Communication and Persuasion in ESL Teaching

Teaching in and of itself is communication and persuasion because you are trying to communicate a certain subject to those who you are teaching, and persuade them to learn and apply the subject to their life, and/or pursue it as an actual vocation. ESL (English as a Second Language) teaching is no different. While teaching English as a second language, you are in a classroom setting like any other subject being taught, but these classrooms are usually set inside an academy or community building. It creates a good environment, as opposed to an actual school, because the people there are there because they want to be. For example, in Korea, a lot of children are put in English academies (after-school programs that are usually held in community buildings). English is also taught in public schools, but in those settings, many people there would be learning it because they have to, not because they want to.

The teachers are doing a lot of the communicating in the classroom because they are teaching their students, and the students are communicated to most of the time. But, the students communicate back to the teacher in the form of their progress in class, showing the teacher how much they were learning. Their progress reflects how well the teacher persuaded them to learn English. So in a way, both teacher and student do the communicating and are communicated to. Teachers can be the ones who are persuaded as well, because their students are people who are learning English, so they may not speak English all that well. This would compel the teacher to speak in simpler terms, and speak slower, so that their students can understand.

I want to teach in a foreign country (Korea, preferably), so having these people learn English in their own country from a native English speaker would create a desire for them to learn because the teacher is, in a sense, a symbol of America. For example, Korean people who I have talked to in the past said that when they see an American, they have that desire to learn English and go to America.

The English class in my first area, Seocho in Seoul, South Korea

I would say that there is a lot of the deliberative form of communication evident in teaching ESL. This is because the teachers are ever conscious about their students’ progress and there they will go in the future, and play a role in the decision these students will make to pursue a career where they need to speak English, go to live in America, or make a decision on some future action that requires them to speak English.

I am personal interested in this field because serving in Korea, I was teaching English as a second language as a free service. I loved it, and I found that I wanted to pursue it as a career. So, I would say that what I know about this career came from experience, and how that experience persuaded me to choose it as a potential vacation.