China, for instance, is all about control of people that are unable to change much and about test driven educational system which directly and indirectly corrupts young learners of English. Many, if not most, FTs aren’t supposed to interfere in the educational process of English and they only are motivating and marketing tools here. Suggesting that FTs use the local language as a help in the students’ learning process is hugely counterproductive and preposterous. English speaking nations have enough people that cannot communicate in the language well enough and China has enough of its own English language teachers and students that can only recite what they have learnt. Let’s not cater to those.

You wrote that very beautifully with lots of great points but I think that what you really mean is:

"Let's just leave things as they are, say 'This is China,' so we can be lazy, not put in any additional work or allow any Chinese people to actually expect us to improve things."

No wonder China attracts some pretty shitty foreign 'experts'. Foreign experts that are supposed to help the country advance further, but in reality, those 'experts' just love China so much because they know that they can always do a lazy, shoddy job and get away with it.

There's cultural understanding and acceptance; but then there's just using it as an excuse.

Students’ native language in the process of learning English mostly, if not always, hampers their communication in English. Whether it is speaking, reading, listening or writing does not matter; what is important is that those students, whose active and passive English vocabulary is basically corrupted with their native tongue, aren’t able to proficiently use the, to them, new language; that because they keep translating back into and from their first language for the reason that they have been taught to do so.

Furthermore, some psychologists suggest such people that use another language, aside their first tongue, in their lives on, are affected to a great extent. The constant switching of their communication tools puts a strain on them that they often are unable to cope with. Although there are plenty of behavioral disorders around the world, the ones that come from the multi-lingual people who haven’t mastered another language well enough is of a concern to the doctors that I am referring to here.

Learning another language is easier when one is young, more difficult when one is old. However older people that learn English need their first language to assist them, the young ones most certainly do not need such a help. In fact, kids learn their mother tongue without any other language interferences, and so should young students at primary or secondary school levels. Otherwise, our world’s bilingual/trilingual population will be worryingly stressed and/or hard to communicate with.

Some countries educational systems are bound to follow their governments and/or their traditions. Their leaders fear changes and perhaps inability to deal with different attitudes. Moreover, they are comfortable with their own people, who they pay less and control more, as the local unemployment may be reduced. This wouldn’t be as bad, if the local educators knew their roles adequately enough; however, it is quite sad in some nations where the language is far away from English and where their cultural habits interfere in the communication in another language (English in this example).

China, for instance, is all about control of people that are unable to change much and about test driven educational system which directly and indirectly corrupts young learners of English. Many, if not most, FTs aren’t supposed to interfere in the educational process of English and they only are motivating and marketing tools here. Suggesting that FTs use the local language as a help in the students’ learning process is hugely counterproductive and preposterous. English speaking nations have enough people that cannot communicate in the language well enough and China has enough of its own English language teachers and students that can only recite what they have learnt. Let’s not cater to those.

Martin, I can only agree with you, especially since you have put it in such a fine way as you did. However, the OP, according to his previous entry on another language related topic, cares little about the locals' declining English level. If a FT's job is to use English as the language of instruction, another language may be an obstacle in the process. Anyhow, we all are prepared to teach English with English and expected to use it only, are we not?

"Character Dictionar" for esl teachers? I see that some care for learning Chinese and living in the country more than assisting Chinese to learn English. The eslteachersboard where "e" stands for English vs cslteachersboard where "c" represents Chinese may be an interesting movement.