by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman
School districts throughout the nation are facings shortages of teachers for English language learners. As reported in “Quality Counts,’ published by Education Week, states have told the federal government that they’ll need at least 56,000 new English-as-a-second-language teachers in the next five years.
But few states offer incentives such as scholarships or tuition reimbursements for those to become specialists. There is also little uniformity in training; only 3 states require training—Arizona, Florida and New York.
In the Clifton, NJ, district, 1,000 teachers have gone through two and three day programs and in Los Angeles, teacher candidates must take 6 of their 30 hours of preparation in ESL.
Because of the need in Boston and in Worchester, Massachusetts has developed a one year course to deal with shortages. During the training, participants observe and also teach an ESL class. They meet weekly with a mentor to discuss their progress. One session teaches Japanese to demonstrate how hard it is to learn a new language.
Interested in becoming an ESL teacher? It’s a niche with possibilities.
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