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Teachers
Whether we call ourselves ESL teachers, EFL instructors or anything in-between, all who earn their living presenting the English language to those who do not speak it natively share one central concern: a respect for the value of knowledge. We are “people” people whose calling is to make the world a better place by fostering communication across linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic divides – ones we see as about two inches tall, easily stepped over and definitely not very threatening. The way we see it, language is the vehicle, friendship, fellowship and understanding the ultimate destination. All humans speak at least one language effortlessly, while many in this world struggle all their lives to bridge the communication gap which naturally arises when we wish to interact with those for whom that language is something other than the one we ourselves grew up speaking.
The main difficulty TESOL professionals face is ignorance: ignorance of the ways in which an individual’s first language can color her or his window on the world, ignorance of how to make oneself understood by someone who does not share the same first language and, perhaps most fundamentally of all, ignorance of the urgent need for all human beings to treat each other with respect – even, dare I say it, with love – no matter what languages each of us does or does not command. Inside and outside the classroom, our most basic mission is therefore to act as conduits through which those who do not share a common language may communicate. ESL teachers have no stake in what is communicated, beyond our fervent hope that the message by loving, rather than hateful; instead, we show our students how to make themselves understood using whichever linguistic resources will get the job done in whatever situations they may find themselves wishing to communicate. Sometimes this actually means they are better off speaking their own languages; at other times, they may need to use English to ensure their voices can be heard. This approach may differ in its emphasis from what you might imagine an English teacher’s main goal to be in that while a merely good ESL teacher might love the English language first and foremost, a truly great one values all languages of the world equally. This kind of teacher, while he or she might not have a degree in formal linguistics, is a perpetual student of how humans communicate, and a “global soul” in Pico Iyer’s sense, as spelled out in his 2001 book: The Global Soul: Jetlag, Shopping Malls and the Search for Home.
That’s why an ESL teacher’s home is always wherever his students’ hearts are, his primary concern: to equip them with whatever resources they will need to make themselves understood by English speakers, be they “native speakers:” or – far more numerous in today’s world – those who, like they have, learned English after already mastering some other tongue.
The bottom line is that a good ESL teacher is a good person first, as well as an able instructor of the English language, intimately familiar with how the language works and what is tricky about it from the point of view of one who has not grown up speaking it. So, if you’re asking yourself: Should I hire this person, think as much about who the person in front of you really is, and only then consider what they know about English. I don’t know about you, but I would rather learn a new language from a kind, supportive person who knows most, but not all of the “facts” about the language than from someone striving to cast himself as a knowitall. An ESL teacher should have his or her ego firmly under control at all times. It is the students, after all, who should have the most to say for it is they who are just learning to talk all over again.
Resources for ESL Teachers
Here is where you will find this site’s downloadable “easter eggs” – self-contained files which you may add to your growing library of language-teaching resources, so long as you site where they came from and adapt them to the specific needs and purposes you have for the specific class in which you intend to use them. Let’s repeat that: Please make sure you tailor these resources to your own needs, and those of your students, rather than just plugging them in wherever they seem like they might fit.
Some of these files aren’t even lessons. Instead, they offer insights or pointers to OTHER resources for you – ones designed to make you a happier, more fulfilled and more effective teacher. Since I work on a PC, most of what you find here will have been created within a Windows environment; however, Mac users and others should be able to make use of these materials as well. If not, please contact me immediately so that I can get right on fixing the problem.
Without further ado, then, here are my current resources for other ESL and EFL teachers…
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