In Quest of an Ideal Elt Qualification (Review Completed - Accepted)
Viewing the growing demands of ELT practitioners for high-level English language teaching (HELT) and low-level English language teaching (LELT) in native as well as non-native countries, the number of ELT courses is outnumbering day by day. Unlike yesteryears, we are privileged today with a number of ELT courses such as TESOL, ESOL, TESL, TEFL, TEAL, DELTA, CELTA, and many others at certificate, diploma, master, and PhD level. But these outnumbering courses (with somewhat varied curricula) have flummoxed both ELT employers and employees so much that a lack of unanimity has surfaced in terms of recognizing an ideal ELT qualification vis-à-vis an ELT course. Not only the current ELT practitioners are apprehensive viewing the gap between their own qualifications and the desirable qualifications set by the recruiters nowadays; but also aspiring ELT practitioners are confused in choosing an ideal ELT course which could meet the ongoing eligibility criteria for ELT. Hence, the paper limited its scope by setting three objectives: (i) exploring ideal qualifications for ELT practitioners (ii) exploring the availability of internationally recognized ELT courses in recognized universities, and (iii) exploring the challenges associated with ideal ELT qualifications. Document analysis was used as the sole data gathering instrument by eliciting required data from online and offline archival artifacts (documents). The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings of the study revealed ‘MA/PhD in Applied Linguistics in conjunction with TESOL’ as the most demanding qualification for HELT and ‘Trinity Dip-TESOL or DELTA/CELTA’ for LELT. Finally, the paper recommends apposite measures to counteract the challenges associated with ideal ELT qualifications
Keywords: ELT practitioner, HELT, Ideal qualification, LELT, TESOL, and Challenges