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Analysing some theories behind an appropriate way to run an EFL (English as a foreign language) school in Argentina
This paper will provide a blueprint for the factor that must be taken into consideration when planning the opening and running of an English Foreign Language school.
Where possible and applicable the specifics of running a school in Argentina will be discussed and suggested guidance given. Goker (2005) provides an assessment of why many English language schools fail. This will provide the basis for the structure of this paper. Firstly, common pitfalls and mistakes in school management will be identified and alternatives suggested. Then, using the most essential elements of Goker's seven-point criteria for what is involved in running a successful language school, an assessment will be made on the applicability of each criterion to the context in question.
Why Management and Supervision in EFL Schools Seem to Have Failed?
The most common complaint of EFL teachers is that the administrators in the schools in which they work primarily focus on administrative duties rather than provide support to the teachers. Thus, this inhibits the role of teachers as the leaders of their schools (a dual role language-school teachers often fulfil) and often results in feelings of isolations, resentment and a lack of corporate cohesion within the school (Goker, 2004). While this may sound overly clinical, EFL schools are solely privately funded and the raison d'etre of any EFL school is ultimately to make money run as a business.
Although scholars such as Goker and Zukowski are among the many that have conducted research on the importance and role of teachers as professionals and managers of the business, these same researchers have paid little attention to what administrators need to do and how they should be involved in school management (Goker, 2005). A case could be made for the establishment of a global best-practise for administrators just as EFL teachers have to pass a recognised, accredited short course in order to be allowed to perform their job.
Pollard (2004) argues however that it is the responsibility of the owners or managers of the school to employ administrative and teaching staff that conform to the culture they are trying to create. Pollard suggests there are simply and effective ways of achieving this, you need to consider the job description of admin and support staff. What exactly will you expect them to do? Do you need staff who speak English? Or is the local language sufficient? (2004, p2) Through careful job descriptions, the support role of the administrative staff should be stressed and reinforced.
The case for wanting administrators to be trained to deal with the context of working within an English Language school is derived from the fact that an EFL context itself has highly different characteristics from the other subject area teaching. This is largely due to the fact that EFL students pay significant fees almost certainly from their own savings, only attend the schools for a relatively short period of time and may be from any number of age-groups, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Teaching and managing a group of EFL students in a way that delivers successful short term results makes this an extremely complex and challenging area of teaching. Employing educational administrators for different contexts is an age-old method of recruiting for many language schools but it is a method that is arguably showing its old-age.
What Makes EFL Contexts Different?
EFL professionals are extremely bad at transferring experience-based knowledge amongst the EFL teaching community and the EFL community does not have a sophisticated- and accessible-enough platform through which professionals can deliver and share information (Richards, 1996). There is an exceptional lack of industry cohesion which means that many language schools are operating inefficiently and unprofessionally when previous examples of bad-practice, well documented, could have prevented this from happening. The seven main components within which characteristics unique to the EFL area of teaching can be identified are suggested by Goker as:
- Teachers
- Methodology
- Learners and need analysis
- Goals and objectives
- Syllabus
- Assessment and evaluation process
- Resources
This paper will look at arguably the three most important elements from this list from an organisational and managerial perspective: Teachers, assessment and evaluation process, and the management of resources in the context of a school in Argentina.
The cultural context greatly affects the management of these areas and should not be underestimated. Lucas et al (2004) note that countries with a socialist bias - such as Argentina and Columbia - suffer from rigid managerial structures and have been slow to adapt to more modern, or Western, managerial practices. They therefore suffer in terms of efficiency and trying to improve the effectiveness of the organisation through managerial change. So it must be recognised that identifying areas for improvement within EFL schools in Argentina is one thing but implementing and effecting change may be far more difficult because of the rigidities of the cultural environment and its resistance to change.
1. Teachers:
The vast majority of non-native English speaking countries will employ an English speaker to teach English if that person can show that they have a degree from one of their domestic universities. This inevitably means that a huge number of teachers of English as a Foreign Language are indeed English themselves. In recognising this fact it is possible to foresee potential problems for British teachers in countries that share historical, current and political tensions with the United Kingdom.
With specific reference to running a language school in Argentina, many Argentineans' still harbour a varying amount of resentment over the disputed ownership and title of the Falkland Islands after the war with Great Britain in the 1980s. Whilst this resentment is arguably negligible and is considered stronger in certain parts of the country (Southern Argentina in particular), language school administrators may wish to consider that if a large percentage of the staff at an EFL school (and therefore businesses) are English this may create tensions with the local population that are totally unique to Argentina. Furthermore, the use of the term Falklands is widely regarded as a faux pas in EFL classrooms in Argentina and is likely to cause offence to even mild-mannered students. 'Malvinas' is the name given to the Islands by South Americans and should be used to avoid potential problems.
Another potential problem with employing English Language teachers is the proliferation of short teaching course qualifications, such as TEFL certificates, that have meant that those qualifying as TEFL teachers may have had vastly different training and therefore are likely to produce vastly different standards of teaching. Goker argues that teaching English suffers because most teachers in language schools are not trained as professional teachers. Certainly his view is given weight but the fact that students can now gain a TEFL certificate over the internet after just 40 hours of self-study with companies such as i-to-i.
Unless the school has an in-depth knowledge of the quality of TEFL teaching at each institution that offers it (an incredible figure) then all TEFL certifications would appear to offer the same qualification regardless of how well it was taught and for how long the student attended training.
However, the demand for EFL teachers continues to grow as the popularity of the English Language ever increases and new schools open on a regular basis. Therefore Goker's idealist view that all teachers should be prior professional teachers is not a Human Resource practicality.
2. Assessment and evaluation process:Standards needs to be measured and it is up to the managers of an English language school to ensure that their methods are the most effective they can be. Standards - measured by frequent and thoughtful assessment and evaluation - are created and monitored successfully only through successful leadership. Bush (2005) argues that leadership and management has the most important effect on school and pupil outcome rather than other seemingly important factors such as the culture of a country, the production of a dogmatic syllabus or talented individual teachers. It is up to each individual school, whether in Argentina or not, to encourage good leadership to try and establish a best method of testing.
Walker (2001) suggests that leadership can be improved in schools by opening up and encouraging competition between schools. In the case of EFL schools this would mean creating a competitive arena within which schools would compete to attract any student wanting to study English as a second language. In Argentina this could mean creating a governing body through which all language schools would be affiliated and rated, allowing students access to information regarding the quality of a school and enabling them to make an informed choice on which school they should spend their fees.
Alsbury (2004) warns however of the problem of maintaining standards, effectively assessing the system and maintaining strong leadership in the case of a high turnover of personnel in the education sector. The EFL industry sees a great deal of short-term workers and a low ratio of 'career' teachers. This creates problems of continuity which, in turn, can have negative implications for students and the remaining staff. It is important then that those responsible for hiring staff as potential leaders are in a position to make an accurate assessment of the longevity of their appointment. In order to ameliorate the disruptive effects of staff turnover, Davies (2003) says that it is essential that educational institutions have a clear long-term strategy that, in itself, provides leadership to members of staff.
In an attempt to establish a best-practice method, EFL teachers and administrators within schools could do worse than for focus on the work of Berube (2004). Giving suggestions for program administrators to evaluate the effectiveness of their ESL programs over time, Berube includes discussions on the types of data to use, how to collect the data, and how to apply what one finds to assessing the progress of students. Program evaluation can, should and must be used to provide for the continuous improvement of ESL instruction in schools.
3. Resources:
While strong leaders and talented teachers undoubtedly are the most important features of any school EFL or otherwise, the resources a school has at its disposal should not be overlooked in the success of its students. For instance, Haley (2004) argues that the benefits brought to pupils in schools from high-speed broadband internet access were highly significant when compared to the learning environment prior to its installation. Deeter-Schmelz (2004) concurs with this notion of the value of internet access but more in relation to teachers and the ease or access to- and depth of-information available to teachers from having use of the internet.
However, stating the ideal resources for a school ignores the reality that resources cost money and that in poorer countries, including Argentina, availability of funds to pay for these resources may be limited. Fernandez and Rogerson (2003) confirm this in their study which revealed that finance systems and school wealth have a direct impact on the quality of the resources within a school. It may for instance be unrealistic to expect or require a school in Argentina to provide broadband internet access in the classroom.
A shortfall in classroom resource may not though be as damaging as it sounds. Research from Denmark suggests that school expenditure on educational resources has little statistical impact on educational attainment. However, the conductor of the study, Heinesen (2005) noted that positive effects of expenditure were more noticeable when spent on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. One could argue that these sorts of pupils are more likely in Argentina, effectively still a developing country.
However, many researchers including Graddy and Richards, concur that the one resource that all pupils must have access to is a teacher. And that the lower the pupil-teacher ratio the better that access will be. Graddy (2005) argues that results from schools in the UK have shown a consistent negative relationship between increasing class sizes and decreasing student performances. It is the student-staff ratio that is, according to Graddy and many commentators, that is the most important factor in educational attainment and therefore the most important resource in a school is the number of available teachers. This is arguably the same for an EFL school and should be recognised in planning the strategy of the school in Argentina.
Conclusion
The problems that beset ESL schools worldwide are not, commonly, related to the national environment that they operate within. Therefore it is reasonably difficult to suggest factors specific to Argentina that would make operating a language school in this country particularly difficult or troublesome. Similarly, issues identified by Goker as unique to language schools, and therefore definitely areas of potential improvement, are applicable to language schools globally and not just in Argentina, Britain or any other individual country. If the analysis in this essay has shown anything it is that language schools lack a communicative network and a methodology of best-practise and that much rests on the ability of the teacher not just in the classroom but as a leader and manager also.
Therefore the suggestions made in this essay with relation to schools in Argentina are applicable to EFL schools generally just as wider, general views are applicable to Argentinean schools.
EFL schools need to develop a clear strategy, and manage this in relation to their resources; they need to ensure that they and the people in them can change and develop. Changes in EFL teaching have been happening at ever-faster rates and in ever-increasing complexity but perhaps the biggest issue remains that EFL teachers continue to remain in the best position to judge the progress of the students in their classroom and then can adapt a curriculum and teaching method around their observations. Given that this is true, language schools in any context must hire the best quality of teacher but at the same time create the right environment - e.g. small class sizes and solid administrative support - in which both the pupil and the teacher can flourish..
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Bibliography
Goker, S. D, (2005); A School based Management and Supervision Model in EFL Schools; The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 1, January 2005
Berube, B (2000); Managing ESL Programs in Rural and Small Urban Schools; Alexandria, VA; Teacher of English to speakers of other languages Inc
Pollard, L (2004); How to Set Up a Language School: Tips and pointers on starting, equipping and promoting an ESL school; www.onlinetefl.com
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