This is in response to a comment Batya's made in one of her recent emails in which she states: "I fear for the future of ESL education in our country". Without denying the importance of the continuing dialogue regarding the log, this comment, unfortunately, reflects an even more fundamental issue and gross misconception that has been inculcated and perpetuated, first by the Ministry and now, I hope unwittingly, by many teachers. The misconception that I am referring to is that in Israel we can teach English as a second language. This is a misinterpretation of the meaning of the term and one that is doubtless responsible for the Ministry's attempt to import L2 methodologies and 'shortcuts' from the U.S. and other native English-speaking countries. In Israel, English is not the predominant language to which our population is exposed in schools or outside their homes and immediate neighborhoods. Unlike Spanish-speaking and often ghetto-living immigrants to the U.S., in Israel, Hebrew is our immigrants' 'second' language; and both for them and our native-born Hebrew speakers, English is a FOREIGN language; and needs to be taught as such. I don't have the statistics, but I would guess that the majority of English teachers in this country are not native English speakers and know from their own experiences that, for most people, learning a foreign language requires a great deal of discipline (self and class) and very hard, repetitive work. Moreover, despite the Ministry's 'New Age' slogans and the cartoon (and usually very distracting) textbooks, in the real world (our classrooms), not everybody can succeed in internalizing vocabulary and intuiting the grammatical and syntactical structures of a language which is not their own; and, NO amount of English-language television exposure or wishful, 'there must be an easier way', thinking will change that. This is not to say that the language-learning classroom need be boring or rigid or uncreative, but it's we, the teachers, that make those differences, not Ministry policies and mistaken, misleading definitions. So Batya, don't fear for the future of ESL in Israel it shouldn't have a future. As to EFL, well let's hope that a new broom will sweep away the nonsense and make it possible for the teachers to return the schools and classrooms to places of discipline, learning and education and not just 'bagrut' assembly lines. Stephen Byk ************************************** ** Join ETNI on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/31737970668/ ** ETNI Blog and Poll http://ask-etni.blogspot.co.il/ ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org ** post to ETNI List - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** help - ask@xxxxxxxx ***************************************