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ESL /EFL

Each year, thousands of people travel to a foreign country on their way to  positions teaching English to the people of their host country. 

Often these   teachers wonder how to serve the needs of the students in their classes,   how to apply the ESL methods they have learned to the ESL/EFL environment  they find, and how to earn the respect and thanks of the people they will  teach.

This article is the result of two surveys conducted in Hungary and  China. Both surveys asked teachers and students who have worked with  American or other native-speaking English teachers to express a    consumer's view of what works and what doesn't when a person is a visiting teacher of their native language in another country.
 

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You will probably teach some classes you didn't anticipate

Before You Go

Learn non-American varieties of English, especially British. Students in   other countries are confronted with many forms of English.  Historically,  British English has usually been preferred. 

While this situation is certainly  no longer so clear, students now are exposed to teachers and materials  from at least North America, Britain, Hong Kong, Australia, and New   Zealand, and they are frustrated by instructors who correct what they    learned from another native speaker. 

As a minimum, instructors teaching  overseas need to be able to recognize the variant vocabulary,  pronunciation, and syntactic forms of British and American English.

Ideally, they should be able to help students master the written forms of   either major variety and should be familiar with the forms found in other  countries, as well.

Learn about your students' language and about common error patterns. The biggest advantage of the L1-speaking teacher over the native-speaking  teacher is that the L1-speaking teacher can quickly make a complex  grammatical point by a comparison to an L1 structure or by using L1  terms. 

The more you can learn about your students' language before you  arrive, the more effective you can be in the classroom (as well as in every  area of living).

Learn about the culture and about the educational system. 

It is crucial to  a good teaching experience to match your instruction with the expectations  of the school and with the needs of students.

 While this seems obvious,  some respondents commented that English-speaking teachers would not   prepare students for required exams or would fail to adapt their grading   system to the local system. 

The Chinese respondents, especially, felt that  the native-speaking teachers failed to modify their teaching to the Chinese  way of learning. Thus, it is necessary to find out as much as possible about   the kind of teaching, grading, etc. that you will encounter.

Respondents on  both surveys raised the issue of the attitude of English-speaking teachers towards the host culture. 

Prepare non-offensive materials to take or send. No matter where you   are going and no matter how much you think everything has been worked   out, you will probably teach some classes you didn't anticipate. You may   teach an entirely different set of classes. 

This must not deter you from   sending or taking teaching materials because depending on where you are going, you may find no easy access to photocopying, no slide projectors,   no books, or a wealth of completely unfamiliar materials. 

—How can you   prepare materials when you don't know what you'll teach? 

Take a lot of  good material. If you have a favorite set of materials, prepare to take or   send them with enough copies for a class. Take a large variety of   material. Students in most countries want to see American videos, too.

Some tapes of American TV shows are a good idea. Why did we say "non-offensive"? Some material is obvious: materials that depict sexually   explicit or violent acts are obvious. 

Many of our ESL materials assume students are in the U.S.  and want to live here. 

These can be offensive to students overseas who simply want to study the language. 

Materials that present an American  view of sensitive issues or that look critically at the points of views of    others may be equally offensive.

Teach diligently and explain methodology. A great deal of teaching  overseas is teacher-centered, and teachers are expected to plan each part of   the lesson thoroughly. Students and teachers responded negatively to what  were perceived as unplanned classes. 

  Conversation classes are particularly  likely to be viewed as just "talk." 

In China, when told that American class activities try to make learning fun, students and teachers asked "but when  do you learn?" Learning to them cannot be fun. You will probably want to   explain the pedagogical benefits of your methods, why you are playing a   game, etc.

Work within the system. This means, first of all, work within the   educational system of the country and consider the examination or   evaluation system in your teaching. 

No matter how you value American  English, if students are tested on British English, you will need to help  them with British forms.

No matter how much you value speaking, if  students are only tested through written exams, you will need to give  written English enough attention. 

Recognize that you are entering a place  where people have been teaching and learning EFL, and they have often   gone through rigorous training. 

Most work hard to keep abreast of   current methodology. Hence, it is a good idea to identify the EFL methods   used in the country and incorporate some into your teaching. 

If the  primary or only method of teaching is rote learning, students are used to  it and may consider it the only legitimate method. You may need to use a  bit of it (or at least have students use it on your materials) until you can   demonstrate that the other activities are producing better effects. Your L1  colleagues are a great source of knowledge in this area, and you can learn  a great deal from them.

This criticism of native-speaking  teachers is, we think, well deserved. We have seen several EFL teachers  who tried to show people in other countries the way to teach English. Even worse, are those who try to "show these people" how to live.

  Recognize your role as an outsider. 

As an outsider and foreigner, you are  going to be treated as different and special -- in both ways you will appreciate and ways you won't. 

On the good side, being an outsider allows  you to make mistakes in the language and culture--both in and out of the classroom. 

They won't expect you to know everything. It usually means   you can ask for help. Also, it has the added benefit that you won't have to   serve on committees, attend meetings, and do a lot of other work that  people have in their home countries at their home job. 

On the negative   side, you can't select the ways in which you'll be treated special. When  being an outsider is not to your advantage (like having to pay more than  other teachers), there will be nothing you can do about it. 

In your own culture, you're an adult, generally a responsible one. Overseas, you are a   young child with less of a knowledge about how to be a responsible adult   than a six-year old. 

Your assumptions about what a responsible adult is are   all wrong, and you have to get used to that and start learning how to grow  up in that culture. 

In the end, you will profit by expanding your ideas of what it means not only to be an adult, but to be human.

Don'ts

If you're not a trained TESL/TEFL teacher, don't go. 

The attribute most  frequently criticized in the Hungarian survey was a lack of training in  teaching English. 

One student put it baldly: "Sometimes they come only   because they can't find a proper job in their own country." 

In countries  where teaching is taken most seriously, lack of professional preparation is  noted and resented by both students and teachers as are the consequences.  

One comment summed up the criticism nicely: "Being native is not  enough." As professionals in TESL and TEFL, we should not encourage  untrained students and friends to go abroad as teachers.

Don't take a hidden agenda. A second theme that emerges as problematic  is that of people taking a hidden agenda. 

If your real goal is to convert  people, religiously or politically, or to establish business contacts, or do  research, your students and colleagues will probably resent your actions,  not consider you a true TEFL professional, and show a lack of trust in  other areas as well. You may even endanger the program you are working  for.

  Summary

Be prepared. Expect that you will be valued for your knowledge of the  language, culture, and customs of your English-speaking country, and do  whatever you can to enhance that knowledge before you go. 

Also, while  your teaching style may be different from that of your host country, the  differences may be valued. 

Above all, your enthusiasm for your students   and your collegiality with your colleagues will be appreciated.


Be humble. Do not assume that your methodology is better than that of   your hosts, that your training is more advanced, or that your are somehow  more privileged just because you are a native speaker or a citizen of a particular country.

Be flexible. No matter how much planning you do, you must expect the   unexpected when you teach overseas. 

Many of the problems that arise are  because you are in a foreign culture. On the other hand, teaching and   living overseas allows you to rethink who you are, and it is the crises that teach you the most. 

Rather than trying to avoid problems, try to accept the   challenge that each problem offers about what you will learn about the  culture, about teaching, or about yourself when the crisis is solved.

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