Dear English teachers, I'm in bad need of your help.?

Question

I am a private English teacher. I teach English as a foreign language to high school students in Egypt. Sometimes I find many grammatical and linguistic mistakes made by the teachers of my students at their schools. What should I do in that situation? To be 100% honest and tell them that their teachers are mistaken even though that would make the students never trust their teachers any more or not to tell the truth in order to protect their teachers' fame? Please tell me the right thing to do.

Answer 1

If you're being paid to teach English, then it's your responsibility to do it correctly, regardless of how you "feel". These students deserve at least one teacher who knows what they're doing. Be honest. Your students will respect you for it and you will gain their trust. It's not your fault that these other teachers are not living up to their responsibility, but it is your job to live up to yours. Teachers are not supposed to be in the teaching business for the "fame". If they are, they're in the wrong business.

Answer 2

This is very touchy. Remember that native English speakers with degrees from highly ranked universities make glaring gramatical errors every day. The inbox for editors of some of the most highly rated publications are filled with notes from observant people pointing out their mistakes.

If there is an error so glaring that it would cause your student to be misunderstood, point out the error. It might be most educational if you determine the source of the error. Many mistakes that occur with non-native speakers is that they impose grammatical practices from their mother tongue onto the language they are speaking (or writing). Particularly verb tense agreements, word order, use of gender designations. Then you can use the error to help your students understand by compare and contrast just how this rule works... giving them a device to use in future attempts make a similar sentence or construct.

Answer 3

It's not your job to defame a fellow teacher to his students.

This is not about not "being 100% honest" versus "not tell[ing] the truth." It's about correcting misinformation. Correcting misinformation does not require bad-mouthing fellow teachers. You never gain status in the eyes of your students by putting other teachers down - it just makes you look bad to everyone involved.

This requires a delicate dance of diplomacy.

I'd never say, "Mr Jones is wrong about that, you need to do it this way." I would try to handle it by saying something like, "at this higher level, you will have to meet a higher standard" (assuming that your students are progressing to the level that you teach). Or, I'm sorry, you are mistaken, (or, you must have misunderstood), the pluperfect works this way in English." Again, avoid saying that they were taught wrong.

On the other hand, if you hear your fellow teacher spreading mis-information, you need to address that with him or her privately, so he or she does not lose face in front of the students and other teachers. This also saves you from looking like a self-righteous know-it-all.

You might approach the other teacher like this:

"Mr. Jones, I heard you telling your class about X. I'm confused because I learned it like A,B,C. Would you look that up with me so I could be sure?" Take your reference text with you.

If you go to your fellow teacher and he or she is not receptive to this sort of thing, then you need to go to your supervisor and let him or her handle it.

Good luck!

Answer 4

i would go to the teachers and talk to them about the mistakes in their teaching. maybe it would help them improve their english as well. keep in mind that even native english speakers aren't perfect.

Answer 5

Write a paper with the corrects and put it into the other teacher's mail boxes

Answer 6

Be honest, or else they won't learn to speak English properly... but before you tell them, talk to their teachers.

Answer 7

come to America

Answer 8

you have to tell the trust or it will be bad for students,think about the students they will be losers,don't be late or???????????????

Answer 9

RETEACH THE TEACHERS