TEFL blog » ESL in South America

A couple of interesting articles for you today.

Here’s one about teaching ESL in Colombia, where teaching English is a government priority, resulting in many job opportunities, according to the author. If you like this, you might also be interested in Larry Lynch’s article, Teach English in Colombia: Grappling with Grammar, Gold, Guns, and Guayaba

The second is a take on the current situation in Thailand, where the bureaucratic confusion over permits and qualifications for English teachers could, according to one source quoted in the article, lead to “fewer and fewer foreign teachers in Thailand”.

The Brazzil Mag is reporting that the poor English skills of Brazilian air traffic controllers were to blame for the country’s worst ever air accident in September 2006, in which 154 people died.

According to the former head of the Brazilian Air Traffic Controllers Association, Ulisses Fontenele, quoted in the article, less than 10% of Brazilian controllers speak fluent English, and those that do learnt “on their own initiative”. He says that controllers have only a 6 month basic English course as part of their training, and only “typical and basic flight control phrases for when everything is normal in the air.”

Whether or not this helped cause the crash in this case, it does highlight the responsibilities that organisations have when their employees are charged with the safety of other people. Should there be stricter controls over English language requirements? Have a look at the article (the comments at the bottom make for interesting reading too) and tell us what you think…

Here’s a question from one of our visitors, Ross:

“I would like to go to Argentina to teach English from the end of February to June or July. Can you help me? Where in Argentina is the best place to go? Are visas difficult to obtain? Thank you.”

If you can help Ross, please post a comment below.

We recently received an email from Fiona.

She is visiting Brazil for one month in September and would like to gain some experience teaching TESL. She would like to work as a volunteer alongside a teacher currently in residence, and would like to know if anyone has any information or contacts for schools who might be interested in having an English speaking volunteer for a month.

If you can help Fiona, please post a comment. Thanks!