13 February 2022

Foreign, Second or First - the difference matters

Recently a leading language institute in Chile advertised that they were seeking an ESL (E2L) teacher for an ESL (E2L) programme. Of course they were not; they were looking for an EFL teacher for an EFL programme. The evidence? Classes were one hour long, held twice a week which in an English-speaking country would be insufficient for E2L, but in an hispano-hablante country, impossible.

This provokes two questions. Does the institute, and do teachers and do schools, know the difference between Second and Foreign? Secondly, what is the difference between Second, Foreign (and by extension, First)?

This session reviews the three terms and how they might usefully be defined, and provides a working definition for the Chilean context. Accordingly, the session also considers how Second and First language programmes can indeed be provided in an hispano-hablante country.

And parallels the question of whether a school can be "bilingual" if it prepares students for an EFL certificate. 

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  • A C1 or higher level of English is assumed.

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Photo by Ivan Shilov on Unsplash

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