You should clarify your purpose

Michal and Tom,

I am an English instructor in Arizona, USA, and while doing research on reading and writing theory, my students came across your site, specifically the article regarding how English classes are not a good place to learn English.

Your ideas are thought provoking, and I can't disagree with you in too many areas. However, somewhere in your website you need to differentiate your ideas of learning English and the purposes of English classes in US universities. In American colleges, English courses are meant to increase critical thinking skills of students, within the communication realm of the English language. Instructors work under the assumption that students have adequate knowledge of English to effectively write about the subjects in the curriculum. Teaching the English language is not even considered. There are the cases when ESL students struggle, and in our case, we work individually with those students rather than teaching the whole class for those few.

I just believe you should clarify your opinions a bit further to show that you are not railing on all English courses -- only those that actually teach English language.

Paul

Paul,

Thank you for your message. Naturally, our article has nothing to do with English classes for native speakers of English taught in American or British schools. I guess we assumed this would be obvious to everyone, given that our site is clearly for learners of English as a foreign language, but -- you're right -- it never hurts to over-explain things a bit and clear up that potential area of confusion. I will add a short explanation at the beginning of the article.