Beware of Fancy ELT Terms: The Interview Mishap No English Teacher Wants

Shady Abuyusuf

Sat, 23 Nov 2024

283

When it comes to English language teaching, there’s no shortage of buzzwords, acronyms, and concepts that seem to have established their own little linguistic universe. But as one unsuspecting English teacher recently discovered, wielding this ELT jargon like a linguistic wizard can come with a few… let’s call them “risks.”

Our teacher-hero, let’s call him Jim, was eager to impress at a job interview for an English language school. With a puffed-up chest, a confident grin, and a CV in hand, he walked into that interview room feeling like the job was already his. Little did he know, God had other plans.

As the interview progressed, Jim decided to casually throw in an ELT term he’d stumbled upon just the night before: “The ZPD.” Now, Jim knew that ZPD stood for “Zone of Proximal Development,” but that was just about it. He tried to use context clues and his vibrant imagination to bring the term to life, hoping to paint a portrait of his exceptional teaching abilities.

Instead, the interviewer’s eyebrows shot up, and she asked Jim to elaborate on how he integrated the ZPD concept into his teaching methods. Panic painted Jim’s face as he suddenly realised that knowing an acronym’s name was only the tip of the iceberg.

Spouting off a series of unrelated teaching methods, drawing similarities to popular ELT strategies, and trying to weave a magic tapestry of baseless words, Jim grasped for anything that could possibly make sense. All the while, his face turned just about every shade of red until it met the shade of a perfectly ripe tomato.

It became apparent to both the interviewer and Jim: he had no idea what he was talking about. The once-confident grin faded into a look of bewilderment and embarrassment. Not only did Jim lose his shot at the job, but he left the interview with the weighty knowledge that there’s nothing worse than using ELT terminology one doesn’t understand.

So, dear English teachers, learn from Jim’s misfortune and heed this simple advice: take the time to make vocabulary-varnished ELT terms your loyal allies. Fully understand and master their meanings, applications, and intricacies before wielding them at interviews. Most importantly, remember that it’s better to be authentic than to strap a rocket to your teaching career using half-baked jargon that ultimately crashes and burns.

Your interviewers will appreciate your honesty, knowledge, and clarity more than a fancy acronym you can’t explain. Make sure you’re confidently building your ELT expertise on solid ground, or else you may find yourself sinking into a quicksand of awkwardness, just like our dear friend, Jim.

Keep it straightforward, keep it real, and let your true skills and knowledge shine. That’s how you’ll land that dream job and save yourself from becoming the next hot topic in ELT folklore.