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ESL
and EFL Learners: Note: This is an opinion piece of writing written during the Fulbright enrichment program participation in New Orleans, 2001. Rather casual! I am still amazed at the incredible English proficiency of an ex-student I taught at a refugee camp in Thailand in 1991, when she was 9 years old, who is now in the U.S. Mai Yang, the Hmong name she is still using, is now a freshmen at a university in Wisconsin, where she has resettled and lived for about 10 years. Her writing is impressive and her speaking ability is just like that of a native speaker of English. I cannot help comparing her achievement with that of most of the Thai students in my English classes at Chiang Mai University. These Thai students, despite their at least ten years of learning English through schools and colleges, appear to be obviously incompetent in all four skills of the English language. This scenario of low achievement is, of course, not an uncommon one across the globe, well known especially among teachers of English as a foreign language. However, not much has been heard about involved people’s efforts to pinpoint the different factors surrounding successful language learners like Mai Yang, so-called English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, and learners in countries like Thailand, where learners learning English are considered English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Indeed, there are certain contributing factors that strongly contribute to ESL and EFL learners’ unequal achievement when both groups are given the same number of years to study the English language. To begin with, ESL and EFL learners are exposed to unequal inputs, both in terms of quantity and quality. Whereas ESL learners, who usually study English in the context where English is naturally more extensively used in class and in the community, have ample opportunities to listen, read, speak, and write in English every day, from morning to night, EFL learners often attend only up to a maximum of six hours of English classes per week. Within these 3-6 hours, unfortunately, at least 25-50 per cent of the time is frequently spent by the teacher explaining in, translating into, or complaining in, the learners’ native language. After school, ESL students can watch TV, listen to the radio and talk in English to English speaking friends and other community members while EFL students are exposed mostly to situations where only their mother tongue is used. Regarding the quality of the inputs, likewise, ESL learners usually benefit a great deal more from the more authentic, relevant, interesting inputs in both verbal and non-verbal forms. For instance, ESL learners read texts, newspapers, magazines made available for real communication and based on the needs and interests of all members in the community. EFL learners, on the other hand, often have to deal dully with grammar rules and boring drill exercises, or, if they are lucky, some simplified bits from newspapers or magazines. Frequently, these selected materials are of no relevance to their needs or interests, and they literally have no chance to choose what they want to associate with. Furthermore, ESL learners are able to engage in more meaningful activities both in and outside classes, while EFL learners are inevitably restricted to what is prepared for them by their teachers. ESL learners can enjoy doing tasks tailored around news, movies, and songs in English everyday because they have these available fresh everyday, and their teacher, usually a native speaker of English, is confident to facilitate their comprehension. On the other hand, EFL learners seldom have the chance to do so, due largely to the limited availability of such resources and often the local teacher’s lack of confidence to bring in the resources he or she is personally uncomfortable with. As a result, we usually see ESL students having fun with the many activities such as fieldtrips, movie viewing, interviewing people, etc.; on the contrary, we very often perceive the picture of EFL students sitting in class quietly and listening to their teachers explaining. In addition, ESL learners usually use English in their studies, or at least most of the subjects are taught in English to them whereas the unfortunate EFL learners have very few occasions where they can use English both at school, where other subjects are taught in their mother tongue, and in their community, where practically only the mother tongue is in use. Of course, at present, EFL learners in many countries can meet some foreign visitors in their towns, but such an opportunity, if exists, is nothing compared to the real life situations under which ESL learners live and benefit from as a language learner. If language learning deals inescapably with skills sharpening tasks, EFL learners lack meaningful practices through such activities. One last benefit ESL learners have over most EFL learners is the opportunity to learn with fun and motivation. As pedagogically accepted, language learners learn a language better if they enjoy themselves and they want to learn the language. In this light, it is obvious that ESL students can choose to be exposed to the English language in many ways responsive to their needs and interests; thus, they can always add fun into their learning process both in and outside their classrooms because of the rich, varied inputs and the exciting, meaningful activities they are offered. The fact that they can use English to complete their real life tasks leads us to believe they could become more motivated to learn and use the language so much that they become apparently more competent than EFL learners. By contrast, EFL learners tend to be restricted, or forced, to cope with English as a subject, which, in turn, probably bores them. They study English basically just to pass the exams! Isn’t this a fact, partial or whole? Many EFL learners, thus, lose their interest and motivation in doing anything to improve their English proficiency. After all, it is fun and motivation that lies beneath the success of most language learners. In short, it is sensible to say that ESL learners are in much better positions than EFL learners in terms of the inputs they receive daily, the activities they are involved in, and the attitudes they develop towards the English language learning. The point people involved, especially EFL learners and teachers, can take and bear from this is EFL learners and teachers do not necessarily have to accept such fate without challenging it. The world is progressing and technologies make it possible for them to find better inputs, especially, from the Internet, to organize and engage in activities in which English needs to be used as a medium among participants, and to find alternative ways of creating fun and enhancing motivation in learning English. It is obviously necessary to discuss more seriously about what they lack, but it is high time they asked themselves what they should do to generate better inputs, do meaningful tasks, and feel better about learning the language. Snea
Thinsan
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