English As A Second/Foreign Language

My experience as a teacher and teacher-trainer in the United States and my assignments in many parts of the world where I have had the good fortune to work with interested, devoted teachers and prospective teachers have reaffirmed my belief that teachers everywhere share the same concerns. With only slight variations because of factors which may prevail in a local situation, teachers voice similar doubts and hopes. Teachers who are not native English speakers have misgivings about their linguistic competence. Native English speakers who do not know the language of their students wonder whether they can nevertheless teach effectively. Teachers everywhere are uneasy about controversies over current linguistic theories and about the realistic contributions linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, or other sciences can make to language learning and teaching. They are deeply concerned about keeping abreast of the "best," most "modern" methods of teaching, about the attention being given in the literature to individualized instruction and to performance objectives, about tests and grades, about homework, about uninterested pupils, and about "gifted" or "slow" pupils. All of them are strikingly similar in that they want to become more effective teachers. Non-native and native English speakers alike express the hope that they can develop communicative competence in their pupils despite what some consider their own linguistic limitations. They want to motivate their students so that these will find language learning a pleasurable, successful activity. They are deeply aware of the fact that they can help their students or their community and country better fulfill their needs or their aspirations by providing another medium for communicating with neighbors near and far. This Guide is dedicated to all those devoted teachers and to my students at the University whose questions and concerns have forced me to focus attention on the multiplicity of elements in the process of teaching and learning a language. It is designed for prospective teachers of English and also for experienced teachers who may find pleasure in the confirmation of some of the techniques they have undoubtedly been using. While bringing some current theories to the attention of teachers and other interested persons, the Guide will state in as many ways as possible that the real issue is not "modern" versus "traditional" teaching, but more efficient, more effective, or more stimulating learning. Such learning will result not only from the knowledge of various, alternative theories which the teacher may bring to bear on the solution of learning problems. It will stem also from the teacher's conviction that successful language teaching is a judicious blend of science and art—art which only the teacher can provide through his enthusiasm for his subject, his interest in his students, his creative use of the environment and of the materials at his disposal. This Guide has been written for use both where English must be learned as a second language—that is, as the major language spoken in the community or the language of instruction in the schools—or where English is taught as a foreign language. While such factors as motivation, pace, and priorities will differ, the principles underlying learning will bear understandable similarities. After all, in both situations we are attempting to add a new mode of communication to human beings who possess similar innate physical, mental, and even psychological capabilities. Adaptations for special situations are treated more fully in Chapter VI. I have confined myself to what I call "minimum" essentials, written in language that lay people would understand. This has been done because increased interest in the English language throughout the world and special situations within the United States and Great Britain often make it necessary for teachers or even lay people without a special background in education and in related subjects to start teaching with little or no preparation or orientation. -Mary Finocchiaro