Grassroots Action to Improve Esl Programs1

Most second language (SL) educators attempt to deliver good teaching partly by teaching well in the present, and partly by planning for better teaching in the future. Taking steps to improve SL teaching may involve working on the knowledge base for teaching, or it can involve working with the social situation of teaching. In this paper 1 will discuss the process of improving IIe8d\ing from,a social·~Despitethepicture commonly piaented of teaching, as being done by a teacbj". aIortewith a group of students, itdoes not exist in isolation. As teachers, we operate within a social setting and in an administrative/bureaucratic milieu, and other members of the social network , in which we are enmeshed have different goals and objectives to our own. FIl'St, the students themselva may not have goals directly congruent with our own-they may not actually be in our classes to learn English, but rather for social reasons (to make friends, for example), or because attendance is mandatory. However, this does not necessarily prevent teaching from continuing, if only because students are las powerful than teachers in most school systems. Second, the nature of the ESL business, pre-professional as it often is, means that many of our fellow teachers do not have a professional attitude, and do not have adequate training.2 It may be possible to deal with them through a process of education, particularly if thee individuals are our equalswithin thesystem in termsofpower. On theother hand, there are those