Teaching English Overseas?

Virgil Menefee: Yes, but you have to understand that english is a language of business, so that is why it is taught overseas. It's not taught to appreciate literature, which is by and large a Western ideal. Having said that, why could you not use literature to teach English? Why would you not do that? I don;t think it's a good idea to teach Chaucer, as the language in that text is way too old to be relevant, but you could certainly teach newer text - it helps teach the culture and helps familiarize students with the flow of the language, which is incredibly difficult to master when you just teach it using rote memorization and grammar parsing and all that boring stuff. I looked into this when I was an English teacher once upon a time. You might not be directly teaching Lit, but I see no reason why you could not use it as an adjunct.One caveat - some of those countries are not wild about Western literature, especially books that condemn religion, which many do. This is a c! onversation to have with your recruiter and even the school head, which you can do via Skype when the time is right. Good luck....Show more

Davina David: Teaching abroad is great.. I came to do it for a year and I'm still here 4 years later.. (CHINA)Most of the English classes taught are as a "foreign language" you can use literature in the class but its not going to be difficult. Though some senior high school student's English skills will be high enough to do this and you can always give those students more enrichment work. They will appreciate it because many will want to study abroad in university.