Some Thoughts on Teaching English as a Foreign Language

This book is based on the author’s thoughts about the teaching of English as a foreign language as presented in a short paper at International House, London, in 1984. He had been involved in TEFL while serving as Education Officer with a Gurkha battalion in Hong Kong from 1978-1981 and in 1984 was preparing to return to the territory as Senior Education Officer at the Training Depot Brigade of Gurkhas, a post that he eventually held for almost five years. His primary responsibility there was the design, management, delivery and evaluation of EFL programmes for hundreds young Gurkha recruits each year, but apart from other military duties, he also had some responsibility for the running of the Gurkha High School and the Gurkha Children’s School in Sek Kong, both of which included EFL as a subject. He stands by much of what he wrote 36 years ago but, in 2019, added notes intended to bring the contents up to date. For this edition, the third, he has added further material. This short book is not intended to be a prescription for good EFL teaching (or testing) and it contains no lesson plans, syllabi or curricula. In addition to thoughts for EFL teachers, it includes advice on the TEFL environment. However, it is more a signposting exercise - combined with the homespun thinking of someone long involved in the TEFL field - than a comprehensive guide to TEFL or, indeed, the English language.