Have you heard of the term of ELF? Short for English as a Lingua Franca, a latin term.
Lingua means a bridge language, a common language, a language that makes commucination possible between groups of people (usually people with no common language, according to Wikipedia.
In the ancient years, this language was Ancient Greek and later Latin, and the term Lingua Franca is actually Latin, so I guess Romans had understood the power of their language.
So nowadays, we all agree that this language is English. English is used everywhere, if you want to study, to travel, to work (not necessarily abroad), that's the language you have to speak. And if you look around, most people do speak English, at least in a level to communicate somehow.
English is important in the business world and we, teachers, can see that more and more adults come to us for classes.
There are two categories of adults who need to learn or further their knowledge in English:
College Students (or potential students) who need mostly academic English (use the language to write papers, or give lectures) and
Business people who need the language to communicate. This varies depending on their field.
With academic language, things for us teacher are simpler. We have books, we know the exams, we can work on essay structure (or any kind of academic paper structure).
But in the second case things are4 different. Terminology in particular fields is not always an issu, since people do know the English terms in their field, even if hey can't speak good English.
I have come to the conclusion that when I teach ELF, grammar is not always so important, if the speaker makes his/her point clear. I focus on other things, especially on communicative approaches, culture differences, potential dialogues / conversations and presentation skills.
Research plays an important role if you teach ELF, but that's why I love it.
PS. I have to say that what I write, is my personal view, so if somebody disagrees, I'll be happy to hear their opinion.
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