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Some people believe that EAL is more politically correct than ESL as it avoids the apparent assumption that English would always be the second language to be taught following one's native language, but defenders of the use of ESL point out that the expansion has always been "English as a second language", so that "second" here simply means secondary or subordinate, as explained in the article on Second languages.
The terms ESL, EFL, EAL, TESOL and TESL are all quite confusing to many inside and outside of the English teaching field. Compounding this frustration is that some of these terms are also the names of organizations, so one may not be sure if one is refering to the general concept of TESOL or the actual TESOL organization based in the United States.
There is an explanation of these acronyms at Language education.
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The average career for an ESL/EAL/EFL teacher in the private secotr is two years which is barely enough time to scratch the surface of such a complex field. Most teachers will only experience the private sector aspect of English teaching and leave frustrated.
Teacher training is also a big business and several certificates are available to purchase without ever having to set foot in a classroom.
Applied linguistics departments can be found in American universities, but in the UK they are rather scarce and even more so in Canada and the rest of the world.
In the UK, many language programs are administered by International House, a non-academic organization but connected to the British Embassy. Consequently, the average ESL/EFL/EAL teacher goes through the RSA/CELTA Certificate program which is administered through Cambridge University. This is an intensive 4 week course with many hours of actual teaching which is critiques until the learner has adopted teaching methods such as the "Test,Teach,Test Method" and the "Pre-Listening, Listening, Post-Listening Method."
However, in the US, most English teaching institutions are part of an American university. Therefore, the teachers need to have academic qualifications, usually a master's degree. In this training process, it usually takes 2 years for a potential teacher to take academic courses on pedagogy, linguistics and sociology. However, there is little actual teaching in comparison with the RSA/CELTA Ceritificate training.
In Asia, many private English school hire managers who know nothing about proper teacher training and simply look for a certificate with a gold stamp on it.
In the public sector, things are a little better; however, in Japan, where over 5000 native English speakers are working every year in the public eduction system, there are no requirements that one has to have an education degree or even a basic one month teaching certificate. In fact, one could think of the Japanese system as being a blend of the private and public sectors together since many public school English teachers are in fact actually hired by private companies.
simple:English as a foreign language
Issues
Teaching English is a multi-billion dollar business, and so the field is sometimes thought of as being divided between those who teach in the public sector and those who teach in the private sector. It is not uncommon for those who have taught in the private sector to be "type cast" and thus unable to advance into the public sector.
Applied Linguistics is the academic branch of EAL/ESL/EFL. Sometimes it is called the "grape nuts" of academia because like the cereal of the same name, it is often neither applied nor is it linguistics. This partly comes from the fundamental issue that there is no standard research methodology for the field, and thus it is not uncommon for supposedly academic research to in fact not be based in any standard empirical methodology. However, standard reseach methods are sometimes used from cognitive psychology or education.
There are significant differences between professional teacher training in the United States and the United Kingdom.See also
External links