Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Beginners and false beginners
One of the greatest weaknesses of secondary school
syllabuses is ambition: frequently they try to teach far more
than is possible in the time available. In general, in language
teaching, thorough teaching is more important than wide-
ranging teaching. This is so much the case that in at least one
country the secondary school language work improved
greatly once it was admitted that the goal was merely to
teach the primary school syllabus again, but effectively!
The secondary school language course, for one reason or
another, will necessarily be going over a lot of old ground, all
the time, because that is the only way of constantly
reinforcing the language which has already been learnt,
making it increasingly fluent. At the same time, it is a good
idea systematically to go back over the basic stages of the
language for all students, even if they should have covered
them in primary school. If no great difficulty emerges, very
little time needs to be spent; if some areas do give difficulty,
the revision will be valuable.
If English is being started in the secondary school, exactly
the same point applies, except that the revision starts a little
higher up the school, but all language learners need constant
practice and reinforcement of the early stages of their course.
More advanced work
As pupils progress through the school, their work in English
will become more directed in two ways. First, if there is a
terminal examination, to some extent the work will be geared
to its demands. Second, as the pupils develop intellectually
they will, quite rightly, be more critical about the goals of their
English teaching, and it will become increasingly necessary to
provide not merely a general English course, but one which is
directed towards the needs in English that they are going to
have. This may mean orientating the English teaching towards
study skills and work at an advanced educational level, or it
may mean concentrating on English for technical subjects,
or—in second language situations—relating it to the work
being carried on in other subjects in the school.

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Learning English in the Secondary School
184
To some extent younger pupils will accept English because
it is in the curriculum, but after adolescence they will need to
be persuaded that it has specific value to them, and this
means that the course must recognise the justice of their
concern.