In at least one respect, I'm not a typical expatriate teacher ofEnglish. Many-perhaps most-of us make our careers teachingoverseas. I came out here after many years of teaching and teachertraining in England only three years ago, so I'm still relatively anewcomer. And of course I make comparisons. Of course formercolleagues ask me what it is like to teach Chinese students? Inwhat ways do they differ from native speakers of English? How dothey compare with the students in English schools who are of Asianparentage, but who hardly remember a home elsewhere than in anEnglish city? To these questioners my answer is that Chinesestudents differ from one another just as do those of any othernationality. The longer I stay, the less I am willing togeneralize.
至少,就某方面而言,我還不能算是最典型的外籍英語教師.我們當(dāng)中許多人,也可以說大多數(shù)的人都是以海外教書為終身職業(yè)。我經(jīng)歷多年的教書生涯，而于三年前到英國接受教師訓(xùn)練之后，才來此地任教，因此算是相當(dāng)資淺的教員。不過，我倒作過不少教學(xué)的比較研究。當(dāng)然，以前的同事總會(huì)問我教導(dǎo)中國學(xué)生的一些心得；比如，在教法上，中國學(xué)生和以英語為母語的學(xué)生有何不同？或者，和就讀英語學(xué)校，從小又一直生活于講英語的城市之亞裔學(xué)生，又有何不同？針對(duì)這類問題，我總是回答，中國學(xué)生和其它任何國家的學(xué)生一樣，也因個(gè)性和程度的差異，各有不同。我教書時(shí)間愈久，愈不愿以偏概全，一概而論。
When students ask me similar soundingquestions, I find that I want to give a rather different answer.There is, I think, more to their questions than friendly curiosity.They want to know (even if they do not put it like this) where theystand, and how they rate, as users of English as an internationallanguage. They know, as I do, that for all the hard work that hasgone into their learning of the language, their attainments stillfall short of their hopes. They want to know if that English isgood enough, and indeed what “ good enough” means. They wouldlike to know if there are ways in which their bilingualism, andtheir biliteracy, gives them and appreciable advantage, andwhether, especially, their limitations and weaknesses in Englishare identifiable and can be remedied.
要是學(xué)生問我類似的熱門問題，我就很想以不同的方式來答復(fù)。我認(rèn)為在回答時(shí)，不應(yīng)是滿足善意的好奇心理，而就針對(duì)他們的問題，多作闡釋與發(fā)揮。他們很想知道（即使不明講），自己目前的程度，以及在使用國際語言的能力方面，如何給予自己確切的評(píng)估。他們也和我一樣明白，盡管為了學(xué)好英語，下過功夫苦讀，但成效依然不能令人滿意。他們也想知道，自己的英語是否夠好，而“夠好”的真正定義又是什么？他們更想了解，是否可利用某些捷徑，得以有效提升自己的雙語溝通與讀寫的能力；此外，尤其想知道，是否可以找到自己學(xué)習(xí)英語的先天限制與種種缺失，以及補(bǔ)救之道。
These are some of the answers I think aretrue, and that I hope are useful. Learning any foreign languagetakes a long time and a great deal of effort, but learning one thatbelongs to a different language family from your mother tongue isespecially hard. I knew in England experienced teachers of Englishto speakers of Asian languages belonging (as do the languages ofEurope) to the Indo-European language family. When these teachersmet primary students from Hong Kong they perceived them as diligentbut slow. Those teachers simply failed to recognize that ifCantonese is your mother tongue you simply have more to do than(say) a Punjabi speaker, so of course you need longer to do it. Itis easy to get discouraged and, in effect, to give up. Some peopledo—even if among those who go on attending classesconscientiously! Many more fail to recognize how much they haveactually learnt and to respect their own achievements.
我想下面這些答案是千真萬確的，也盼望對(duì)大家有所幫助。學(xué)習(xí)任何語言都需要很長的時(shí)間和巨大的努力，而學(xué)習(xí)一門跟你的母語不屬于同一語系的語言，尤其艱辛不易。我在英國認(rèn)識(shí)一些經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的英語教師，他們專教（十分接近歐洲語系的）印歐語系的亞裔學(xué)生。他們一旦碰到班上有來自香港的小學(xué)生，立刻會(huì)察覺這些學(xué)生雖然用功勤勉，但卻成效不佳。這些教師都未能認(rèn)清一個(gè)事實(shí)：要是本身的母語是廣東話，學(xué)起英文來比講印度加語的人士，就得多花一些功夫，自然學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)間要拉長了。這樣他們很容易氣餒從而放棄學(xué)習(xí)。其中還不乏不曾缺課的認(rèn)真學(xué)生！更有不少人對(duì)自己所學(xué)的實(shí)際進(jìn)展，茫然不知，不曉得珍惜自己的學(xué)習(xí)成效。
Realistic Targets
It is important to set yourself realistictargets. For all but a small, exceptionally gifted minority, nativeproficiency is not a realistic target. A Chinese user of Englishshould not feel that because he sounds and seems Chinese when heuses English that he has been less than successful in acquiring it.To have learned English well is to be fully intelligible to anotheruser of standard English and to understand him, in ordinarycircumstances.” Of course “ordinary circumstances” differbetween users. Highly technical vocabulary is entirely ordinary inthe context of air traffic control or information technology or anyone of the many scientific and technical contexts for which Englishis the language of international communication. Advanced studentsof English need to consider what are the range of purposes forwhich they are likely to use their international language, and toselect courses where those purposes are recognized and understoodby their teachers.
