ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRADUATES’ JOB PREFERENCES: A CASE STUDY ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING CENTER TEACHERS

Abstract

The demands of English as an international language keep increasing along the time. Through time, the needs for learning English vary for different purposes. Then, the realization comes to the surface that not all groups of learners need to learn general English. Thus, the design of English courses is developed for specific purposes as they are best known as English for Specific Purpose (ESP). The needs for learning English in specific purpose enable English teachers to pose themselves in different challenges other than in formal education. This paper aims at investigating the motivation of some English Education Department graduates for working as English instructors at English courses. The qualitative data was obtained by conducting an interview to some English instructors in an English course in Yogyakarta. After analyzing the data, it was found that despite its challenges, some English Education graduates prefer to work in English courses to regular schools. With all privileges of working in an English course, some general motives underlie their working preferences. Among of the factors are flexible teaching situation, more chances for improving personal competence, higher salary and moderate career prospect.