ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) teachers require special skills which would help foreign students cross not only linguistic but cultural and psychological barriers as well.
The significance of English as the global lingua franca has increased manifold in recent times. Western countries, due to their economic stability, offer a wide variety of opportunities both in trade and employment for people from developing and under-developed nations. Hence, the past decades have seen an influx of migrants coming and settling in countries like USA, UK, Australia and Canada. These people who are not native speakers of English, and are relatively new to usage of the language, fall under the category of English speakers of other languages (ESOL).
Because of the difference in cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, teaching such a group of learners becomes a hefty onus for any teacher who does not possess the required level of interpersonal skills. An ESOL teacher teaching students faces several challenges to train them to use English language as a means of communication. Usually ESOL students are from diverse backgrounds. This makes the teacher’s job all the more complex. Often ESOL teachers have a feeling that they are ineffective in their role, which denies them job satisfaction. It appears that traditional teacher education systems haven’t envisaged such an exponential growth in the number of ESOL learners. Therefore, the teacher training methodologies in the past have overlooked the necessity to incorporate sufficient modules to prepare teachers for this specific category. Some ESOL students are found to develop certain challenging behaviours, the causes of which stem from the stress the learners undergo because of their inability to appropriately respond to the learning expectations. To overcome this, educators must realize their peculiar problems and devise teaching methods that make the learning process easy for them. Those teaching ESOL students require to be sensitive to the differences in the needs of students from diverse backgrounds. They must demonstrate an understanding attitude for helping the students develop to their full potential. It is crucial that ESOL teachers display patience and compassion in their approach.
