ESL In Vancouver

University Degree Education and Teaching

ESL In Vancouver

103 Research Project

(Final Draft)

Margarita Banting

FDNS 103 – U2C

TA: Laura King

April 9, 2003

While doing research for my proposal at the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library in downtown Vancouver, I was overwhelmed by a wave of dark-haired individuals in their twenties. Many of them carried Korean-English, Japanese-English, or Cantonese-English pocket dictionaries which proved useful for what seemed to be their homework.

A number of questions arose in my mind as I observed these individuals: Why was the Central library filled with this type of individuals, who appeared to be foreign students? How did this population occur? Clearly a social change had to take place some time in Vancouver’s history. This experience helped me formulate my initial interest for my proposal. I was to investigate the cultural, academic, economical, and psychological effects of foreign exchange students on Canadian educators in Vancouver. I wanted to discover if these effects were enough to make a social impact on the Vancouver population. Of these educators, I intended to include homestay families and ESL instructors. I wanted to see whether the homestay families’ and ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers’ experiences with the students impacted their lives as much as it did to the students. Upon searching for academic resources, however, I discovered an imbalance of information between educators and students—there were many sources which recorded the experiences of exchange students, but there was a lack of credible resources which recorded the experiences of host families or of ESL educators.

For my research project, I have resolved to focus my attention on private ESL schools. I would like to show that although the private sector of ESL educational institutions has been present for many years, its growth and importance as an industry has increased only in recent years (1990’s), and has affected Vancouverites socially, economically, and culturally. Perhaps this recent growth is a reason why there are insufficient sources that write about private ESL institutions; this could also suggest that changes in Vancouver’s society have happened only recently. I will examine why there is a growth in private language institutions in Vancouver. I will also investigate the social impacts on immigrants of Vancouver due to the ESL industry. From a global perspective, I will explore the social changes Vancouver has experienced as a result of globalization.

Most Private language institutions are situated in downtown Vancouver. Accordingly, this region will by my main area of focus for research, although in a number of cases, I will refer to institutions outside of the area. The ideas conveyed during my references to other areas will still apply to downtown Vancouver schools. I will gather much of my data from an interview with Jim Clark, an active figure in Canada’s ESL industry. He is the former President of PELSA (Private English Language School Association) and the current President of the Canadian College of English Language. I will also refer to various articles, as well as some websites from the Government of Canada.

I have compiled data from several private language schools in downtown. One of the ways I have used this data is by compiling the establishment dates of each institution according to year. By creating the tables, I will show the increase of private language institutions in the downtown area during the early nineties (see Table 2).

Since the federal government’s decision to change the immigration laws to be more fair and lenient during the late 1960s, a ‘boom’ of immigrants from the Pacific Rim (namely China, India, and the Philippines) has populated Vancouver with people ...

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diverse ethnicities (Hiebert, 1999). English, for many new immigrants, is not

their primary language. As a result, a number of non-profit ESL institutions were established during the early 1970s in an attempt to integrate immigrant children and

Table 1 Table 2

youth into a more ‘western’ culture. Because the ESL programs targeted mainly immigrant children and youth, many of the programs were limiting because they were included within the elementary and secondary school systems (Vancouver School Board, 1989).

Several educational institutions such as the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Columbia College however, noticed another purpose that ESL programs could serve in addition to education. UBC and Columbia College sought economic profits by attracting foreign students to study English in Vancouver for a fee. Throughout the 1980s other institutions followed, and eventually during the 1990s, many private ESL schools specialized towards foreign students were created (Clark, 2003). In Table 2, we witness a rise in the establishment of private ESL schools in downtown Vancouver during recent years: in the late 1980s three schools were established, followed by six in the early 1990s. Since the early 1990’s, the private ESL institutions have attracted so many students to Vancouver that ESL education has become a billion-dollar industry in Vancouver alone (Clark, 2003).

The recent growth of private ESL institutions is attributable to several factors which have also triggered some discreet social changes in Vancouver. Firstly, ESL is an ideal industry. Foreign students who visit Vancouver are willing to spend large amounts of money on souvenirs and visits to tourist attractions, as tourists do. Unlike tourists who visit Vancouver on an average of three days however, students stay longer (the average stay is three weeks), spending more money during their lengthy visit. Also, foreign students, during their stay, are able to maintain reciprocal relationships with Vancouverites—the students learn not only English, but also about Vancouver’s multi-cultural community. In turn Vancouverites learn about the student’s own culture and values, impacting the way they perceive and act within a society—this is one way a social change can occur through ESL (Clark, 2003). Furthermore, the ESL industry does not harm the natural environment as other British Columbian industries (such as fishing, logging, and mining) would (Clark, 2003), nor are the students dangerous to Vancouverites.

Secondly, because ESL is an ideal and unharmful industry, the federal government encouraged institutions to form private, profitable ESL programs in the 1990s. During various Canada Trade Missions to different countries since 1994 (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Previous Missions), the government heavily marketed ESL educational opportunities in Canada to foreigners on an international level (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Company Profiles). As a result, many students chose Canada as a place to study English, and the increase of ESL institutions occurred in the 1990s.

Thirdly, the use of English for communication has become a means to overcome the language barrier. It is used in “international business, diplomacy, and science” (Kitao, 1996). English has become a way of globalization, and many students learning ESL realize that in order to be ‘globally connected’ whether through business, diplomacy, or simply the internet, it is important to be proficient in English (Kitao, 1996). The Canadian government, too, realizes that English is a desired language for international communication, which is another reason that they support the establishment of private ESL schools in Canada. The result is a growth of ESL institutions in Vancouver and other Canadian cities. Since governments often play influential roles in society, it often has the power to change it. In this case, the federal government supports the ESL industry. Because of this support, a number of ESL schools have been established in downtown Vancouver during the 1990s (Table 1). The schools regularly attract many foreign students, and through the years, Vancouverites have been affected by this unharmful industry in a number of ways: socially, through the steady inflow of foreign student population, which in a sense has become a permanent component of Vancouver’s population; economically, through tourism, shopping and educational fees; and culturally through personal encounters and exchanges of values with foreign students.

In the late 1960s, during the ‘boom’ of immigrants from the Pacific Rim, non-profit ESL programs were created for the purpose of integrating them into a ‘western’ culture. There was an evident relation between immigration and ESL during the 1960s, and a number of social changes took place. The immigrants, once part of a society in their native country that had its own set of values, were challenged to adjust their values to those of a Canadian society. As immigrants, they were a part of the Canadian population. However, they still did not posses the same values as those of a Canadian. Through ESL programs, the immigrants experienced a social change: an adjustment from their old society to their new Canadian one. This social change is still occurring with new immigrants presently learning ESL (Ministry of Education, 1999). There have been no relations, however, between private ESL institutions and immigrants, because private and profitable ESL institutions were designed to attract foreign students also to Vancouver as tourists (Clark, 2003).

The growth of ESL institutions in Vancouver reflects the importance of the English language on an international scale. The widely spoken language is a form of globalization in that it overcomes language barriers and unites different cultures through English. On an international scale, ESL programs not only affect local areas like Vancouver, but also contribute to globalization. Globalization is defined as: “changes in world culture and economy involving an increase and intensification in scale and density of global networks and circulations; deterritorialization” (Petrillo, 2003). James Watson claims in his article, “China’s Big Mac Attack”, that local communities take multi-national corporations and their products and modify them to fit into their own local culture and values (Watson, 2000). In a way, the English language is a multi-national corporation modified to fit a local setting like Vancouver that holds its own unique values. This modification shows how local communities can affect the global community. The establishment of many private ESL schools in Vancouver is a result of globalization—this is a means of how the global community can affect the local community. There is a reciprocal relationship of global and local communities. In the context of ESL in Vancouver this reciprocal relationship can be seen in international relations.

Private ESL institutions in Vancouver have helped established many trade relationships with other cities and countries. In many instances, foreign students “move into positions of prestige and power in their own country” once they have learned the English language and Canadian culture. This creates trading relationships and cultural understanding between Canada and their country (Clark, 2003). The trading relationships and cultural understanding, furthermore, allow more opportunities for Canadians to travel and become foreign students themselves.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘society’ as “a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests” (Merriam-Webster Online). An impact on common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests would mean a change in society, and that is what the ESL industry does to Vancouverites. An exchange in values with a student affects common traditions of Vancouverites; an emergence of recent privatized ESL institutions affects other institutions such as Central library in downtown with the large population of black-haired individuals, while a sharing of cultures would spark mutual interest. Although immigrants have separate ESL programs designed to integrate them into Canadian society, they still experience a social change, which is the adjustment of values to a Canadian’s. On a global scale, through the impacts of globalization (i.e.: the internet and mass media) (Petrillo, 2003), English has emerged to be the international language of the world (Talebinezhad, 2001), and thus, Vancouverites have become aware of the importance of ESL education. This awareness has caused a shift in their cultural, social, and economic values from a localized to a more globalized point of view. But the reciprocal relationship between the local and the global continues, showing validity in Rosenau’s theory that globalization and localization must coexist, but acknowledges that between the two, globalization will dominate.

Works Cited

Ashworth, Mary, Jim Cummins, Jean Handscombe. Report of the External Review Team _ on the Vancouver School Board’s ESL Programs. Vancouver: Vancouver School Board, 1989.

Clark, Jim. Personal interview. 26 March 2003.

Company Profiles. Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. 8 April 2003.

< http://www.tcm-mec.gc.ca/central-europe/ccel-en.asp>.

Hiebert, Daniel. “Immigration and the Changing Social Geography of Greater Vancouver”. BC Studies, no.121. Spring 1999: 47.

Kitao, Kenji. “Why Do We Teach English?”. The Internet TESL Journal. 2.4 (1996).

7 April 2003. < http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kitao-WhyTeach.html>.

Merriam-Webster OnLine. Merriam-Webster Distionary. 8 April 2003.

<http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary>.

Ministry of Education Special Programs. English as a Second Language: Policy, _ Guidelines, and Resources for Teachers. British Columbia: Ministry of Education , 1999: 5.

Petrillo, Larissa. Globalization. Foundations 103.002 Lecture Series. University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 30 January 2003.

Petrillo, Larissa. New Interests & Methodologies: Community & Cyberculture. Foundations 103.002 Lecture Series. University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 27 March 2003.

Previous Missions. Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. 8 April 2003.

<http://www.tcm-mec.gc.ca/previous_missions-en.asp>.

Talebinezhad, Mohammad R., Mohammad Aliakbari. “Basic Assumptions in Teaching English as an International Language”. The Internet TESL Journal. 7.7 (2001). 4 April 2003. <http://iteslj.org/Articles/Talebinezhad-EIL.html>.

Watson, James. “China’s Big Mac Attack”. Globalization. Ed. Katrin Sjursen. The Reference Shelf, 72.5 (The H.W. Wilson Company, 2000).