stuck at a stage of EFL teacher profession

[sunrisenow]

I am 44 years old now and I've been teaching English as a foreign language for about 18 years so far. I've never been abroad but I meet native English speakers quite often here in Volgograd region, Russia and see that my English is quite good but there is very much to be improved. Now I'm mostly teaching in private and using the best job scheme possible to earn money for living. What is bad - it's the fact that I don't feel progressing in English now. It's a kind of special stage in my professional being that I do not know how to move further in my job field, how to progress. I work long hours and do not have much time for self-study to move without definite direction, without perfectly defined landmarks. I do not earn enough money to allow some cool course in teaching English, to start a postgraduation course to get a degree in Linguistics, to get a COOL certificate and to become more attractive at the TEFL/TESL market and I'm not a native speaker to be attractive for employers abroad.
I thought one of the ways out of the trap could be getting a friend among native English speakers, who had a similar problem in the past, could understand me and offer his/her professional support and advice of experienced person. Am I right? Could you help? Or is there any other ways to solve the problem which you could advise?

Al.

[eric_p_m]

Dear Sunrisenow,

Where do you primarily teach at nowadays? Have you considered teaching on-line?

Come by my on-line school and click on the green "Live Help" button to open a secure chat window with me, while I am working on-line. I would look forward to talking more to you. Otherwise, feel free to e-mail me.


Sincerely,


Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

[Graziela]

Hello!
I can understand what you are talking about. It is really hard to move up in the Teaching career in my country as well. I live in Brazil and coodinating positions are really rare!
As for improving your knowledge of the language itself, I would recommend taking an International exam, such as TOEFL or one of the Cambridge Certifications. (FCE, CAE)
I could really upgrade my English when I took First Certificate of English FCE in 2002. I studied for it during a whole year. I had classes and I did tons of practice tests. The result was: I passed and I got grade A.
Learn more about the certificates at:

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/index.html

And have some ideas for your lessons at my blog:

http://www.getenglishlessons.com

Best wishes,

Graziela