Students or Clients?
I was reading an article in one of professional publications (I can’t remember which one and I’m not up to walking over to the library to find out) and this is the question I came up with: Am I teaching students or am I providing a service to clients? The author was casting EFL in the mold of a service provided to clients and invoking some TESOL document as a guide. The article itself is not as important as trying to come to some kind of answer to my question.
At first I balked at the idea that I’m a service provider to a client. It felt wrong. However the more I thought about it I came to the conclusion that this is a legitimate paradigm for some learners. For example, EFL students who are trying to get an IELTS score required by their employer could come under a professional-client paradigm. Workers at Samsung who get English lessons from the company would also fall into this group. EFL learners in a bridge-program for an institution of higher learning that uses English as the language of instruction would not come under the professional-client model.
The difference between these situations is that the client-learner has immediate professional goals and requirements driving their language learning, while the student-learner has immediate educational/academic goals driving their language learning. Client-learners are looking at immediate compensation (hiring, retention, promotion, compliance with employer requirements) for their language learning whereas student-learners are looking at a long-term pay off for their efforts which will come when they’ve attained the education they seek and follow the career path they choose.
6 Comments
Interesting question – it’s one I haven’t really looked at head-on before. Personally, I feel uncomfortable looking at my students as clients and myself as the service provider – then again, I’m working in a bridge-type program on a community college campus. I think I agree with how you’re dividing the two types of learning situations. And I think I’m glad I’m on the teacher/student-learner side.
welcome Emily!
I think I agree with you. I like the academic environment most days. Why do you prefer the academic (teacher-student) setting?
For me, as petty as it may sound, I think that a teacher gets a little more respect than a language-teaching professional. People/family understand the concept of a teacher but they don’t understand how teaching one’s native language called be called “professional” and to be honest, I’m not inclined to attempt to enlighten them.
That being said, I have no aspirations toward a Phd in TESOL.
I think part of the reason is that it feels more like a teacher and student share responsibility for learning (the student has to put a lot of effort into the process and can’t just sit and absorb), while with the client-provider framework there’s a bit of an assumption that the provider will give the correct input that the student needs to absorb to reach the goal (IELTS, business, whatever).
But I don’t think those differences HAVE to be there – I’m just saying this based on my own experiences.
In my host culture, I wouldn’t want to push the
service-provider/client paradigm b/c I could see it
rapidly devolving into the servant/master relationship. Some would say that this already the case. There does tend to be a “do it for me” attitude among the “clients”. After all, isn’t a common client comment, “I’m paying youto do XYZ!”
Hi Daniel,
It’s interesting how often the “credentials” vs “education” dichotomy comes up when discussing EFL. I still believe that they are not opposites, that we can properly prepare students for exams such as IELTS and give them a wide ranging sense of the language. It’s not an either/or situation if it is handled in the right way. I would even argue that a narrow emphasis on the requirements of such exams works against excellence.
As far as the client/provider model is concerned I believe that it is inappropriate. While students know exactly what they want, they often have little or no idea about how to achieve their goals, and that’s why they come to you. The doctor/patient model springs to mind as more fitting.
Just a thought.
welcome craig!
I too like the dr/patient model to some extent. I’ve even used it to explain some things to my students about our respective roles.
An interesting note here is that author or the article which triggered my post also drew upon the dr/patient model as an example of the professinal/client paradigm.
While I agree that we can help students to prepare for such things as the IELTS, I don’t feel compeled to “convert” them to a wider range of thinking. If they’re interested in a wider sense of the language, then I’m happy to share it but if they’re unreceptive I’m happy to help them attain their immediate goal as well.