's likely that there's a school near you that is willing to hire you.
Alternatively, many expatriates supplement their income by offering private lessons. This gives you more flexibility in terms of the type of students you choose to teach and the methods you use. For example, if you prefer teaching adults, private lessons will probably be the better option, as most of the lessons in private schools of English (kentra xenon glosson) are with children and teenagers.
Either way, the qualifications that you need are the same. Firstly, you must have a university degree. This is required by the Greek Ministry if Education, and is essential in order for you to work legally as a teacher. Your degree can be in any subject, and doesn't have to be related to English, although a lot of employers naturally prefer teachers whose degree is in English Language or Literature. The requirement for a degree simply ensures that prospective teachers have a good level of education. Your knowledge of English is not in question as it's your first language, so any degree is acceptable.
Secondly, you should have a TEFL certificate ' a certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. This isn't required by the Ministry, but in practice prospective employers are going to demand one. Just because you know how to speak English, that doesn't mean that you are able to teach. A TEFL course gives you the necessary techniques to be competent in the classroom. You can get a TEFL certificate by taking an online course or a weekend course, but most people regard these as inadequate. Online learning is fine for academic subjects, but teaching is a practical skill and the most important part of a TEFL course is the teaching practice. An online TEFL course is about as useful as online tennis lessons.
If you're planning to teach in Greece, it obviously makes sense to do your TEFL course in Greece as well. This means that your course will be based on the sorts of materials and methods that are generally used in Greece, and your teaching practice during the course will be with Greek students. Many TEFL courses provide teaching practice only with adults, but teaching elementary survival English to adult asylum seekers in the UK is very different from teaching advanced level Greek teenagers preparing for their exams.
The other great advantage of taking your TEFL course in Greece is that the leading course provider, Anglo-Hellenic, is also the main source of TEFL jobs in Greece, and so will actually find you a job to go to on completion of the course.
The majority of the English Language schools in Greece are small and privately owned. The pupils attend the local state school in the morning, and so the English schools operate in the afternoon and evening. Most schools employ only two or three teachers and have one or two hundred pupils. Attendance at such a school is the norm for children from all kinds of social backgrounds. They usually begin at the age of eight, and continue until they are at least fifteen.
You would not normally expect to teach the youngest children, unless you happen to speak Greek, but you might teach children of ten upwards. Classes last for one or sometimes two hours, and for the older pupils there is a strong orientation towards exams such as the Cambridge FCE and CPE. Depending on their age and level, most classes have lessons for a total of three or four hours per week, so you would be teaching several different classes. For most of your classes, you will be their main teacher, but they will usually also have one or two hours per week with a Greek teacher, mainly for grammar.
Most of the children are enthusiastic learners and classes are usually reasonably small, with perhaps ten or twelve members, so conditions are good, and discipline is not usually a problem. However, like teenagers everywhere, our students can sometimes be boisterous, and so you will need classroom management skills. You can expect to work with a high standard of materials and equipment.
Hours of work are normally between three and ten p.m. Monday to Friday. Some schools also have classes in the mornings, especially the larger schools in the big cities, which cater for older students, and it is possible that you might be required to work on Saturdays. You would normally teach for about twenty-five hours per week. Even if your teaching hours are less than twenty-five, this is normally the guaranteed minimum for which you will be paid.
In addition to the hours spent teaching, you will also have to spend the proportionate amount of time planning lessons and correcting written work. This varies according to the kind of teaching, but 25 hours teaching equates to a total working week of about 40 hours.
You won't generally need to create your own materials, as each class will be working with a course book that provides all the activities and exercises for the lessons. The bulk of your preparation will consist of studying the materials in the course book and the accompanying teacher's guide, and planning how to do the lesson according to the needs of each group of students. You may also like to create your own supplementary materials occasionally, and in many schools you will be required to devise additional exercises, such as vocabulary quizzes based on the course book.
Classrooms are equipped with audio and video equipment, most schools use computers, and many are now equipped with interactive whiteboards. Most schools have a secretary, and facilities are available for photocopying.
You won't make a fortune teaching English in Greece, but the salary is sufficient to live well and enjoy getting to know this beautiful country in your spare time.
For more information, please contact Anglo-Hellenic through www.TEFL.gr
