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One thing I am fascinated about with teaching English to foreigners is my desire to teach each student the most relevant way of speaking to their needs. In other words, I want to tailor every lesson for each student including the amount of slang, idioms, and pronunciation. Is this possible? What issues may arise? What are the limitations? When I was studying languages I often ran into the question: How would the native speaker say it? The answer I would normally get was either “either way is fine and correct” or “everybody says it like this”. What I came to find out is that most people will simply tell you what they know of around them. For example it is silly to say “everybody says this” because that is just hyperbole. What the person is saying is that in their circle of people they will almost always hear and say something. My issue with telling someone any way is ok, is that you may be setting them up to sound a little weird when they are speaking. It may honestly be ok to say something in any way, but in the real world there are often more rules happening naturally. In English if I simply let someone mix British and American English together it may sound a little off, but technically be correct. When I thought about these issues and thought of English equivalents, I found that many of us have different personas. Most people will talk a little differently at work, around friends, around different friends, at university, to strangers, and to loved ones or partners. This gave me a realization that someone using a second language likely has a specific use for it. This gave me the idea that I can help someone use English for the purpose they want; work, class, friends, travel, etc. Obviously there will alot of carryover to every student in many of the simple structures and grammar will likely always be the same, but other points like the words, intonation, pitch, and such can change. This technique will only allow me to work one-on-one and so that is a little limiting. Another issue may be that the student won’t find my teaching style very fluid with other resources and may have difficulty in practice if I cannot help. A resource that will help me in this matter is online English teaching, as it is also a one-on-one teaching style that will aid in this type of teaching. Business English is one of the major alternatives to regular English classes and is a model for me to expand for more. Many other occupations have alternatives as well such as law and medicine. I also plan to teach Medical English, so this will also be an easy offshoot of regular English class. The more experimental classes will be for those wanting to talk educated, talk street slang, traveling, or even accent work. English is the primary language for Britain, America, and Australia; however each of these places speak English differently. Additionally in the US there are west coast, southern, mid-west, and east coast accents at a minimum. Although there are some limitations and more work in preparation and execution on my end, I believe I can tailor each one of my students to gain a vocabulary and accent (along with grammar, intonation, etc) that they desire or will be most helpful to them in their chosen path or career.
