EAL - English as Another Language

[orangutan]

Just to add to the confusion, there are some other uses as well (perhaps more British than American). ESL is sometimes used for learners in countries where English is official or semi-official without being most people's native language. This may apply to certain Commonwealth countries; I have also seen it used in connection with the Netherlands and Scandinavia, where English is widely used and the standard tends to be high.

The teaching of English to immigrants to the UK, by contrast, is often called (T)ESOL (Teaching of) English to Speakers of Other Languages.

On the expression "second language", this seems to be widely understood as "two or more" - much as in linguistics "bilingualism" is sometimes used to include "multilingualism".

As for new-fangled things like EAL, I haven't a clue.

[PROESL]

Originally Posted by ymnisky

Thanks for the explanation PROESL. I thought I had been studying and teaching ESL, now I see I was wrong - I have been studying and teaching EFL.

You're welcome. The two exist, ESL and EFL, but I think ESL is more widely known, generally speaking.

If the course content has little to do with living and working in an English-speaking country, then EFL is the most applicable term, yes.

People that are here, that is in the world of English-speaking countries, temporarily to study English, likely have course content that is more like an EFL course than an ESL course.

These are very general distinctions. Distinguishing between the two is not as clear once people start reaching the higher levels. If someone is a low intermediate here, they have enough ability to survive. But if they want better employment, which sometimes means doing what they were qualified to do in their native countries, or something similar or simply better, then advanced ability is definitely necessary.

There are a variety of English language courses at all levels of ability that have different content, different purposes, and different goals.

Here are a few local categories of ESL:

EWL - English as a Working Language
EFA - English for Advancement

The phrase "job readiness" is currently in vogue. So there are ESL courses for "job readiness".

Then there's the increasingly popular workplace English.

State funded programs never offer business English courses or English for professionals. Sometimes state funds are available for workplace ESL, but funds are getting harder to come by for that, which may be just as well, anyway.

Here's one that's known worldwide: ESOL - English for Speakers of Other Languages. That's been around for a long time, and they seem to keep pushing it, but I don't think it'll replace ESL.

[konungursvia]

Originally Posted by Tdol

They use EAL in some schools in the UK, but I think there it stands for English as an Additional Language.

Some schools here in Canada do just that as well. I think the issue is that specialists always invent terms which avoid popular undertones, in order to seek objectivity, as they end up sounding value-judgmental otherwise. But as soon as the term is successful enough to be vulgarized, i.e. spoken by the masses, it picks up a sub-text, and the term is abandoned in favour of yet another euphemism.

[Tdol]

If ever I'm running low on acronyms, there's always a conference where I can pick up some new ones.

[Abstract Idea]

Originally Posted by PROESL

EFL - This means English as a Foreign Language. This refers to learning English in a country where English is not the first language. ESL refers to learning English in a country where English is the first language. Given the needs of both types of students, ESL students and EFL students, course content would be different.

I am wondering to each degree is such difference from ESL and EFL a consensus. For example in the homepage of usingenglish it states:
"UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics."
I think the majority of UsingEnglish users do not live in a English speaking country (I do not have access to the statistics) - at least I don't.

[PROESL]

Originally Posted by ymnisky

I am wondering to each degree is such difference from ESL and EFL a consensus. For example in the homepage of usingenglish it states:
"UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics."
I think the majority of UsingEnglish users do not live in a English speaking country (I do not have access to the statistics) - at least I don't.

That's true. However, I think that ESL is the broadest possible heading, and EFL is a category of ESL. I see it that way, and others may as well. Despite how I have outlined the differences between ESL and EFL, there are many things that ESL and EFL still have in common, and you could say that you and others who study English outside of an English-speaking country are ESL students as well as EFL students.

ESL is the most used intialism. There's also ESOL, but I feel that was invented as an artificial way to make English language teaching sound more professional. It means English for or to Speakers of Other Languages. I think this is obvious. Unless we are talking about native speaker literacy levels, then obviously we are teaching English to speakers of other languages. Who else would we teach English to? Lions, tigers, bears, and wolves? Of course, we know who learns English and who our students are. Therefore, ESOL is not necessary. English as a second language makes sense, which, of course, means "a second language to utilize for the practical purpose of communicating for work, business, and general international communication - or for whatever one's purpose may be. I call it ESL. That name does the job. It says what it is. It's easy enough to understand.