Inferior teachers reinforcing students' pronunciation errors
In the letter headlined, 'Targeted as scapegoats' (South China Morning Post, July 9), Fung Chi-leung argues that the benchmark test for English language teachers, being set at the level of a native speaker who is also highly trained in language teaching, is not fair to secondary and primary school English teachers as they do not need this level of competence.
All English language teachers need a near-native speaker level of competence. They do not need to sound exactly like a native speaker, after all, native speakers have a wide variety of accents, but they do need to have a command of English sufficient to be able to communicate effectively and accurately with native speakers.
English is not a subject like mathematics, where a teacher can be sure that a shaky knowledge of calculus will not affect the ability to teach basic multiplication. English is unbounded and even the simplest teaching requires teachers to be familiar with the way native speakers write and speak in real-life situations. Teachers whose command of the language is limited can teach from the book and give exercises, but that is not how language lives and not how language should be taught.
Students learn language as much from what teachers say as from what teachers tell them to say and to write. Teachers whose pronunciation is well below native speaker level are reinforcing pronunciation errors in their students, encouraging them to continue to say such things as 'Please wai momen'. Teachers whose knowledge of use of English is weak are one of the reasons why the question 'How do you spell that?' frequently comes out as 'How to spell?' in Hong Kong. The teacher is a model for the language learner inside and outside the classroom and if the model is not up to standard it is hard for the student to progress.
Fung Chi-leung suggests teacher development programmes as an alternative to the benchmark test. When I taught in Hong Kong the interest shown in such sessions came mainly from teachers with a good command of English and an enthusiasm for English language teaching. The weaker teachers, who really needed development, rarely came. I am told the situation is still much the same.
DICK TIBBETTS
Kowloon
