Since I found this page I couldn't let a day go by without visiting it even if I don't write anything. I found my peers here sharing teaching experience, sentiments, dreams, whatever. I am grateful. Here we can share strategies (from the books or from our common sense) in teaching ESL that would best suit to a particular group of students of different English level.

Setting aside the above topic, I would like to touch something on what Ms Griffith had written, that 'between Pakistan and Philippines' no ESL teacher from any English speaking country is hired because of poverty. Poverty, maybe true, but it is not fair to say that it is the reason. The Philippines doesn't need any of those "ESL teachers" from English speaking countries because English has been the medium of instruction beginning kindergarten till college to masteral level or PhD level. They have been using English since the time of the Americans many decades ago. Have they learned to speak English like the Americans? No! They developed their own style. Are they comprehensible? Very much! Do they have good graduates? Yes! Schools, colleges and universities such as the Philippine Normal School (just for teaching programme), La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila, University of the Philippines are few of the good ones that produce good teaching grads major in English, and I am not talking of journalism and mass communication. I am talking of teaching graduates major in English who spent 3 - 4 years in school, college, university mustering the language, and not just 2 - 4 weeks studying TESOL, or any of those short, fast track English courses.

So please Ms Griffith, be fair in your comments. Pakistan? I don't know much, but I have met a lot of Pakistanis who are articulate in the English language. They may have a strong accent but they can carry out a copnversation in English. Obviously they are not the product of "ESL teachers" who took a crash course in teaching ESL, and do comical antics in the classroom because they know nothing on how to capture the interest and attention of their students.