20/10/2020
Teaching ESL vs. EFL - What’s the difference?
ESL is English which is usually taught to students in an English speaking country. EFL is English which is taught to students in a foreign, non-English speaking country. As it is true of many European countries, where is common to learn to speak more than one foreign language. For these reasons ESL is typically the term used in the United States, an English-speaking nation, whereas EFL is more often the term of choice in countries where English is not the native language.
What's ESL? What's EFL?
In learning ESL, the learner is learning English within an English environment. In this case, English is spoken outside the classroom. The learner here learns English to understand and speak it outside the classroom. The situation is different in EFL learning, the learner learns English inside a classroom, but continues to speak her/his own language when leaving the classroom.
An example of an ESL situation is a Japanese boy who immigrates with his family to America; he speaks Japanese at home with his parents, but during the rest of the day and at school, he must speak English. He needs to learn enough English to be able to keep up with his schoolwork and communicate well with his schoolmates.
On the other hand, the Egyptian girl learning English in an Egyptian school learns English as a foreign language. She must understand and speak English only during her English lessons – perhaps 3 times a week. The rest of her day in school and at home, she will speak her own language. It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t know much English or if she learns slowly; this will not affect her day-to-day life in and out of school as it would.
Teaching ESL is different from teaching EFL. This difference influences the content and methods used to teach the English language.
In many ESL classes * Students learn General English that helps them feel comfortable in school and communicate well with their new friends. * They are also taught the kind of English language and skills that will help them to be successful in their other classes, history, mathematics etc. which are all in English. This is typical of most programs in ESL situations. * Students have extensive daily exposure to English-speaking culture, although their understanding may be limited by their language skills.
In many EFL classes * English is often taught in a traditional way; i.e. based on step-by-step learning of a number of grammatical structures in a graded order of difficulty. * As the learner has to master the language in his class and has no chances to practice English outside his class, the methods and techniques chosen should allow him/her to use the language both fluently and accurately. These techniques should ensure maximum exposure to the language. * English is often taught in a traditional way; i.e. based on step-by-step learning of a number of grammatical structures in a graded order of difficulty.