A Strategy to Improve Proficiency in English- The Language Camp

Abstract

If we allowed just one inadequate English teacher to teach in schools, there is a possibility that she would be cumulatively responsible for about 10,000 poor speakers of English by the end of her career. The figure is more grim if some of her low proficiency students slip in to become English teachers themselves. What about the influence of her students on their friends and their own children?

A growing phenomenon today is students who sign up for TESL courses not adequately proficient in English. They can communicate, but grammatical mistakes and inappropriate vocabulary and constructions are found in their spoken English. A question often asked of the TESL lecturer who intends to pass a weak student is, "Would you want your child to be taught by this teacher?"

We cannot expect perfection but we should prepare our teachers-to-be to inflict as little "damage" as possible. With the present situation, teacher trainers have to deal with proficiency as well as methodology.