Applicants fill out an online application on TEF website. Just so everyone is aware of what this application process entails, you can see the details of our online application form here:

JOB DESCRIPTION 

Teaching duties & expectations:

• Teach online lessons to smart, successful learners of English of university age or over.
• 25-minute lessons.
• Teach all aspects of professional and polite English communication, including but not limited to:
  • Grammar
  • Pronunciation
  • Vocabulary
  • Delivery
  • Register (polite vs. casual)
  • Your knowledge of global culture
  • English tests
• Write up lesson records for each class in a timely manner and accordance with standards and guidelines as set by The English Farm.
• Attend staff meetings (one paid 30-minute session per month).
• Attend training workshops (two paid 30-minute sessions per month).
• Correct written homework for students from time to time when required and in a timely manner.
• Write end of term assessments for students with whom a teacher has had most contact in the term in a timely manner.
• Technical requirements & other expectations:
  • A stable internet connection.
  • A modern computer.
  • Headphones or headset.
  • A video camera.
  • A well-lit, quiet, tidy place to study.
  • Professional attire. 

TEF ONLINE APPLICATION FORM

Basic Information Section

Personal details:

• First name(s):
• Surname(s):
• Email address:
• Skype ID:
• Current location:
• Current occupation:
• Languages spoken and the degree of proficiency: 
• How did you hear about us:

General Education:

• University/Higher:
• Other (institutes, etc.):

Training/Work Experience:

• Do you have any experience teaching English as a second language? If so, please give details of levels, ages, schools and dates.
• What other work experience do you have?
• Do you have any other professional training? If so, please outline here.

Teaching Availability:

Please fill out your available hours for TEF.

Language Awareness Section

(Taken from Ben’s Google Doc - I’ve chosen questions that might be more difficult to Google. The rest of Ben’s questions can be asked in the interview):

Grammar

Question 1: Correct and explain the error in the sentence:

The film was very brilliant!

Suggested answer: The film was absolutely brilliant! The adjective brilliant is ungradable, and must be used with an extreme adverb like absolutely. Very should be used with gradable adjectives like good.

 

Question 2: Correct and explain the error in the sentence:

Who did write the song Imagine?

Suggested answer: Who wrote the song Imagine? Questions in the present simple and past simple often use the QASI structure (Question word, Auxiliary, Subject, Infinitive), but when the question word is the grammatical subject, we do not use an auxiliary verb.

 

Question 3: Correct and explain the error in the sentence:

Having been on the road all day, the food tasted better than ever! 

Suggested answer: Because he had been on the road all day, the food tasted better than ever! Sentence (9) may be misread as "Because the food had been on the road all day, the food tasted better than ever!" The speaker has reduced the first adverbial clause to the participle, creating a participle clause. This reduction removes the subject of the participle clause, so if the subject in each clause is different, the reduction may cause misunderstanding. In participle clauses the subject of both clauses should be the same in order to prevent misunderstanding. Note: the candidate may argue that sentence (9) would still be understood as intended, and that may well be true, but we would still like an analysis of the sentence indicating the potential for misunderstanding in participle clauses.

 

Vocabulary 

Question 4: Identify the odd-one-out and explain why:

• He has vivid memories of his first trip to Cairo.
• That wonderful weekend is now just a faded memory.
• The lingering memory continues to haunt him.

Suggested answer: Lingering is the odd one out. This adjective collocation with memory describes the duration of the memory, while the other two describe the quality of the memory

 

Question 5: Identify the odd-one-out and explain why:

• tolerate
• put up with
• countenance
• condone

Suggested answer: put up with

Register: put up with is used more informally, while the others are used in more formal contexts

Grammar: put up with is a phrasal verb, made up of a verb and two particles

 

Question 6: Explain the difference between the words in bold:

• He´s lost weight and now he looks slim.
• He´s lost weight and now he looks skinny.

In these sentences, the adjective choice indicates the speaker´s attitude towards the weight loss. The adjective slim has a positive connotation, while skinny has a negative connotation

 

Phonology

Question 7: Explain the difference in meaning suggested by the intonation patterns:

• You can drive, can't you? (rising intonation)
• You can drive, can't you? (falling intonation)

Suggested answer: The intonation in (a) suggests this tag-question structure is closer in function to a standard question (´Can you drive?´); while the intonation in (b) suggests the speaker is already quite certain about the fact and is just checking.

 

Phonemically transcribe the following words or phrases:

Example: soon  /su:n/

• the right direction    /ðə ˌraɪt dəˈrekʃən/  (with elision: /ðə ˌraɪ(t) dəˈrekʃən/)
• blue eyes     /bluː ˈaɪz/ (with intrusion:  /bluː ˈwaɪz/)
• Last Saturday I picked up my uncle from the airport 
• /læst  sætə(r)deɪ  aɪ  pɪkt  ʌp  maɪ  ʌŋkl  frəm  ðiː  eə(r)pɔːt/
• /læ(st)  sætə(r)deɪ  jaɪ  pɪk  tʌp  maɪ  jʌŋkl  frəm  ðiː  jeə(r)pɔːt/ (elision of /st/; intruding /j/; catenation between picked and up; intruding /j/; weak form of from;  intruding /j/)

Note: These words and phrases could easily be put into an phonemic transcription website, so some of the above contain features of pronunciation that such transcription sites are unlikely to include, such as elision, assimilation, intrusion, and catenation. Also look out for weak forms (schwa sounds in unstressed syllables)

 

Extended Written Tasks Section

Statement of purpose:

Please give a short autobiography and a statement of your career goals in 250 words or less.
...

What qualifications do you have that make you feel you’ll be successful as a TEF teacher? Use 250 words or less.

...
 

How might you design a listening lesson for a high-intermediate learner based around a TED Talk? Use 500 words or less.

Short answer: 

The focus of any listening lesson should be on developing listening as a skill. 

A lesson using an authentic text like a TED Talk should be designed with sufficient scaffolding to help the learner develop the skills necessary to understand both the big picture (top-down processing skills) and the smaller details (bottom-up processing skills). 

The lesson will have pre-listening, during-listening, and post-listening stages. The pre-listening stage is to motivate the student and to do skills work to support the listening. The during-listening stage will usually involve listening once for gist, then again for detail, and the tasks here will relate to the skills work done in the pre-listening stage. Then in the post-listening stage the learner reflects on the ideas mentioned in the text and discusses their opinions further, they reflect on the listening skills they employed, and they reflect on how they handled the text (more skills work may be required in parts the learner found difficult). 

Detailed answer:

Methodology: The candidate should mention a standard listening lesson structure, with pre-listening, during-listening, and post-listening stages. The focus of the lesson should be on listening as a skill, and should help develop top-down processing skills, bottom-up processing skills, or both, depending on the needs of the learner and the challenges of the text. 

Top-down skills involve the listener exploiting their existing knowledge to help prepare them to receive the text for the first time and to grasp the big picture. This knowledge includes what the listener already knows about the topic and what they know about the text (genre, length etc). The information generated here is used to predict what they will hear and mentally prepare for the structure and content of the text.

While top-down skills might be more about the big picture, bottom-up skills relate more to being able to listen for detail, and these skills involve things like being able to separate the sound of connected speech into individual words so that the listener is able to pick out detail.

Stage 1: Pre-listening The activities in this stage of the lesson are designed to both motivate the learner and to support their listening by helping develop top-down and bottom-up processing skills. The level of scaffolding given here will depend on the level of the learner.

Top-down skills work might include predicting things like genre, length, discourse pattern, content, speaker´s opinion. In the case of the TED Talk, for instance, based on the information the learner already has (a TED Talk on renewable energy) they might predict the text is a 10-15-minute monologue, that it will likely follow the problem-response discourse pattern (situation, problem, response, evaluation), that the speaker will be in favour of renewable energy, and that the speaker is likely to mention x,y,z etc. This information will help prepare the listener for the structure and content of the talk, and give them greater confidence when listening for this first time. 

This pre-listening stage could use a KWL activity (What I Know, what I Want to know, what I´ve Learned) to help the learner activate their knowledge, start forming and discussing opinions, and to create their own questions to direct their listening. Everything generated here will help in the first listening stage (listening for gist).

Bottom-up skills work might focus on phonological features that will help the learner follow the speaker. This might be looking at features of pronunciation that occur during rapid, connected speech, so that the listener is better able to separate the sound into individual words; it could include looking at intonation patterns used to signal a transition between points; or perhaps helping the learner focus only on stressed words to lighten the load. All of these would be relevant when listening to a TED Talk where a native speaker gives an extended monologue. 

This stage could also give support with vocabulary, like predicting words they might hear (climate change, global warming, emissions, carbon footprint, renewables etc in the case of the TED Talk on renewable energy), or even pre-teaching key words if necessary. This skills work will help with the second listening activity later (relatively detailed questions). The activities chosen will depend on the needs of the learner and the challenges of the text.

Stage 2: During-listening (1) Top-down, gist listening task. Tasks might include listening to whether the speaker answers any of the learner's questions from their KWL chart, or perhaps numbering a list of the speaker´s points according to the order they are heard etc.

During-listening (2) Listening for a second time. Questions focusing on detail. The bottom-up skills work done in the pre-listening stage will have been chosen to help the learner identify the details in these questions.

Stage 3: Post-listening (1) Reflection on topic and discussion of opinions. Return to KWL chart.

Post-listening (2) Reflections on the skills the learner used; what the learner found easy or difficult about the listening; and if necessary, more bottom-up work on areas of the text they found difficult

References Section

TEF conducts reference checks. List your references here. Please state his or her name, title, phone number, email address, location and your relationship to him or her:

1. ………….
2. ………….

Please let your references know that we will be contacting them.

Please send your CV and covering letter to [which email address?]. Please title your files as: “CV [your first name] [your surname]” and “Covering Letter [your first name] [your surname].”

I certify that the statements made by me in this application are true and complete. I understand and agree that a false statement may disqualify me from employment or result in dismissal. Permission is granted for TEF to contact my past employers for references. 

 

Date………….

 

Signature………….