Who Needs the English Language

When the teacher meets the student he should ask what his intention is because most often the student wants only to be able to function at the work place and deal with customers. Others want a more complete package and they will return to the language-learning environment year after year. There are others who need English to enter into a study program and others who would like to learn it for vacation purposes.

There are students out there who are earnestly interested in conversing in English but that means they have to accept the fact that conversing does not mean they have to learn the entire language nor should they feel they need a perfect syntax and pronunciation. Most often the teacher deals with the difficult learner who is among those that for some reason or other cannot assimilate language rules in order to make themselves better understood. Then there are students who are products of other language teaching systems that have not been able to teach them effectively or the system itself was too poorly structured.

There are many factors affecting the new language speaker and it is up to the teacher to talk about what kind of language the student wants to learn or if he would rather just have his emails corrected and learn how to reply briefly on the telephone. Speaking to the client helps to avoid needless hours in giving information that the student will not appreciate and might even conflict with his talk time. Most want to learn an additional language especially if it means getting a better job or being able to communicate better at the work place or with friends.