Questions and Answers

“Answers are easy. They resolve matters. Questions are harder. They point out gaps in our knowledge and inadequacies in our understanding. They make us uncomfortable. That’s why we are so apt to dismiss them altogether. So we can go about our business unhindered.” – Greg Satell. (https://bit.ly/3noQA0E)

That is why nobody among teachers asks why the success rate of learning a foreign language is so low? Is it because they want to go about their teaching by obsolete methods unhindered? Or maybe because they simply don't know the answer?

I received the email from a young ESL teacher: “The facts are that training schools in China are not interested in learner-centered teaching, they are not interested in students making true progress in the language, because the student would outgrow the institutions and their resources, they are interested in making money, I know this because I lived and worked there, in dozens of institutions.”

My question is: why is it happening and why nobody from the language industry reacts to such accusations?

Another email from a young ESL teacher from China: “Most Chinese people learning English are only interested in passing tests. For example, my wife tested #2 in English for the whole province; because of this, she was able to go to the #3 university in China, she mastered teaching Chinese, and became an English teacher. She has been learning English for almost twenty years, even though she tested #2 in the whole province, her English skills are quite bad, but it doesn’t matter because she already passed the test.”

A straightforward question: how to overcome this negative situation and change the way Chinese are learning ESL?

You are most welcome to provide your answers to these questions. Without your input, we would not attract the public focus to these adverse facts and change them forever.