This
was the title of the opening plenary at the recent CamTESOL conference. The speaker was Richmond Stroupe and what
follows is a summary of his talk.
 |
| Richmond Stroupe |
The English
language is a source of economic opportunity for many of our learners. Nowadays, being able to speak English is seen
as a basic skill – a given, an expectation – rather than an advantage. As this trend continues, the age at which
users become proficient in the English language will decrease. It takes eight years for a language learner
to achieve proficiency, so children are beginning to learn at a younger
age. There is also a growing importance
placed on plural-lingualism. Many people
are learning multiple languages in different contexts. English language skill is just one skill in a
basket of skills that learners need as competitiveness in business increases.
English
is not enough anymore. English language
teachers often have to teach study and workplace skills too. Some questions we need to think about:
- How
do we empower our students?
- How
do we make them global citizens?
- How
do we bring these skills into our ELT classroom?
There
are many examples now where institutions are introducing ESP workshops and
short courses as part of their ELT programmes.
Skills covered might include:
- Negotiation
- Report
writing
- The
etiquette of meetings
- Social
English
- Collaboration
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Responsibility
- Critical
thinking
The
importance of the last one – critical thinking – cannot be underestimated. CT skills are extremely important and
teaching them shouldn’t be limited to high-level students only. We need to scaffold the skills back to make
them appropriate to the level and then develop them over time.
We can
teach many of these academic and workplace skills through task based learning
and group work, where the final product is a poster presentation for
example. Here, the teacher’s role is
facilitator rather than teacher.
We
also need to bring aspects of intercultural communicative competence, such as
flexibility, adaptability, interaction and respect, into our classrooms. This applies even if we are teaching in a
monolingual, mono-cultural setting. In
the global village we live in now, such homogenous groups rarely exist in the
workplace. We need to remember that
culture isn’t just what we see on the outside – we also need to teach a deeper
understanding of beliefs and behaviours.
Culture consists of:
- Beliefs
+
- Behaviours
+
- Artefacts
+
- Institutions
Integrated
language skills, such as those we teach in order for students to pass the TOEFL
exam, are key to equipping our students for the 21st century
workplace. This is the approach used all
the time in academia and business and we need to do it in our classrooms.
English
language teachers have a tremendous amount of responsibility!!
