Learn English

I recently looked over the roster of the classes I am teaching this semester. It appears as thought I will not have any exchange students this year. As I have indicated in the past, this is sort of a good new, bad news situation.

I always enjoy hearing speeches about other cultures. I always enjoy classes where the students have differing perspectives on the world. Certainly in that sense, having some exchange students makes the class more interesting and even more lively.

The other side of this is there have been times where a student has finished a speech and I have honestly not known what topic the student was discussing. Some of the students would do better if they took an English Lesson or two.

I understand the need for people to learn public speaking skills and it is unfortunate that sometimes language barriers get in the way. It would be beneficial, I think, if the college offered Public Speaking in languages other than English. This way, the students could learn the skills needed for Public Speaking, even if they did not know English well enough to take this class.

Perhaps the college could offer specific classes for exchange students To Learn English. In fact, there are even web programs available that offer English School training. Maybe the college should look at offering this type of training for their exchange students.

There are, of course, some exchange students who speak English very well. Still, depending on the number of exchange students in any given class, it does pose certain challenges but also offers certain rewards.