The first point to consider is your own attitude to the contract. It is a document that binds both parties, so as employers you should ensure that it contains only clauses that you can honor. It is hardly fair to the employee to issue a contract that binds teachers and then expect to be able to break its terms yourself.

The second point is that teachers cannot be expected to know the legal requirements of a contract in a foreign country, as these can vary enormously. You should, therefore, explain to the teacher exactly how the contract reflects current employment legislation in your country and for your sector. Some countries stipulate that the contract must be written in the home language. If this is the case, your teachers will need a clear and accurate translation into English. Some countries require the contract to contain full details of the teacher’s visa and employment permits. There may be restrictions on the number of hours a teacher can work and on the number of hours overtime permitted. Whatever the specific legal framework in your country, it is essential to both adhere to the legal requirements and explain these to the teacher. Even if your country does not require a written contract at all, it is worth thinking about the kinds of problems that could arise if you do not have a clearly drafted understanding of all aspects of the job: the rights and responsibilities of the teacher and the rights and responsibilities of the employer.

Helpful Tips:

Legal considerations apart, the contract should cover number of class contact hours, number of admin hours and number of preparation hours. If you have a basic 38 hour week and you expect teachers to spend 25 hours in the classroom, two on admin and the remaining 9 on preparation, don’t think of the preparation time as a free pool from which you can ask teachers to do extra teaching. If you need teachers to do extra contact hours to cover for an absent colleague or a sudden influx of students, build the terms of the required flexibility into the contract. For example you may say that could be expected to do up to two extra teaching hours per week to cover emergencies. If further hours are required, offer to pay them as overtime. List any additional duties, such invigilating exams, designing teaching materials or socializing with students.

Be as precise as possible in every area. If you offer accommodation, make it quite clear how this it to be provided and describe it accurately. State whether teachers will be expected to travel to other branches or to companies and explain how such travel arrangements will be made. Make sure you are clear about sickness insurance and medical treatment: what would happen if a teacher had to be repatriated because of an accident, for example, or suffered long-term illness?

Specify holiday entitlement, grievance and disciplinary procedures, and notice terms. Above all, try to make the contract a reader-friendly document rather than one that is full of dense legal terminology. Before you issue a contract, it might be a good idea check with a lawyer to ensure that it is comprehensive enough to satisfy your local legal requirements.

In the next issue: induction for new staff.

For teachers coming, perhaps for the first time, into contact with a new culture, some form of cultural awareness training is essential if they are to be able to perform well in their job. Many western teachers are trained to teach in a relaxed, informal manner with plenty of student interaction. However, they often find themselves in countries where teaching is a much more formal process. Students may expect to be relatively passive and they may be used to seeing teachers as figures of authority. This can lead to a classroom clash that might upset the teacher and frustrate the students.

Some key cultural dimensions are:

• the extent to which a culture is hierarchical
• the extent to which it is task-oriented or people oriented
• the extent to which it is group-oriented or individualistic
• the roles it assigns men and women, the way it perceives and values time
• the extent to which it prefers certainty and security to risk-taking
• the extent to which it is transparent and open in its dealing or full of unspoken rules and signals

Sample Cultural Awareness Activiy:

Of course, specialist training is available in this field but you can do a lot to raise cross-cultural awareness by having the teachers organize activities themselves. You could run a training program that makes use of the accumulated knowledge of your more experienced staff. Partner a new teacher with an experienced one, for example, so that the experienced teacher can advise the greenhorn. Use some key cultural values, such as those identified by S. H. Schwartz, and their definitions:

• power: social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources.
• achievement: the importance of personal success.
• hedonism: pleasure, enjoying life, self-gratification.
• stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge.
• self-direction: independent thought and action.
• universalism: understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature and the environment.
• benevolence: helpful and caring towards others.
• tradition: respect and acceptance of the customs and ideas of the society.
• conformity: being unlikely to violate social expectations, norms or rules. security: safety, harmony and stability of society, of relationships, and of self and family.

Ask teachers to assess on a scale of 1 - 10 how important these values are to them. Then ask them to record over their first few weeks in the new country, what they observe about their host culture in relation to these values. When they have some data, you could organize a group discussion in which experienced and new teachers compare ideas on how these values influence behavior in the host culture. You could complete the cultural awareness sessions by a discussion about the attitudes needed by teachers to operate successfully in the host culture. Ask them to think about what they should do to respect the host culture; how they can influence people in the host culture; how they need to adapt their teaching style to meet student expectations. Discuss openly the things they like and dislike about the host culture and ask them to share their views about how being in a different culture has made them feel about their own values and beliefs.

In the next issue: budgeting for professional development.

Tune in next month for the answer!

The results of last month's poll are in. The question was "Should teachers be educated to degree level before taking an ESL qualification?"

You answered:

64% - Yes
24% - No
12% - Undecided

An English language centre has recently opened at the University of Dohuk, northern Iraq, offering Ielts courses. Rasheda Zaher-Draey, who opened the language centre, reported to the London-based English Language Gazette: "Unlike the rest of Iraq, Kurdistan is peaceful and secure. As I am based here, the British Council is now working to allow Iraqi Arabs and Kurds to have the opportunity to take the Ielts test in Kurdistan."

In the next issue: business English exams.

Answer: I can understand this difficulty. Teachers fresh from training courses have probably examined lots of recent materials and so are likely to be disappointed if they find these are not available in the school. Students are less likely to be aware of the range available so are often less critical.

I would suggest that the way forward is to use your limited budget to get the best value for money. Instead of buying sets of course books, buy single copies of teachers’ resource books that permit photo-copying; buy good grammar reference books and dictionaries. Instead of issuing students with course books, issue them with folders in which they can collect their worksheets and their notes.

Plan time in the working week when teachers can meet to devise materials. There are wonderful free resources on the Internet that your teachers can access to help them build up files of materials for the library. I have listed some in the Resources section below. Have training sessions to help teachers gain confidence in themselves as a classroom resource. They can use their personal experiences as wonderful topic material for their classes: my first day at school; what I usually do to celebrate my birthday; my favourite food/books/music. If the teachers share their experience with their students, the students have a real sense of learning living English. Of course it is wonderful to have all the latest materials but with modern technology and a creative approach, you can manage very well without them.

Do you have any questions or issues that you just can't seem to find the answers to? Ask them here. Any dilemmas that you need help solving? This is the place. Each month, we’ll post them here, and then do our best to answer them.

This site has a wealth of questionnaires organized by topic that be used for conversation, debate and structure practice: http://iteslj.org/questions/

Find lesson plans, authentic resources, tips and articles here: http://www.e-mesh.com/

This teacher’s site has a free bingo card generator. Text and picture bingo cards can be made in a few minutes.: http://www.simonandrews.net/bingo/

Plenty of free materials here on a wide range of topics: http://www.eslflow.com/

This section of the British Council’s site has plenty of English language quizzes: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/quizzes.shtml#topics

Dominican Republic: June 23 - 24
Annual conference for teachers 2005
Contact by email: idiomas@icda.edu.do
Website: http://www.icda.edu.do/

South Korea: 24 – 25 June
The Korea association of teachers of English (KATE) 2005 International Conference
Contact by email: juniloh@pknu.ac.kr
Website: http://www.kate.or.kr/main/conference/2005/

Visit the following link for step by step instructions:

http://www.eslemployment.com/posting-help.htm

Answer: China