The training situation of the non-native EFL teacher in London

• Published in: ELT journal 1975-01, Vol.29 (2), p.101-107
• Main Author: Combe Martin, M H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0951-0893

It has been thought that it would be impossible to analyze accurately the reasons and motives that caused an unprecedented migration to London of adult speakers of other languages to join EFL Courses. It has also been thought that the majority of learners had the following attributes in varying degrees of intensity: they were highly motivated, had voluntarily and temporarily opted out of their own national education system, were pre-conditioned to a teaching-learning situation, were trying a "foreign" system because they were disenchanted with their own, were convinced that where the target language was spoken and written natively it would be best learned and taught, and believed that if they were unable to retreat from daily exposure to and the intimate impact of the target language in its three-dimensional form their acquisition of it would be more instantaneous and effective. This migrant studenthood, during the last three or four years, had begun to include an increasing number of teachers and intending teachers, and some of these characteristics could be attributed to them as well. The traditional pattern of such visits had been for the initially trained and qualified non-native EFL teachers to come to London on a familiarization/observation tour of from two to ten days, on refresher courses of from two to four weeks, and on higher degree/diploma university courses generally of one year's or two years' duration. Now it was possible for intending non-native EFL teachers to join courses in London providing initial TEFL training; often these courses proved of interest to the trained non-native EFL teacher as well. The development had been due to a prevailing demand and particularly to the contribution that the well-devised Royal Society of Arts Certificate in the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language had made to TEFL. The problems of including non-natives with natives in such courses are described, particularly those relating to the audiolingual habit theory vs. the cognitive code-learning theory, to multilingualism vs. unilingualism, to the adolescent vs. adult learner situation, to standards of oral acceptability, and to the essential ingredients of the course--the teaching practice and observation sessions. Not all trainees responded successfully to the highly practical and ostensive features of these courses, but national systems operating abroad and seeking reorientation in their training philosophy might wish to adopt these features i