English Teachers Help Adult Students Realize Their Goals
English speakers hold many advantages in our chaotic world today. Millions of people, born in places where their mothers spoke other languages, have chosen to Learn English .
Why? Because speaking English still opens more doors in 2009. For better or for worse, knowing English makes life easier and better. For instance, the ability to Speak English allows individuals to communicate with millions of other people from around the world. It’s also the official language of 51 countries, the dominant business language, and provides entrance to an emerging 21st century global culture. It has also helped Europe unite as millions Speak English as a second, third, or fourth language. Some linguists believe that there may be more people who Speak English as an additional language than native speakers! Strange, eh?
This popularity has also made our language a target around the world. Some globalization critics and ethnic nationalists, especially in smaller countries, attack English as subverting national and group identities. Other critics raise questions about social justice. English speakers tend to be the more educated, more affluent, and more successful individuals in several developing – and developed – countries. This connection between speaking English and holding power worries some observers.
Ironically, many English teachers and other English language professionals who work abroad share these concerns. Are English language learners just seeking worldly success, money, status, or an international spouse? Isn’t this elitist? Are English teachers helping a small minority and hurting the larger majority? Should English teachers feel guilty?
I’d prefer to believe that teaching English helps individuals choose from a wider menu of life options. English can be seen on television and billboards, heard on the radio, and read, seen and heard on the internet! The internet, I’d suggest, has provided users with an exceptional amount of freedom to grow, explore, and learn. Freedom still sounds like a good word.
You can find many examples of English in advertisements in non-English speaking countries for the same reasons. Modern technological products and companies, such as LG, advertise in Europe in English their message that “Life is Good”. The clear implication is that buying their LG product makes “Life Good” and as does speaking English.. Hence, English has also become a positive symbol of modernism and stylish consumerism. After all, LG is a Korean company!
As English teachers and tutors, we need to carefully assess the full range of aspirations and skills that our students as we choose and develop materials. But assessing does not mean judging them! A teacher should support the legal goals of their students. Student goals are often quite practical, earthly, and even instrumental. We teach skills, idioms, and vocabulary; we shouldn’t judge their life goals or careers.
Adult students – whether maids, nurses, mechanics, managers, tour guides, or doctors – see our language as an instrument to some other purpose. That’s fine. If our students need a certain score on a standardized exam (TOEFL, TOEIC, citizenship), we need to choose appropriate materials to meet their immediate goals – including active skills like speaking and writing. Some students want to Learn English to work in a hotel, move abroad, marry a foreigner, or change careers. Fine. Our duty as teachers and tutors is help students learn our crazy, confusing, and often misspelled language..
Bottomline: Adopting a “live and let live” attitude toward student goals and motives is more sensible, humane, and compassionate. English, an optional language for a majority of the globe, remains a smart choice for millions of adults.
Speaking English opens many doors. Naturally, some doors seem more attractive or honorable than other to me. Yet other doors seem more attractive, necessary, or honorable to others. Live and let live.
About the Author
Eric H. Roth teaches English in Los Angeles at an elite private university. He has previously taught English and writing to immigrants, refugees, and college students from over 50 countries. He is also the co-author of Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics, an English as a Second Language textbook to improve speaking skills. (Free chapters can be found at http://www.CompellingConversations.com)
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