So someone asked me "Alex, why do you think English majors are incompetent?"

I often get a lot of criticism for voicing how poor the learning style of some of my students are...but nothing I say is untrue... English learners around the world can learn English more competently without the need for a single second in the English classroom, simply because they are self-motivated and realise that "hey, one day I will actually have to speak English so I should actually learn how to use it!"

I am NOT saying my students are bad.. There are some excellent students, some good students, some okay students and yes, some "why are you even here?" students

I AM saying that they all could improve...

I am not trying to change the world, I am trying to change student's views on English learning one student at a time...

A foreign teacher's job in China is more motivator than anything else. We don't get enough time each week with individual students to perform "magic" in the classroom... the responsibility is on the learner. There are no shortcuts to learning a language, you either get active and take personal control of your English learning or you will be a robot forever.

got it! Man,.. you are not talking me right?

Last time, I took my friend, Calvin, to our oral English class.
After the class, he said that he felt kind of disappointed because the English in my class is poorer than those in his class, a non-major class. I don't think that was exaggerating because I've been to his English class and that was true.
Sometimes I feel a little shamed when I hear people say that.
I think we English majors should have a solid foundation after a year's study.
It rediculous for the sophomore, even the juniors and seniors to speak English with an awful pronunciation.
As for me, I'll try my best to improve myself.

I think it comes down to motivation.

usage and ability to use a language isn't classroom dependent, its student dependent.

More classes doesn't mean better language. It means more homework, lack of independence and loss of interest.

What emphasis is placed on Oral English in primary school, high school, university and testing? Next to none

I have some classes where if I ask a student "How are you?" they can only reply "Fine thanks, and you?" despite studying English probably longer and in more detail than I have.

There is next to no emphasis on developing an ability of English be that clarity, vividness or expression because simply, they can't be graded on examinations with teachers who can't use descriptive or a wide variety of language themselves. You can not test that on exams that only let you choose A) B) C) or D), focusing exclusively on grammar and structure which is so misleadingly presented to you as being a representation of having "effective" English.

My point is that the best students are the ones who are autonomous learners, which by not being English majors, non-English majors seem to develop faster than English majors. A generalisation of course, but from my point of view, having taught and interacted with both English major and non-English majors is accurate for the majority. They (non-majors) study usually a communicative based style of Education as opposed to the structural analysis based style of English majors. They do this simply because their motivation is different (they study for communication, not for grammar intensive tests such as TEM) and they have no one to spoon feed them English, except for themselves.

The only difference between good English speakers and those who aren't is self-determination and motivation.

Alex wrote:
I often get a lot of criticism for voicing how poor the learning style of some of my students are...but nothing I say is untrue... English learners around the world can learn English more competently without the need for a single second in the English classroom, simply because they are self-motivated and realise that "hey, one day I will actually have to speak English so I should actually learn how to use it!"

I am NOT saying my students are bad.. There are some excellent students, some good students, some okay students and yes, some "why are you even here?" students

I AM saying that they all could improve...

I am not trying to change the world, I am trying to change student's views on English learning one student at a time...

A foreign teacher's job in China is more motivator than anything else. We don't get enough time each week with individual students to perform "magic" in the classroom... the responsibility is on the learner. There are no shortcuts to learning a language, you either get active and take personal control of your English learning or you will be a robot forever.

Bad pronunciation ,wrong spelling ,and short of vocabulary These three phenomena are mostly seen or heard among English majors We must be aware of what the major we are studying We are English majors ,not Chinese majors So,please ,I want to shout it out loud :try to speak more English rather than Chinese