Teaching English Abroad (Talk your way around the world!)
By Susan Griffith.
477 pages, 1999, USD 16.95, ISBN 1-85458-207-0
Book available from the publisher
Vacation Work Publications
9 Park End Street
Oxford OX1 1HJ
United Kingdom
Or from Amazon.com USA or from amazon.com UK

Reviewer Pat Brans is married to a language teacher and is friends with several people teaching English abroad. He lives in Grenoble.

Teaching English abroad is indeed an ambitious subject to cover in one book. Imagine providing adequate information on each of the major host countries - that is, those countries in which one would possibly consider going to teach English. Then imagine covering preparation details for all English-language countries - that is, those countries whose natives might be the target audience for this book.

Unfortunately, this book falls short of its ambitions.

Teaching English Abroad consists of three parts. The first part starts with a brief introduction, which is followed by sections on training, finding a job, preparation, and problems that might be encountered, such as culture shock, loneliness, etc. The second part, consisting of 345 pages, is a country by country guide covering all the continents, with the obvious exceptions of North America and Antarctica. The third part is six pages of appendices covering currency conversion rates, addresses of embassies in Washington and London, and locations of British Council Offices.

Much of the information in this book is of limited interest, and occasionally it is misleading. It is hard to believe that any one reader would be interested in reading through the lists of addresses and phone numbers of all the different training institutes, and all the different schools hiring English teachers. Even those readers who have zeroed in on one or two countries are likely to be misled.

To test for accuracy, I looked at the listings of schools in two European countries that I know well. The first problem I found was that a large number of schools I know are not listed. In one case, the only school listed for a city I happen to know very well is the one with the worst reputation among English teachers.

Anybody who has an idea of where he or she wants to go to teach would be far better served through a combination of Internet searches, scanning phone books, and calling international information.

A final criticism of Teaching English Abroad is that it is biased towards a British audience. This comes into play in the discussions on training and preparation, thus making the book less valuable for Americans seeking to teach English abroad.

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