Re: Reasons for the crappy world of ESL

Much more agreeable when you get into some specific points, however, there is THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM that we have not really mentioned yet. It's called the GLOBALIZATION. As many large international companies recently tend to decentralize their operations, either, in order to cater to local governments' needs, or to increase their profits, these companies willingly give up their own standards/regulations and so their products' quality is compromised at the expense of quantity.

In China, I have made the experience that there many crap "schools" preparing Chinese students for IELTS or similar language exams with the official purpose of studying overseas. Normally, they should be considered the native elite of all Chinese ESL learners, being specifically prepared for going abroad, well educated with additional excellent foreign language skills. It is quite certain that there are many of them, for example those coming under the scheme of an academic exchange program and/or being sponsored by a Western organisation or uni. When teaching at European unis, I have always thought that they are welcome because one day they will return to their native country of origin and use their skills and expertise acquired in the West to help the advance and progress of education over there.

Now, you've hit the nail. Isn't it an irony some of these "crappy schools" are subscribed and supported by the western educational institutions as well as their governments?The schools where I have worked in China for almost a decade use either western academic materials with Chinese management techniques or some cloned pasted and copied parts and techniques. One of my former employers that was and still is subscribed to an international program has once copied the whole New Interchange book and then put his own logo with a sexy nurse on the cover page, advertising for his "Nurses for Abroad Studies" program. And, you should've seen the response from all these hardworking poor nurses coming to me in a hope that a few months later they'd be in a paradise. Into all that, an international company walked in with their foreign representatives and subscribed this, former military dude, for a program that sends students to western universities. Go figure that one, why. Didn't they see who he was? Yes, who cares about the integrity when there's money, right? However, and on a global scale, this comes back as a boomerang, and not only Aussies know it by now.:)
As for the IELTS and their BC, they are full of secrets and, yes, a huge reason why the sh*t has hit the fan. Their examiners sign all kinda confidentiality clauses and are trained well by, both, the BC as well as their Chinese employers. This means that such schools that employee a BC individual are in an advantage to know the inside of the exams. Such employers often use their own local teachers to prepare the applicants and then send the "lao wai face" to check their speaking skills only. Mind you that if an IELTS examiner came to a confrontation with his/her local employer, he/she would not be able to continue working in China as his/her work visa is for sure arranged by the local employer. Here you have yet another root of the problem.

There are more and more individuals from China coming in, ill-prepared in terms of language proficiency and other things, relying on their own funds. Not of all them are seriously interested in pursuing advanced academic programs here and use this only as a pretext to get out of China and to open a business here, for example. It is mostly them who have graduated from a language "mill", who are ill-prepared, lazy, and think that money can buy everything including diplomas and exam grades. And naturally, they have a rich family background to afford all that.

Ill-prepared as the local employers have a few reasons to send Chinese teachers to their classrooms; Chinese teachers are cheaper and more obedient, local regulations call for restrictive numbers of foreign teachers at centers as the emphasis is on encouraging employment of locals over foreigners and as the traditional values can be preserved with locals in the driver's seat..
Funds is yet another area and issue as these students use their parents filthy money earned out of highly suspicious business activities, and then on students visas, they are allowed to work abroad for as many as 20 hours weekly. Never mind the fact that they take the opportunities away from locals in our contries, these students come to our countries "to study at work". What an irony of ironies! What a nobrainer that a student at substandard level of English can study and work at just about the same time and end up with a BA or MBA in such a short time as the unis academic programs call for. And on top of all the reasoning in, there are some authorities that actually argue these foreign students have so high expenses. What a fallacy!

Yes, one solution would be to eliminate such poor schools and the language proficiency testing systems in China, but as I have mentioned above that that would take some integrity from the foreign companies involved in. As it looks it may take more regulations within the developed countries, such as UK, where these students are flying to. I hail the UK for contemplating such new regulations. I also wish the US of A would soon consider follow up as they've become a real attraction and a fine bendover for foreign students, especially from China.

Surely, our opportunities around the world would also reasonably shrink, however, in a short time we'd have a better quality of jobs, for example, in China where the local employers would realize they'd have to follow rather than direct, and then in our countries we'd have a higher quality of education as well as reputation for "only the best can come". Yes, it's a common technique in Chinese high schools now to tell their first or second year students that underperform; "If you have money, you can study abroad."

Most importantly, some of us that have run into these "crappy schools" would not have to destroy their lives as I have now. Two different international companies have wasted more than 8 years of my life. Needless to say that I am at risk of actually being refused a new work visa due to my most recent employer who's written a dreadful report on me and ticked of some most negative boxes in my "Termination for Foreign Experts" form. After only 6 bloody months, she's not even observed my class once, she has ass essed me that I have performed "poorly" and left her center for "personal reasons". Neve mind my official letter of resignation she signed a month ago that stated the center had not provided me with an appropriate working environment which affected my work.

Cheers and beers to changes in international education