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The qualifications for teachers in Poland? [101]
Once a student gets to intermediate level, they know more than enough English to have the finer points of grammar explained to them in English.
That is exactly what I meant in my post. The question is how you get a student to that intermediate level before s/he has no English skills at all.
Generations of Poles have been taught English solely by Polish teachers. Little contact was possible with native speakers of English, and yet, those who really wanted to learn did achieve the goal.
In my English philology group there were only two persons (out of 51) who had any contact with live English to speak of. One was a daughter of some diplomat. Her English was great, she did well in general too. Another one was a girl who had a Canadian high school diploma. After 4 years in Canada her English was atrocious, and so were her general standings at the university.
The rest were people who had their 4 years of high school English (taught by Poles). Some took private classes (taught by Poles). Most subjects in the English philology department were taught in English (many by Americans and Brits), so obviously, we did have more than jus basic understanding of the language.
I was 15 when I first met full blooded Brits. They had no problem understanding me at all.. I had major problems understanding Scotts, and sometimes Englanders. Irish accent wasn’t too bad. Funny, but it follows a jig so it's easy to catch up with. :) All I had behind my belt was 2 years of after school classes (in grade 2 and 3) taught by a Polish person, and then taught myself from books and LPs (anyone remembers those?). I am aware of some grammatical errors I make, and I do bring a smile on my daughter's face when I apparently botch some of the words, but I like to think that I am a competent speaker of English.
Also, there are some background issues which may help (or not).
Why do some people learn the language? What level are they intending to attain? What general language skills do they already have? Do they speak any other foreign languages? Above all, are they motivated? Who are the teachers? Are they some of those “one year gig in Japan” types, or are they genuinely interested in teaching?
There is no escaping native speakers if one wants to reach levels (much) higher than buying a loaf of bread in London, but in my experience the first steps are best taken under the care of a person who speaks the learner’s native language.
Harry mentioned things such as teachers coming to class after a few drinks, or not having English skills themselves (but pronunciation, poor grammar etc). I’d say we could find plenty of such undesirable individuals also among native speakers of English. So for the purpose of this discussion, I think it would be best to speak of competent and dedicated teachers – whether they are native speakers or not.
