kathg

Hi there, What a fascinating discussion...I am an EFL/ ESOL teacher specialising in Academic English and have been at it for nearly 20 years. A point to think about is that of the school and university situation in the UK. There has been a huge increase in the number of overseas students coming to the UK to learn english in a purely english speaking environment - the reason? They feel that it is much more effective to learn and be taught in an environment where the target language is used all of the time. These are students/academics/professionals who have been taught english in their own countries by non-native speaking teachers and are not entirely satisfied with their level of english. There is no doubt in my mind having taught english in many different countries in the world that students make better and faster progress if they are immersed in the target language. I have never needed to resort to translation in an explanation in all my years teaching despite the fact that I could have done so. On the other hand, we must not confuse the needs of people wishing to work as professional translators, they of course have completely different language learning and teaching needs compared to someone who is learning Business English or general English. Finally, my point is; that many thousands of people choose to be taught english by teachers who cannot speak their language for the simple reason that it is perceived to be (by the industry at large and backed by the academic study of second language acquisition) more effective. Of course, that does not mean that a teacher who uses translation to help them explain a vocabulary item or grammatical structure is totally wrong. In fact, in a workplace environment, where an individual was trying to support a colleague who was struggling, I feel it would be totally appropriate. The workplace is not the same as a classroom. KathG

 My partner and I are hoping to buy a plot of land and wondered if anyone had got a mortgage for land only? We are ok to finance building a house on it without mortgage. I d heard that French lenders were reluctant to give mortgages for this purpose... Any advice on this would be welcome. Any recommendations of banks who give good rates etc also welcome! Oh yes, what are typical arrangement fees on French mortgages? Thanks alot.