I started this blog writing about aerospace as the first subject of my profile’s list of interests. Unfortunately, for me, I listed linguistics as the second subject, because although linguistics in its basic form has long been an interest of mine, I quickly discovered that it does not have a basic form and greatly exceeded my academic abilities. I recently added Tom McArthur’s ‘The Oxford Companion to the English Language’ to my bookshelf and, if I dare to open it, I am lost within its wealth of knowledge for hours, just as I was with a earlier copy of Eric Partridge’s ‘Usage and Abusage’ (abusus non tollit usum) and numerous such works.
To find a topical language subject outside of academia, I decided to say something about English as a Second Language (ESL), without any attempt at prescriptivism ... and using less than 300 words.
Recently, I returned to Canada following many years teaching Business Studies to postgraduates in China, who were, hopefully, to be awarded scholarships to foreign universities. Not surprisingly, it was necessary to include a heavy dose of ESL within each course. I was presented with excellent students, and there was never any thought of using a stick, due to the attractive sight of the scholarship carrot.
Interestingly, the Chinese-produced exams were of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and my protests were always met with the pervasive, “This is how we always do it” response. I am sure that many expat teachers in China recognize this behaviour and often wonder why they had been presented with a little red book entitled ‘Foreign Experts Certificate’.
Equally, back in Canada, I had cause to visit some LINK ESL classes, and was astonished to discover that a major percentage of the teachers were immigrants from non-English speaking countries. According to the authorities, they had all passed a TESL teaching exam ... the oral part being undertaken by their foreign peers, it seemed. It was not surprising that many students could not understand the teachers.
I would welcome your views on this subject.
I would welcome your views on this subject.
If you were teaching ESL in China wouldn't it have been prudent to obtain copies of the EFL exams so you could prep your students for the test.
ReplyDeleteEducation administrators everywhere get locked into a structural straitjacket and can't see beyond it.
I suppose you could teach the students normal English usage while still getting them ready for the test.
On the contrary, the image of life in China may be that of austerity but, although true to a certain extent, things are different for the expat community.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I should correct your use of EFL and ESL (a mistake made continuously). EFL is taught to students who may need to use the language for various occasional reasons within their own country, usually for international business and, therefore, the emphasis is on basic communication — serious business, where fluent translation is needed, would use interpretation and translation professionals. On the other hand, ESL is taught to students who will emigrate to an English-speaking country and, therefore, would require a deeper understanding of the subject — this also applies to students, travelling overseas for extended further education, who should never be placed in a situation of requesting that professors speak more slowly, for example.
Confusion takes place when a few expat tourists who have not had any specific training as teachers of English, enter the teaching community.
Naturally, most of us took the situation quite seriously, were able to obtain some good language-teaching literature (for example, Oxford University Press published in Hong Kong) and taught a combination of EFL and ESL. Your comment regarding teaching students to simply pass the test reveals something that requires another discussion — simply put, Chinese students rarely fail an exam as it would reflect poorly on the school ... if you see what I mean.
Finally, although I understand your meaning, your use of the term "normal" to describe any language would not be understood by sociolinguistics professionals.
Oops, I realize that there is a covering the subject of ESL ... here!
ReplyDeleteTherefore, allow us to look at the two words, conqueror and ambitious. It is interesting to read that 'to conquer' something is viewed in China as only negative - in English it may also be negative as in, to conquer a country, but it could also be positive as in, to conquer a math test. The word ambitious could be negative in English as in, too ambitious, but otherwise, it is considered positive.