Traditional English Teaching Industry Instils Anxiety and Lack of Self-Confidence!

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.


Improve Spoken English

A few days ago I was surfing the Net for English pronunciation improvement related info, and I came across an article that is an embodiment of everything that I don’t like about the traditional English teaching industry and the way non-native English speakers are perceived.

I’m not going to provide a link to the actual article because I don’t want to potentially start a war with its author; suffice it to say that the headline of the article implies you have to hide your foreign accent and then they compare the size of English vocabulary of an 8 year of native English speaking child with that of a typical non-native English speaker.

The conclusion was that you’d better make sure to build your English vocabulary by learning 4 new English words a day if you even want to stand a chance of coming close to a 15 year old native English speaker (it’s supposedly the age when a person has acquired pretty much a full working vocabulary in their native language.)

Here’s a number of problems I want to point out in relation to all the aforementioned English learning principles:

  • The prevalent notion out there is that if you’re a non-native speaker who speaks English with a hard accent, it’s something you definitely have to eradicate; it’s something you can’t possibly be proud of.
  • One’s level of English can be attributed to the number of English words one knows – the more individual words you learn, the better.
  • You have to compare yourself to native English speakers and judge your own performance by their standards.

Guess what?

Over the years I’ve published countless articles and videos on my blogs refuting such and similar notions that are prevalent in the English teaching industry!

But what about you?

What are your experiences with the traditional English teaching industry?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below ❗

Cheers,

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

 

English Harmony System

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

English Harmony System

  • Hi Mohan,

    What you may want to improve is your spoken English SKILLS instead of just KNOWLEDGE. Just because you possess the knowledge, doesn’t necessarily mean you can USE all that in your speech and writing, so you can start here and let me know if you’ve got any questions: http://englishharmony.com/start/
    Cheers,
    Robby

  • mohan

    iam strogle in english pls be suggested how to improve my english
    knowledge

  • Hi Pap,

    Thank you very much for commenting, and here’s my take on the whole Globish thing!

    I just read into it, and by the looks of it, Globish isn’t some pseudo English; it’s rather a compact version of the language designed to be sufficient for business communication with limited vocab.

    There have been a number of simplified English systems like Globish; another one I’ve been studying myself is Basic English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_English

    The idea appeals to me because I’ve always thought it’s best to be able to use limited vocab fluently as opposed to being able to recognize a huge number of English words while at the same time not being able to use them when speaking.

    Sure enough, Globish would never probably be sufficient for communicating about everything in life; however, provided that any intelligent foreigner would quite NATURALLY start building upon his Globish vocab once they’re past the early stages of learning, I’d say Globish would be probably a good start for any English learner.

    Also, considering there are thousands upon thousands of foreigners living in English speaking countries for years and still not able to speak fluently, I’d rather have them learn Globish vocab consisting of 1500 words and speak fluently!

    Btw – I’ve written on the subject in the past, you may want to check out this blog post:

    http://englishharmony.com/speak-fluent-english-with-limited-vocabulary/

    Thanks,

    Robby

  • Pap

    Bobby, what is your opinion on the Globish project? Some Frenchman chose that we may as well not achieve fluency and teach a pseudo English. It is pretty silly but I know where he is coming from.