How ESL Classes Online Bring the World to You

It is true that we live in the Age of Convenience. Anything we want can be brought to the door by the click of a computer mouse. The most famous novel by the great American author Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is called The Age of Innocence. If she were living today, she might well have called it The Age of Convenience. If you want an old, rare out-of-print book, there is no need to hunt for it from bookshop to bookshop. You go online and find it in less than five minutes. If you want a huge Chinese feast, you click and it arrives at your door.

Similarly, ESL classes can be brought right to your home through the everyday miracle of ESL classes online. When I began my ESL practice many years ago, my students were limited to those who lived in New York. They would come to my home, which has a special teaching space in it just for my students. I enjoyed this system, and to be truthful I am a little nostalgic for it. But whenever I start to think that way, I think of all the people I could not reach with my ESL teaching practice limited to just one spot, even as popular and famous a spot as NYC. Online teaching allows me to reach the whole world, not only people who live within the NYC subway system. So a lot has been gained.

Most adult learners have a specific reason for wanting to take ESL classes online. For many people, ESL is important to their work. Others want to travel or want to be able to speak to people, not just from America, Britain, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but from the whole world, since English has become the world’s common language. Still others are about to enter a university where English is the language of instruction, so they need ESL classes to help them take the TOEFL Test, which all universities in the United States require for foreign applicants.

For example, a scientist who needs better English pronunciation to deliver a speech at an international convention will not need ESL classes online that decode breakfast menus! This is an extreme example, but for adults, ESL classes should be targeted. That is why I always say,
“The student is the textbook.” This means that my teaching methods are tailored to the individual student.

I want people to come away from my ESL classes feeling that they have something that is made just for them. And this is the case! I think about all my students between classes and plan our lessons to give them just what they need. This is process is as rewarding to me as it is to them.