Much has been said and debated about Asian schools, attitudes to, and goals in teaching esl.

It can't be denied that many,particularly private schools primarily focus on profit,and making loads of money,often to the detriment of succesfully improving the students level of English.

It's true that many schools are happy if the students are just being entertained,are happy,and just keep coming back for more!Hence the encouragement of a proliferation of entertainers,comedians and clowns,to teach esl in Asia,particularly in China where I am presently engaged. Of course there is nothing wrong with entertaining people,and making people laugh.Without humour at best the world would be a very dreary place,and at worst,a place full of sucicidal manic depressives!!Humour is not just enjoyable,but also an essential part of human life. So what about the often debated role of humour in teaching esl?Is it wrong to clown about in class,cracking jokes and to generally fool around and make an idiot of yourself,as many teachers sucessfuly do in Asia? Esl is not much different to other businesses,in that it has realised the importance of knowing it's market in it's endeavour to be sucessful,and surely everybody must agree if you give the customer what they want they will normally keep coming back for more!

It course it might be argued that many esl students although knowing what they want,don't know what is best for them!Actually during my experience of teaching in a well known English school in Beijing, that taught mostly adults,it occured to me many students seemed to be more intersted in making contact with foriegners and being entertained,than in improving their English.

As regards children,as well as being more naturally inclined to enjoy having fun nearly all the time, when teaching we have to remember we are often competing for attention with minds that often have very short attention spans due to such things as, their enjoyment of computer games,mp3's,dvds and numerous television channels that can be turned over with a simple press of the finger!

Add to that the fact that,in many countries worldwide and definitely in China,a child is a student virtually 24/7. There is not much in their lives except class.How many times have you walked into a class of students that seem to be in a dope induced trance,or are just plainly asleep?

The world has changed.If we don't include an element of fun and entertainment in the class,we are not going to hold the average students attention for very long.

I believe there is nothing wrong in a bit of monkeying around and play acting in class,but there's an important point to remember. Humour and fun in class should be a MEANS TO AN END,NOT THE END ITSELF!THE ULTIMATE GOAL SHOULD BE TO TEACH AND IMPROVE THE LEVEL OF THE STUDENTS ENGLISH!!If we simply jumped around,sang, and cracked jokes etc., and nothing else,I think it would be futile,as we are ENGLISH teachers although admittedly,we apparently are not always being paid to teach English. As my job title is ENGLISH teacher,I want to teach English as well as I can in EVERY class I teach, giving 200%!!!,while trying to improve my level of teaching as I go along.

I actually don't blame some teachers for succumbing to the market and just following along with the "clown schools",in order to survive.Yet we should remember that there are still many students, young and old,who really want to improve their English.As the students are paying the money,they have a right to tell us how they want us to PRESENT the class.We have to admit that 99.9% of students of ALL ages want a FUN presentation.WE have to realise this.

Yes the world has changed ,attention spans are short,for both children and ADULTS.I feel to reach our ultimate goal of sucessfully imparting English, an element of fun and humour is essential,as long as it is only a means,and NOT THE END ITSELF!!

Thats my humble opinion.It would be interesting to hear what other teachers think.