its-teachers

Being a teacher in New Zealand

Craig Thaine is a New Zealand–born teacher trainer and director of teacher training at Languages International in Auckland. We asked him about the past 15 years of the ELT industry in New Zealand and the current situation.

How long have you been in the ELT industry?
Just on 23 years now. I did an RSA Certificate course at International House in London in 1982 and have been teaching and training ever since then.

Where did you work overseas?
I worked in Italy, Egypt, Sweden and also in England. But the place I stayed the longest was Italy. I was there for six years.

And when did you come back to New Zealand?
Towards the end of 1991 – 14 years ago now.

What was the industry here like then?
The industry as a whole was still in quite an early phase. The school I ended up working for had been going for 13 years, but the staff was relatively inexperienced. When I got back to New Zealand I already had my DTEFLA and that was considered a rarity at that time. So I think that levels of professionalism were not as high as they are now. New Zealand schools used to market themselves on the basis of friendly homestays and a clean, green, natural environment. While those things are still true, New Zealand teachers are better qualified and have more experience, so the quality of the teaching is much better.

So how have teaching standards been raised?
Well, there’s a lot more professional development available for English language teachers in New Zealand now. Back then there were only four CELTA – or CTEFLA as it was called back then – centres, but now there are 10. I remember that I wanted to do an MA, but the only one on offer was in Wellington and I live in Auckland. However, now there are now about five MA programmes in applied linguistics or second language teaching
available throughout the country. Also there are two centres that offer the Cambridge DELTA.

Are there also any less-formal professional development opportunities?
Yes. Many institutions – both state and private – run seminars and workshops. For a lot of teachers the TESOL Association of New Zealand is a focus for professional development. They run workshops in different regions, and every second year they organise a conference with international and overseas speakers. One of the most popular speakers at the past two conferences has been Scott Thornbury, who was born in New Zealand, but now lives in Spain. However, the number of local teachers and researchers giving seminars at this conference has increased over the years, as has the quality of their presentations.

What do you see as the strengths of the ELT industry in New Zealand?
First of all, I think New Zealand is a country that offers a unique travel and education experience. There are only 4 million of us living here in a country that is roughly the same size as Italy. This means there’s a lot of space and a lot of natural beauty. The rest of the world got a taste of this when seeing the Lord of the Rings films. So students coming here get a fairly unique travel experience. And now I feel more confident about saying that the educational experience is of good quality. Finally, New Zealanders are generally fairly laid-back people and very welcoming. A lot of students comment on this.

And what are the biggest challenges facing the industry in New Zealand?
Well, we are a long way away and the cost of the travel is something potential students might think twice about. The New Zealand dollar has been quite high relative to the U.S. dollar for the past couple of years, but we expect it to lose value against other currencies in the next year, so this is good news for students wanting to come and study here – it will make New Zealand all the more affordable. Also, the course fees are cheaper than other destinations.

Any dates to look out for in 2006?
One major event for teachers coming up in 2006 is the annual CLESOL (Community Languages and English to Speakers of Other Languages) run by the TESOL Association of New Zealand. This is a bi-annual conference that attracts a wide variety of speakers. It will also be interesting to see if the release of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will have a similar impact as The Lord of the Rings. Both were filmed in New Zealand.