Anyone with an English Language and Literature Degree

[AbdoRinbo]

Also, I remember in High school and college acting in plays was one of my favorites.

Oh my . . . so you're one of those people who wants to become a teacher because you had such a fun time when you were in high school? You might want to reconsider, for your own sake.

[alidif]

You can teach with a BA. You just have to go for a few education classes so you can become certified to teach. A BA is a more intensive degree, so once you get certified to teach, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a teaching position. You can get a BSE with a focus in English, but you won't have a very stong English background compared to the background of someone with a BA. There are also some universities that offer BA with certification options. It is probably easier to acquire your BA first and get your certification through the alternate route. The alternate route is available only to individuals who already possess a bachelor's degree. Good Luck.

[Shea]

Ok, I'll have to keep on searching. I can't stand policies :x they just cause me mass confusion. Anyway, my main concern today is trying to add the classes I need as people start dropping them. (I also hate leaving things up to chance. Isn't that somewhat of a paradox?)

Abdo, actually, I've had more fun in college with books than in high school, I just want to teach because I'm more interested in books than anything else.

[leonthepupil]

Hi ,Everybody!!
I major in Chemistry which turned out to be a bad choice.I like Literature very much so i choose Chinese as my second major in my university as English Departments here mostly focus on linguistics.At first I loved to read a lot of foreign novels which are all in Chinese versions.Later i realise i have to read the original book,so i started to read English books.It's not easy and goes very slow,but i do have fun.Especially when i go with both versions.
I remember once i read the Wuthering Heights,the name of Heathcliff means nothing when translated into chinese,so when i turned back to the original book ,i was led to a deeper understanding of the cold environment and Heathcliff's character.It's very simple to you guys,but to me,it means a lot.
I loved the comparative literature course in my second grade.I even thought of having my postgraduate course on it.Although things don't go as i wish ,i still hope someday i will have a chance to study that .Sometimes i think my experience of reading English books are funny as my background is quite different.
Oh,by the way,i am definitely not obliged to read books.Literature provides me a space to think and to imagine,which offers me a lot of support in the chaotic world.

[fayefaye]

shea, i really hope u do get ur phD, because i am still in highschool and hardly any of the teachers bothered to get more than a BA, and so few of them know what they're talking about it's ridiculous. i can't believe it-it seems like half the ppl on this forum r studying to be teachers, or studying lit. i don't do lit, though i wish i did; i do english (this means i study books as well as junk like tv drama-and then have to write essays on them), because i thought it would be more interesting, but it turns out i was dead WRONG.

anyway, last semester i got a C on my exam, so does that mean u can help me with english? roll wink

[Sindhu]

I have my PH.D in English Literature and I've been teaching at the MA level for five years. I'm from India and neither I nor my students are native speakers of English. I've never felt that to be a disadvantage though, if anything it has only seemed to make for more interest and effort. While I HATE the inevitable red-tapism associated with academics, I have NEVER been bored by the actual learning or teaching of literature. Maybe I've just been lucky and had great teachers and great students,but on the whole it has been a marvellous adventure. Of course I would be very unfulfilled if I had restricted my involvement with literature to purely professional activity. But no one eer said teaching means you have to confine yourself to that!

[Shea]

Luckily, I got past all the red tape and am thoroughly enjoying my classes, (especially now, that I got past Whitman, understand his work, don't like it) The first competant advisor I was able to see agreed that it was a good idea to for me to teach at the high school level first and then move on to my masters and PhD (that's what she did). But she said that teaching high school, although more work, was a lot more fun than teaching college. You get to know your students better, you see them more often, etc... Have you taught in an American high school Sindhu? What do you think?

[crisaor]

No, I'm not. I don't study english literature (but with the way things are going, maybe I'll start literature in a little while), and I'm not an englishman studying literature.

[Sindhu]

Have you taught in an American high school Sindhu? What do you think?

No, I've worked only in India and only at the college level. But I rather think the college system in India is different from the USA or UK systems in the sense that in involves more regular teaching hours, compulsory classes etc, even at the PG level. So there's been no question of not seeing my students regularly, it's minimum three hours five days a week as a group apart from individual sessions.

[KLO]

Technically, I was a student of American Literature, but I studied all English-language literatures. I have my Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, and I am currently teaching part-time at various colleges near my home.

I love teaching literature. However, as a part-time instructor, I often am forced to teach composition, which is mostly boring and mind-numbing. Recently, I have had the chance to teach World Literature surveys and upper level American Literature surveys, and these classes completely make up for all of the composition courses. They are fun, and they allow me to use my expertise.

I refuse to teach at a lower level than college because, as several people have already noted, the bureaucracy in high schools is totally unreasonable. Especially here in the Southern US, the list of books that cannot be taught in public schools is so long that I don't know what I could possibly teach! When Steinbeck became an unacceptable author, I gave up any consideration of teaching at the high school level!

[Rotty1021]

KLO, I am interested in earning a PhD for personal reasons, and don't want to teach professionally. (I want to be a psychotherapist). Could you tell me if programs accept students that don't want to be academics? Thanks.

[KLO]

Hi, Rotty1021.

I believe that most doctoral programs will accept you, no matter what you want to do. Some of the Ivy League schools or private universities may have preferences for Academics, but at most of the state universities, they want anyone who is interested in literature, even if they do not plan to teach.

There is one catch for some programs, though. For example, the University of South Carolina would not admit me unless they could give me a teaching assistanceship. I needed the money and I wanted to teach, so this was not a problem for me. However, I had also applied to Ohio, and they admitted me but told me I could apply for a teaching assistanceship after my first term. So, I guess the lesson is that you have to contact the departments you might be interested in and ask what their policies for admission are.

Anyway, that's as much as I know for sure. I wish you the best of luck, and I think it's great that you wish to pursue a degree in this field even though your profession is in another area!

[Rotty1021]

I'll have no problem teaching during the course of my studies, it's just that once I complete the degree I don't want to do that. At the state university that I would like to attend (the University of Florida) I believe they offer a tuition waiver for students who become teaching assistants.

I want to get a lot of things out of life, and don't want to wind up down one road. Part of me earning the PhD is getting life experience by studying the philosophies and characters of writers, and this, I hope, will help with me performing psychotherapy.

By the way, how long did it take you to complete the PhD?

Thanks.

[KLO]

I sort of stormed through my degree. I finished my coursework in 3 semesters, my dissertation prospectus in 1 semester, and my dissertation in 3 more semesters. So, my whole degree took 3 and 1/2 years.

I wanted to move back to Texas, so that is why I took a full load every term at South Carolina for my 3 semesters of coursework. And luckily, my dissertation committee was willing to let me send them my chapters via e-mail and send responses back. Having to pay out-of-state tuition also inspired me to finish my dissertation as quickly as possible.

Most of the people I knew at SC and at UNT were averaging about 5 years for their Ph.D.s, but the national average is something like 7 years.

Anyway, good luck with U of F; it's a great school, and I bet you can find some really interesting philosophies there.

[Rotty1021]

Thanks for your good word. I have a while before I work towards my PhD, though, because I'm still in high school. I have a feeling that I'll complete my PhD quickly because when I study something I love (i.e. lit or psychology) I can storm through the material, working at an uncanny pace.

Once again, thanks for helping me out.

On a different note, does anybody at the high school level feel that the English programs in the public schools are a joke? I do, as we read no more than five novels per year and have lousy discussions on th stuff. Plus, the whole English program seems to be chock full of esoteric grammar. I am motivated about English; but it seems that as soon as we finish a story in class, I am the one doing all of the background readings on the author. This stuff never comes up in class. I also read very advanced stuff for my age. The reading comprehension tests say I have a college reading level.