“…That’s the simple theory behind i-to-i, Ireland’s top Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) specialists.”
Hmmm.
Any comments?
Quote from this article in today’s Derry Journal.
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I think the rest of the headline got truncated. It should read:
“Anyone who can speak English can teach English like crap”
Or perhaps “Anyone who can speak English (and has white skin) can get a poorly paid job teaching English, so long as they go to a country that’s so desperate for native speaking teachers that they’re willing to give a job to anyone (with white skin) that walks into their office with some sort of official looking certificate.”
Let’s try some similar ones for other professions, shall we?
“Anyone who can think can be a brain surgeon”
“Anyone who can kick can be a Premiership manager”
etc.
More sensibly, I think it is possible to make it into an accurate statement:
“Given a reasonably motivated group of adults, most native speakers can get a group of students through a level of Headway with the help of the teachers’ book and some photocopiables that other people have recommended them, though they may bore the students to death or lose their confidence by not being able to answer questions if they haven’t had any training”
That’s it.
Hmm, some logical inconsistency here, I reckon. For if it were true, that all native speakers can teach the language, then they wouldn’t need to do a crappy i-to-i course, would they?
No, what they should write is something like this: ‘Anybody who can speak English can be taught to teach it’.
PS: … which is not necessarily true. I have the proof in my staff-room (and I’m not coyly referring to myself, Alex).
“Anyone who can speak English (and is also a lying little tapeworm with no moral compass looking for an easy way to make money) can throw together a shoddy online English teaching course, dazzle the gullible with their shiny website and provide pointless online ‘training’ that is no replacement for a real teacher training course like a CELTA”
Yup, I had a bad day and I’m feeling particularly cynical tonight ;-)
I got angry at the newspaper and left this comment there:
As an well-qualified seasoned ELT professional I find the opening sentence of your article very insulting.
The ELT profession is just that, a profession and while I accept many people wish to do the job for travel purposes in the short term, look beyond those and you will find a vibrant profession full of well-qualified experienced teachers. Only the arrogance of the native English speaker could ever comprehend just how ridiculous the opening sentence of your article is. Speaking a language does not give you the immediate ability to stand up in front of a class students who do not speak your language nor deal with a different culture. There is so much more to it than and after years of training people ‘who speak English’ I can assure that it is not true – and if you feel so confident then please send me an email, I’ll happily provide you with a class of multi lingual class of beginners and enjoy myself while you struggle to get across to them that you’re merely saying ‘hello’.
Please note I am not commenting on the company here merely your opening statement – teaching English, like teaching anything requires whole deal more than just knowing your subject.
Since I presume from your opening that you must also believe that anyone who can write English can be a journalist, I look forward to writing my first article for you.