Learners can therefore focus their efforts on learning English and on increasing their vocabulary through intensive and extensive listening and reading. They can forget about the TOEIC exam until they have the level of vocabulary that is going to give them the score that they need.
In al English speaking countries there is very large demand for adult ESL, in other words teaching adult immigrants who want to learn English. It always amazes me that the effort of helping immigrants learn English is concentrated on the classroom, as the preferred or often the only place where language learning can take place. I do not know what happens in other immigrant-receiving countries.
Governments and other organizations spend a fortune, (many hundreds of mil ions of dol ars in Canada alone) paying for adult ESL for immigrants. This goes overwhelmingly to classrooms where typical y 15 or more other adult ESL learners, and one native speaker, perform a variety of artificial tasks or hear theoretical explanations about English. Adult ESL is a huge industry where the teachers and immigrant service organizations are perceived by government as the principle "stake-holders," i.e. not the immigrants themselves.
Immigrants to English speaking countries live surrounded by English. English is on the TV, radio, newspapers, at libraries and bookstores, on buses, at community centres, on the Internet, on blogs, on podcasts, in popular music and at work. Why would we consider that the best place to learn English is in a classroom with mostly other non-native speakers? Why does the society not focus on how to utilize these vast language resources that surround the immigrants in a more efficient and flexible way? Why force the immigrants, after a hard day's work to come to a class?
Every effort to convince government offices here to look at what we are doing at The Linguist has been a failure. We have offered free trials with volunteer tutors. The answer is always no.
I understand the need for classrooms for children in the kindergarten to Grade 12 school system. It is partly a place to look after children while their parents work, and partly a place to teach some basic societal values. And the kids do learn something even if the learning process is very inefficient. They learn because when they are young they are pliable and even as teenagers many of them can be coerced into learning out of a concern for their future. Some, a minority, are genuinely interested in learning. (This also depends, not on the knowledge, nor teaching experience, but on the natural inspirational skil s of the teachers.) I even understand the role of the university, another inefficient place of learning. It is where the grade stamp is put on the output from the school system, making it easier for employers to find the people they want to come and work for them.
But adult ESL learners? They should be motivated to learn. With a little help they can be shown how to learn English very effectively on their own. If they are not motivated to learn English on their own, it is unlikely they wil achieve much in the classroom.
There is no doubt in my mind that much more could be achieved with much less money invested. This is not a prospect that sits wel with the immigration settlement industry. For some reason it also does not appeal to governments.
I was frustrated.
In the words of one immigrant to Canada, Humberto from Venezuela;
"Hi, Steve: I spent over 14 months studying English (ESL program) in a wel recognized Canadian school for adult learners. As I was a new immigrant to Canada, the government paid more than ten thousand dol ars for my whole English training. It was a waste of money for Canadian government and a waste of time for me. Even though I studied hard, it was impossible for me to achieve my main goal: speak English fluently. If this ESL program was supposed to help me become involved in Canadian society, it did not work out. When I finished the ESL program, the language barrier which had natural y erected itself was stil there as I was stil not able to communicate efficiently in English. Truth be told, I was not able to speak English at al . It was the most frustrating experience I have ever had. As you tel in your post, Canadian immigration office never asked me how successful my ESL training had been. It seemed to me that they did not care of anything but getting me in a school room attending an ESL school timetable. They did not care about the results of my ESL program. It was a complete waste of resources"
