TEFL - A Paradigm Shift

I am trying to provoke and facilitate a paradigm shift in our

understanding of the teaching and especially the learning of
languages. Instead of the divisive and ultimately discriminatory
categories of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) I
propose ESA (English to Students Abroad) and TFLSE (The
teaching of Foreign Languages to Speakers of English).
TEFL is as a concept is flawed on two counts: conceptually and
essentially (I am not concerned to criticize its methodology;
merely with providing, eventually, a far better and more inclusive,
as well as far more enjoyable methodology).
It is conceptually flawed because the idea that English taught as
a foreign language is somehow different to English itself suggests
two Englishes, one ersatz and the other authentic, with foreigners
garnering the inferior product. This much should be obvious when

prospective teachers are told that, 'all you need is a knowledge of

your own language - English - to teach it'. Of course this is
insufficient. You need a vision, as well. I am working to try and
find, provide, share and have discussed and marshaled such a
vision.
Following on from this is a distinction between foreign students as
speakers of English ('speakers of other languages') somehow
fatally handicapped by their native tongues and thus needing the
linguistic or pedagogical equivalent of specialized care, almost on
a medical model; and native speakers.
This starts them off on the wrong foot, as potentially patients
needing the intellectual equivalents of the raft of services a
hospital provides, from out-patient right, through to Emergency
and Intensive Care. I do not think this is too fanciful. It is an
Anglocentric, ill-thought-out, intellectual model; and suggests
deficiency in the foreigners.
But the issue at the heart of imparting English is not the alleged
linguistic handicaps of the recipient, although every teacher has to
make allowances for the intellectual and physical (phonic) gifts of
each participant... Again, I say gifts: because I want to reinforce
this message of the equality of the student with the teacher (who
again, I would prefer to view as the magus, the imparter, the
subtle midwife...the agent and invisible guardian angel of the
student's learning experience)
Thus on a second count, TEFL is flawed essentially: in that it
highlights the foreignness of the student and the apparent
difficulty and aberrance of the task at hand: not the portage of the
of the language - the logos as such - between one culture and
another: though the intermediary of a teacher and for the great
illumination of a learner: who must himself be as proactive and

inquisitive as possible. There is a huge lack here at present,

which needs to be made up