ESL Teachers Critiqued

Few professionals are at cross-roads as Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. Entangled in a web of controversy by researchers, and the demands of their learners and policy makers, all they can do is to concede to the fact that it is the piper who calls the tune.

As most learners of EFL still aspire to achieve the competence of a native speaker of English, adverts for EFL still carry the caption: MUST BE A NATIVE SPEAKER. This demand has fuelled the speculation that there are many ‘unqualified’ personnel with native accents, who are successfully doing business in the field of ESL/ESL at the expense of qualified personnel whose only handicap is that English is not their native language.

This, notwithstanding some researchers’ agreement that accents do not necessarily affect intelligibility and comprehensibility of the speaker.A small, but strong lobby of native English teachers are also claimed to be pushing for the socio-cultural norms, and values of an English speaking country, in the learning of English.

However, the market forces of supply and demand for ESL teachers have ensured that it is business as usual, whilst there is a raging debate as to whether ESL/EFL fall within the framework of a career or profession. With varying needs of language learners, it is argued, it is unrealistic to insist on universal qualifications for tutors when in some cases all learners need are a few phrases for use when on tour abroad.

Furthermore, it is possible that learners’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for language learning is motivated by the teachers’ communicative style.

As all this is going on, a number of scholars acknowledge the world wide growth of what some call World Englishes. In recognition of the outcrops of a variety of English dialects across the globe, they advocate for teaching of English in relation to the realities of the language’s current spread and use.

In the meantime, even as the demand for learning English grows, many questions still abound as to whether the future of ESL as a professional career is bright.