Every month or so, we here at esl-lounge will forward a topic for discussion by you - the site's users. This will be a topic or relevance and importance to all ESL teachers worldwide.

On this page, you will find the 'current' topic for discussion and all the old months' letters are archived away. Go to this page to see old topics which we have discussed.

So here are the current subjects for discussion:

What are some of the best ways in which we can improve our lesson preparation?

and

What do you think about the position of English as a world language?

We also have a front page poll on the first topic, so go and participate!

Whatever your opinion, send it in here. The e-mail entry is optional but do include your name so I can credit you with your own opinion!

What are some of the best ways in which we can improve our lesson preparation?

As a newish teacher of only 12 months TEFL service, I obviously have a lot to learn and wouldn't presume to lecture. However, in this age of computerised every-damn-thing, I feel it may be worth sharing this observation. I used to spend hours sitting at my computer, supposedly planning, but actually just 'computing', and being distracted by all the gizmos and whatnots that come bundled with our type-writers these days.

Recently I started planning on my feet, using my brain rather than my fingers. This may sound obvious, but if you're anything like me and have spent far too many hours on a computer over the past 2 decades, you'll agree it's horribly easy to lose hours tip-tapping away and forget the actual purpose of PLANNING, i.e. preparing to facilitate a learning session for a room full of people.

This problem is exacerbated by training institutions who slavishly insist on standardised, uber-detailed, word-processed lesson-plans. Typing is not planning, but it can feel like it is.
dan mcardle

To improve lesson plans, we need to keep our eyes on both what the student needs and what they paid for. As a school manager, it would be crazy for me to ignore the course material and fail to complete the material. You may teach the material in a lively and vibrant manner and still finish it, all the while planning diversions away from the book to keep the students supplied with current material. The students, more often than not, the parents of the student, pay to improve their English, this is true. However, many will evaluate their progress by how much of the course material they have mastered. You really can have it both ways, improve their English and use a book. Preparation will make even the most boring text come to life.
Dale C

To improve lesson plans, we need to include more information to our students of one subject instead of less information for many subjects. Providing them the tools to look for information in books or web pages, and modeling in them the "how to learn more" of any subject using one of the subject learning with steps.
Diana

One of the most important ways in which we can be better lesson preparers and therefore better teachers is to know our students better. Actually know them as people rather than just objects to instruct. Once we start to know them as people, the materials that we use with them in the classroom and the lessons we prepare for them will be so much the better.

I began teaching only a few years ago and, like most teachers, opened the book at the next page and did whichever material, whichever lesson was there waiting for me. This would be irrespective of whether I had a young teen class of girls wanting to talk about Ricky Martin or a class of Japanese Air Conditioning Salesmen wanting to discuss sales technique. If Unit Four was about saving the tiger in Kashmir, that's what we did.

After a year or two, I realised I wasn't getting the most out of my students or of my teaching time and now I prefer to talk about Ricky Martin or air conditioning. We must all remember one very important thing. Students usually walk into a school and say "I want to learn/improve my English." What they do NOT say is "I want to complete Headway Intermediate" or whatever other coursebook you have the misfortune to be saddled with.

Adapting materials to students is a major part of ESL that is still undervalued or even ignored today and must be tackled. Too often, the problem is that schools are run too much like businesses and coursebooks have to be taught, even to the extreme that they have to be finished, otherwise the customers, sorry the students, in the mind of the school owner, "aren't getting what they paid for". As I stated before, what they paid for was to LEARN ENGLISH. Are we losing sight of that??
Richard Todd, Athens

Over the years I have discovered that in preparing lessons I should keep in mind that each student is an unique learner, and needs to be treated as such. In a learning situation the student is the most important component.Therefore I should take care to see that in all lessons that I prepare ,there is flexibility to modify the course according to the needs of the students.
shahnaaz

I don't think it is only enough to find sites like this and to find materials. Your materials need to be right for your students - for their interests and for their age group and for their level. So I think the internet can help you to a certain extent but it is not everything and you should rely more on the knowledge that you have of your students.

I think realia is important too - especially if you are teaching a group of students who then want to go and live in an English-speaking country. It can be bus timetables, restaurant menus, pizza take away menus, car hire company literature, etc. Anything with the target language on it being used in an authentic way.
Teresa, Bogota, Colombia

What do you think about the position of English as a world language?

There is no denying the fact that the English language is the global langugage spoken by a great deal more people the the native speakers of the language. Your being a native or non-native speaker doesn't matter much anymore. This language is used for communication, not for flaunting your accent. As long as someone can speak passable English, it is fine. Native speakers mustn't look down on those who speak their language sometimes errorously.
Victor Ambrose

I think that English language can be put at the first place in world. I think that most people prefer to learn it as second language. Many sciences are written in English. And so there are thousands of cite which written in English. It is my second language after Arabic. And I find it very interesting and I adore the English literature. I think that Shakespeare is an important reason of its spread all over the world.
ahmed

I am a half British half French English teacher who lives in Paris. I love the English language and its literature and am fully conscious of its importance in the world. What really annoys me though is the way in which people assume you speak English, regardless of where you are or what language you are speaking at that instant. I mean for example all the tourists who walk up to you and ask in English where the Louvre or Notre Dame is. It is rude to assume that the other person speaks English without even bothering to ask them if they do. I tend to answer that I do not speak English ( which implies that I WON'T speak the language to someone who can't even be bothered to learn how to say hello in French)... Far more annoying is the way in which waiters and museum employees assume that if you are not French you are too thick to know the language: my boyfriend is Spanish and we speak Spanish when we are together. Every single time, the waiters will address us in English! It is extremely rude! In conclusion, I just wanted to say that it is true that English is an important language, that 1/7th of the world's population does speak it however it is important to remember that other languages do exist and even if it helps to speak English, it is not compulsory and people should not assume it is the only language there is.
Claudine

The idea of English as a world language is very good. As in my country; Malaysia, the education system in now slighty change to use English in critical subject which are mathematics and science including physic, chemistry and biology. So, I think that the idea can be achieved and nothing impossible untill we try it. We have to make an effort towards it.

Together we can. By the way, now I am learning TESL and I am going to be a future teacher.I really want this idea to become a reality.
Muhd Hanin

On the topic of English as a world language, I do not agree that by measure of convenience, imperialism, or otherwise that English should be relegated to status of "the" world's language. If such were to be so, then soon enough, there would be even more dialects of English than exist now. Language depicts one's culture, and in a perfect world, we'd make an effort to steep ourselves in as many as possible..including effective strategies for hearing impaired and brain-injured individuals. They need language too.
Jennifer Cerron

I think that English is nowadays the dominant language in the world, and has been improving during all the 20th century. But I'm not sure that this language will continue to keep its rank, for few reasons:
- the economic development of China will become also cultural when this country will be the first economy (in a few decades maybe)of the world. Maybe also the same for India (half world population for the two)
- The growth of Latin languages, especially in Latin America, Europe, Africa but in USA itself. Maybe one day Spanish will be recognised as one of the 2 America's languages with English
- the anti-American feeling in Arabic countries
- the development of new technologies of direct translations in the next decades

So, I think English is now absolutely necessary, but I think in the future it will be one important language between other more spoken
fabb

In a perfect world, it would be marvellous to have the choice as to what the future international language would be, but unfortunately for both us English teachers and language planners all over the world, things are not that simple.

It is both economic power and military power that dictates the ascendancy or otherwise of a language. To suggest otherwise, such as the inherent simplicity of a language (esperanto anyone?) or its previous strength (err, Latin??), is a fallacy. Latin was powerful because of the Roman Empire. Ancient Greek was powerful because of the Greek Empire. French became powerful in the last two or three hundred years because of their increasing power globally. Conversely, where is French now in the international league of languages?? Languishing miserably are two words that come to mind! French power in the world since being kicked out of North Africa in the 1950's and 1960's has been on the wane and this is reflected in the diminishing importance of la langue francais.

And so to English. Which has had the double whammy advantage of two hundred years of the British Empire which put it in a position of strength. And then the United States has taken up the baton and gone on from there, changing both grammar and vocabulary but still increasing the domination of a language which is still very much English.

And my point is?? We therefore have to look to the world of politics for our answers. Is China going to become a true super power within fifty years? Possible. Will Spanish "take over" in North America leading both Americas to become Spanish-speaking? Possible but less so. Our answers, though, to the question raised come from well outside the fields of ESL and Linguistics.
Caroline Hinds, Toronto

First of all, I would like to say that English is a beautiful language and I like it very much.

Secondly, English is the world's No.1 widely-used language as it has a remarkable number of vocabulary i.e. it has over 500,000 words excluding half a million of scientific and technical terms. Moreover, one out of seven people speaks English around the world and it is the native language of over 400 million people. About 50% of the world's books are written in English and 75% of messages are sent in English.

Over 90% of all the information stored in computer all over the world is in English.Everywhere, English is used so if one knows English well, one can travel around the world.Though French and German are widely-used in Europe and Spanish in Latin America, one can still communicate if one knows English well. However, nowadays, Chinese language is taking the place of English gradually, especially in Asia. Therefore, English, though still a dominant language in Asia, I think Chinese will have become the most popular language by the year 2050.

But, no doubt, English will still be the most spoken language in the other parts of the world. That is what I think about the position of English as a world language.
Khin May Hlyan, Myanmar, teaching in Thailand