Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Pronunciation
At the advanced level, a reasonable accuracy in the
pronunciation of individual sounds has certainly been
achieved. Rather than striving for an unattainable perfection

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in this area, it is infinitely more valuable to turn one’s
attention to stress, rhythm and intonation. This will
probably have been neglected. If the teacher does no more
than get his students to use the strong forms and weak forms
in all the right places, he will have done them an inestimable
service, for their spoken language will to the untutored
native’s ear give a much more accurate reflection of the
learner’s status as an advanced student of English. So often a
person with years of learning and impeccable knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary will appear like a raw novice when
he produces too carefully articulated sentences.
Apart from the teaching techniques suggested in Chapter 5
to deal with this sort of problem, it is worthwhile suggesting to
adults that they read a non-technical book such as J.D.
O’Connor’s Better English Pronunciation. The chapter
‘Words in Company’ in this book makes very valuable
corrective reading. When made aware of a problem, an
advanced student, with guidance, is often his own best teacher.
There is a great deal to be said at advanced levels for the
teacher assuming more and more the mantle of tutor. At the
early stages of learning, the teacher is responsible for
choosing the material to be taught, presenting it and ensuring
to the best of his ability that it is learnt. The advanced
student brings with him an already considerable history of
language learning, and probably a keen awareness of his own
strengths and weaknesses. He is therefore more able to share
in the choice of material to be covered and in the learning
process. Once alerted, for example, to the importance of
register and connotations of words, he will learn as much
from the extensive reading of English newspapers and novels
as he will from any formal lesson his teacher may give him on
these topics. The teacher-tutor’s business, therefore, is to
point to the difficulties, give guidance as to how they might
be tackled, and monitor progress, but it is less and less to
teach a particular topic and assume it is then dealt with.
Adults live in a world where English is very important to
them. Professionally, it may be quite essential. Socially it is
likely to be very useful with the increasing mobility of
societies. Even in the home, there may be a need for
English—even if it is just dealing with the children’s

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homework or watching an American film on TV without
subtitles. The need is widespread and likely to persist
throughout life. But most people are not in the position to
contemplate English lessons throughout life. So one of the
most essential services the teacher-tutor can perform for his
students is to equip them to help themselves after they leave
him, to equip them to shoulder the whole responsibility for
their future progress. Going to see the latest Oscar-winning
film in English at the cinema is then an end in itself, but also
a continuation of a learning process of which they are in
control. The trend towards permanent education, as it is
called, must surely be right, as the world never stands still,
nor should one’s knowledge of it. The teacher of advanced
students must prepare for the future as much as teach for the
present.

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Chapter 14 
The English
Department
There has been very little discussion in the past of the role of
the English department in promoting good language learning
conditions, yet those who visit schools frequently can
immediately tell when there is a well-organised department
because of the feeling of commitment and excitement which
is generated by the members of the department, and this
usually communicates itself to the students as well. The role
of the department is to enable all English teachers to operate
as effectively as possible by providing all necessary support
and encouragement, and the role of the head of department
is simply to cause this to happen. In the rest of this chapter, a
large number of suggestions are made of ways in which a
department can be organised most effectively. Each situation
has its own problems, and no list will exhaust the
possibilities, but it is fair to say that any institution which
does not provide the following support for all its English
staff is making life unnecessarily hard for them:
(a) a nominated person who will be responsible for running
the department;
(b) a range of as many as possible appropriate textbooks for
consultation by staff, and machinery for easy access;
(c) access regularly to duplicating facilities, and support for
co-operative development of materials for all aspects of
language work;
(d) a range of basic books suitable for reference by students
(like the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, which may be
too expensive for individual students to buy);

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(e) materials suitable and in sufficient quantity for extensive
reading work by students;
(f) a reference library for teachers;
(g) basic audio-visual equipment (according to the facilities
available), with a minimum in most institutions of one
large taperecorder and a number of portable cassette
recorders, plus spare tapes and cassettes;
(h) a place to use as a base for the department’s possessions,
at least a few shelves and a cupboard, and ideally
somewhere where members of the department can meet
as well;
(i) access to a range of simple visual materials, like wall
charts, flashcards, portable blackboards and pieces of
softboard, realia, etc.
Obviously not all institutions are rich enough to be able to
afford all these facilities, but they are a minimum to aim at,
and most of these items are not expensive to gather and
maintain over a period of several years.