Writing Feedback / A reflective essay on teaching English as second langauge [3]

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A reflective essay on teaching English as second langauge

The English language is considered the language of power in Pakistan and yet since the day of foundation of Pakistan a huge population of the country lack the opportunity of using it. The field of English language teaching in Pakistan has always gone through different problems. These problems have affected teachers as well as students. The key factors that have prevented the growth of English language speakers in the country are the lack of awareness of the required skills for English language teachers, the exploitation of the businessmen, and the lack of a TESL course at intermediate degree level.

Despite the fact that English language is taught at the very beginning of the educational career of children at schools in Pakistan, the level of positive outcome is extremely unsatisfactory after all years of struggle due to lack of awareness of a special course in the field by teachers. Most teachers that apply for a job at schools are untrained in the field of teaching English or TESL despite the fact that their own spoken and written language is at a good level. It is due to the fact that they start their career at intermediate level and nobody guides them to take a TESL course. As a result, students fail to develop a strong background in the English language. The parts of language skills they fail to gain are writing and speaking skills. In addition, Listening and reading skills are also very unstable as they are mostly exposed to an artificial language and not to the authentic language that they are supposed to use in their daily life.

The exploitation of unstable economic circumstances of teachers and the lack of awareness of students about the standards of language teaching by opportunist business people play a vital role in unsatisfactory teaching and learning outcome of English. Today, in every city of Pakistan, one can easily find private English language institutions that have low standards of language teachers and language teaching practices. Most of these institutions hire untrained teachers in order to make more money by paying low wages as certified teachers demand a standard wage as per their qualification and prior teaching experience. As a result of this policy of the businesses, students who have lack of awareness of the standards of English language teaching fall prey to the slogans of these institutions and fail to achieve success in language learning. At this point most of them give up on learning English language and consider their failure a lack of their competence.

An inclusion of a course of TESL at Intermediate degree rather than providing it at Masters level can solve the problems of the language teaching field in many ways. Firstly, it is a common practice of small schools to hire candidates for the post of teaching with just an intermediate degree. At that level they are unaware of the practices of their language teaching needs which results in their own lack of development. A course of TESL would equip them with all the basic skills for their effective future teaching practices. Secondly, it would help students to have a fruitful learning experience from trained language teachers. Students are unaware of their needs at the beginning of their educational career. This natural lack of awareness of students would not harm their learning process if they already have well trained teachers. Thirdly, the occupation of language teaching will develop a positive reputation throughout the country at both public and private institutions. The low standard teaching practices by private and public institutions have developed a negative thought among students. Most students are informed by their companions about their former negative experience at language institutions and recommend them to self-study the language. This approach leaves critical gaps in the language learning which takes considerable amount of time to fill in due to fossilised habits. The employment of right practices of language teaching will help them re -establish their authentic reputation.

In conclusion, the lack of awareness and the economic exploitation can be prevented by adding a TESL course at the intermediate degree level in the educational system of Pakistan. Not only would this step solve these problems but it would also open the doors of opportunity for many future teachers. It would help them explore the history of the field of language teaching once they have achieved the current knowledge of the field and might play a key role in building the field within the state and at international level.