I am your instructor for spring ESOL 0042 reading class. You may wonder about hearing from me so soon since here we are starting a holiday.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Barbara Kinstley. I am a Texan. I have lived here all my life. My husband and I have a grown daughter and a son and daughter-in-law.
I want you to know that I am impressed by students who come here to learn English. I never had the nerve to do what those of you are doing. That said, I want you to remember that that is your goal.
Learning English is not the thing to do--i.e. if social pressure is the only thing driving you to learn, you won't learn much. However, if you have a clear idea of why you want to learn English, why you came all the way to the United States to do so, you cannot fail to learn. It's impossible. You will eventually feel comfortable switching from your first language to English and back again without hesitation. That is our goal.
It is a job, folks. I have had students who have family members, friends, and employers who have no idea that studying in college is just as much of a job as any officially-titled job.
It is very hard to persuade those folk that you need the time to study, but if you have any intention whatsoever of learning English, you must devote the time to it. Much of the work is done outside of class. You cannot put your textbook under your pillow at night when you go to bed and hope that the necessary information will seep through by osmosis. Learning doesn't work that way.
Besides saying that I am looking forward to meeting and working with you, I have a more compelling reason.
We started using the Longman Academic Reading Series last spring. The first thing that happened was that the northeast part of the United States had a blizzard. The books were very late in coming.