maybe I am not reading this properly but do foreign students not come here to learn english from a native english speaker? If I went to spain to learn spanish, I would want a native spanish speaker as a teacher

@ Deabhla…you hit the nail on the head!

Quite a few non-native “English” teachers cannot even speak English properly, let alone teach it. I should know I have taught English in Spain and I now live in Istanbul (wait…does that qualify me under this scheme??) and I have turned down several positions because of the poor English standards in the particular school. I sat in to observe on one class and the teacher was trying to convince everyone that potato was spelt with an “e”!!!

When I learnt Spanish in Spain I went to a school where they refused to talk in any language but Spanish and if you got caught speaking your own tongue in the school you got it in the neck! At first it was hard but after 2 weeks or so, I got used to it and living in a Spanish woman’s home (she had no English) also helped.

This is not a exchange program, thousands of unemployed irish people have Tefl qualification to teach English therefore how does this benefit us. Regarding encouraging students to come here, tougher legislation is in place for student visa program and a number of English institutes closed this year leaving students with no refund or accommodation. So they need to clean up the mess here before they try to showcase Ireland as study English destination.

It does seem like an odd idea, I imagine the thinking is, if the teachers live and work here for say, a year, and enjoy the experience, they might be more enthusiastic about recommending Ireland to their students on their return home.

Apologies…Dearbhla…

I think it’s quite a good idea. If people here are complaining about going abroad and seeing that English teachers are, sometimes, not well prepared, can you think of a better opportunity to improve than living and working in an English speaking country?!