Teach SPEECH on the college level

By Dr. Jenny Weil

Open any Israeli newspaper and the employment ads are likely to read :”Fluency in English and Hebrew required.”  Most EFL (English as a foreign language) courses at university level unfortunately do not stress public speaking.  Most classroom sessions are spent on reading comprehension and on some writing.  These are, of course, two very important aspects of language learning.  But, in my opinion, these two pale when comparing them to the ability to express oneself in the target language.  In addition to my college teaching, I taught at INTEL and at every session some engineers were absent.  I thought that perhaps my teaching lacked brilliance, but, no.  After inquiring about these absences I was told that they were overseas, England, America, South Africa, France, etc… giving lectures on their new technical advancements.

Bryden and Scott  state in their book”The Art and Science of Public Speaking” that taking a speech course  encourages students to think of their speeches as opportunities to become opinion leaders.  These are people who influence others to adopt innovative ideas, products or processes.  Let’s be honest, some of the most successful entrepreneurs got to the top, merely by their power of speech.

Not all college students will end their education after their B. A.   Hopefully, many will continue their studies for an M.A. or a Ph.D.  Here in Israel, many of the students need to work while continuing their studies. To facilitate this process, they will have to get all kinds of jobs.  So, as I mentioned in my first sentence, fluency in English is a must.

A few years ago, I was lucky to be able to teach a speech class in my college program.  The students were elated and felt confident when speaking in the target language.When one of my students, Amikam Levy, was chosen to become the ambassador to Vietnam, I realized even more than ever before that putting an  English oral communication class into a university curriculum was crucial.

Over 2500 years ago King Solomon understood the power of speech by stating his famous quote from proverbs 18:21. “The tongue  has the power of life and death.”  Throughout history  this sentence has proven to be true.  I think that the most recent example is the meteoric rise of Barack Obama, mainly on his exceptional rhetoric skills.

I am calling the Council For Higher Education in Israel to reprioritize and to make an English communication class mandatory to receiving  a B.A.  Let my people speak (in English)!

Teaching English - are you alone?

by David Lloyd

We have all been there. We enter the classroom, close the door, and are all alone. Alone with 30 to 40 students regarding us with a mixture of suspicion and apathy. "Entertain us!" their cry silently rings out. And then their eyes fade away into grey and we have lost them for the next hour.

There are days when this is the greatest profession on earth. Where we feel that we have singly made a significant difference in their lives, and have done much more than simply teach English learning strategies. And then there are days when we wonder why we ever believed we could be a teacher.

We finish the day and go home, left with many questions unanswered. The teacher's life is often a very lonely one. We wonder at times if we are the only ones experiencing such self doubts and facing the daily challenge of enriching our teaching experience.

One of the reasons for creating this virtual network for English teachers is to help us through this. Our belief is that every teacher, no matter what his or her experience, has something to offer - something unique to say. Through listening to each other and working together, we will not only not feel alone, but will turn our teaching into a much more meaningful experience, both for our students and for ourselves.

We hope that you will take an active part in the deliberations.