Qualifications for ESL

A colleague recently challenged me to say what I considered the proper background for an ESL instructor. So I've given it some thought.

Back in the early days of “ESL,” there were only two or three real qualifications considered: being a native speaker, holding a university degree, and being on-site in a non-English-speaking country.

All of these actually make sense: a non-native speaker, inevitably, will model English incorrectly a certain amount of the time. Someone with a university degree is likely to have demonstrated some additional facility, and is more likely to speak “educated English”--i.e., more standard English. Being on-site in a non-English speaking country also demonstrates some experience with, understanding of, and sensitivity to, non-English-speaking cultures, as well as a certain talent for communication. These are necessary in an ESL classroom.

Nowadays, specific training is becoming much more de rigeur; as the field “professionalizes.” But what specific training is proper, for this subject? Content knowledge might be the obviously important element in other fields, but after all, everyone knows their native language pretty well... right?

Accordingly, the training emphasis has tended to fall on teaching techniques, along the lines of a degree in education. This is, for example, the CELTA way. And more and more, everyone is requiring CELTA.

This is a sad mistake. We have no idea what teaching techniques do or do not work; or rather, we have strong evidence that the products of education schools do worse than random chance. All a formal training in “education” seems to produce is a boring conformity in classes, which is itself detrimental to learning. And the boredom factor, with the b.s. factor, also probably drives out brighter and more dedicated practitioners.

Granted that we want to raise the bar beyond just using anyone with a backpack and a university degree: what qualifications really would be more appropriate?

I submit that the primary qualification here as anywhere else should be subject knowledge. True, everyone knows their own language fairly well, but language is the most complex thing human beings have ever created. It is always possible to be better at it than the next guy, up to the level of sublime genius. Up to the level of a Shakespeare.

And this really does matter to the students, at any level; it reduces the number of errors they will, inevitably, be taught. Better language is also easier to learn from—it is strikingly easy, for example, to memorize a speech from Shakespeare. Moreover, facility with English is almost ipso facto facility in teaching: that is, in communicating ideas and information.

So, how does one determine English ability?

Not that hard, surely, since every university in the USA has been doing it for decades. Consider the verbal sections of the SAT and GRE tests. All one need do, as a recruiter at an ESL school or college, is to ask for official GRE or SAT results, and hire in descending order of verbal score.

Of course, the GRE, SAT, etc., measure only written English; there may be additional considerations. But a personal interview can quickly establish the key requirements for spoken English. Does the interviewee speak in RP or American Standard English? If not, he is of significantly less value to the students. He will be harder for them to understand, and they will be harder for others to understand if they learn their spoken English from him. Does he speak clearly, distinctly, and with animation?

As a practical matter, this may be all you need, in order to hire a good ESL teacher. But little of this is a matter of training. Surely innate abilities can also be cultivated?

Yes they can; as noted before, getting a university education is commonly understood to improve one's expression; or at least to certify it as good; as in the common term “educated English.” It makes sense, then, not just to ask for a university degree, but also for an advanced degree. Emphasis should obviously be given to those degrees that most teach and most require knowledge of and skill with the English language.

This means the germane academic qualification is a higher degree in the humanities. Not education—education is taught as a social science. Rhetoric would be an obvious choice; as would drama. Philosophy, with its need to reason clearly, is perhaps as good; hence also theology. Literature is about at a par with rhetoric, merely emphasizing the written rather than the spoken form. Classics would be very good, for its deep knowledge of the language's cultural underpinnings. Degrees in other languages, taken by an English native speaker, would also be relevant, in terms of demonstrating an intimate knowledge of both language and the language learning process. Linguistics—sometimes currently accepted as a formal ESL qualification--is questionable: in theory, it is the study of language per se, but in practice a degree in linguistics requires very little actual facility with the language, and the field as a whole has produced no verifiable results. At least it shows an interest.

It has not been established that knowledge of formal grammar is important to language learning. It goes in and out of fashion; there are good arguments on either side. Accordingly, I cannot see making this a professional requirement.

Actual length of overseas residence also counts, I think, in determining who would be the best ESL teacher. There is no end to learning about cultural differences. A foreign wife is a very good sign, although it is probably not permissible to take such things into consideration.

I would add a knowledge of educational technology. Here, at least, there are real things to be learned, and demonstrable progress. I think it is fair and indeed obvious to say that any class of students whose instructor does not know currently know how to incorporate a YouTube video into a lesson, or an interactive online exercise, is disadvantaged in their learning.

So there you are: if I were hiring for my own school, or seeking someone to teach me English or any other language, that's what I would look for.