- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 5 2002 01.34 GMT
A new student, arms folded, is waiting to speak to me. Her stony expression tells me she is about to complain.
"Is your Business English class advanced?" "Er, yes," I reply. "Then why we use Upper Intermediate textbook? I must have ad-van-ced textbook. I go back Korea in two weeks. Korea company say must have ad-van-ced level."
Unplacated, she demands to see the director of studies. Two weeks later she leaves with an intermediate language level on her certificate, blaming teachers for her poor result.
The most common myth in Tefl is that English can be learnt from scratch to advanced level within months. Many students are not so much interested in their own language development as desperate to have a certificate with "advanced level" stamped on it to show their present or prospective employer.
Some Tefl schools are all too ready to oblige. A happy student will promote the school's name abroad.
In state education, most institutions have reference points from which to judge a new student's ability, including references from former teachers and school reports. Tefl is different. Often little is known about students' ability.
Instead we have a student's high, and sometimes unreasonable, expectations. Students often complain that money has not bought them fluency, refusing to accept that the high fees charged by many well regulated Tefl schools indicate teaching quality rather than a guarantee of fluency.
Naturally some complaints merit investigation. Tefl schools have their own watchdog: Arels (Association of Recognised English Language Services) for private schools, and Baselt (British Association of State English Language Teaching). There are 215 member schools in the private sector.
In conjunction with the British Council, the member schools are regulated by the "English in Britain Accreditation Scheme", which sets quality standards. Member schools are regularly inspected for effective management, adequate resources, professional teaching and meeting student needs. Students who belong to a member school have access to an independent ombudsman.
Last year, 27 students' complaints were referred to Arels, of which six were referred to the ombudsman. Two were partly upheld and four were not upheld.
So far Tefl schools seem to have avoided the trend towards litigation faced by state schools. Most hope they can rely on a prevention-is-better-than-cure approach. However, too many students continue to be lured by mushrooming, profiteering Tefl schools offering cheap courses.
There will always be students with unreasonable expectations. Nevertheless, there is an evident need to inform students about the regulations that exist to monitor the quality of their particular school; and that a satisfactory complaints mechanism is in place. There is no better time to dust off the school's Arels certificate and give it pride of place in the students' common room.
