ESLELLEFLESOLEALESPEAPELFEILTESOLTEFLTESLELT

ESL = English as a Second Language

ELL = English Language Learner

EFL = English as as Foreign Language

ESOL = English for Speakers of Other Languages

EAL = English as an Additional Language

ESP = English for Specific Purposes

EAP = English for Academic Purposes

ELF = English as a Lingua Franca

EIL = English as an International Language

TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language

TESL = Teaching English as a Second Language

ELT = English Language Teaching

While the International Teaching Assistant (ITA) Training is in session, and the teaching facilitators are getting the new international graduate TAs prepared for their classroom, I am checking my email in the "oasis" (our hospitality room) while two people from housing & food services enter to refresh our coffee and tea. One of the hospitality people asks "what this is for" and he follows up with "oh for the foreigners?" Having been in academia where everything needs to be expressed politically correct and "backed up" I caught myself being slightly offended by the word "foreigners," because we have conditioned ourselves to think that the word "internationals" is more respectful.

Then I thought about all the other words we are using to "specifically indicate" what we are talking about... The earlier described hospitality employee (usually undergraduate students) didn't seem to think about diplomacy; he reacted from his instinct without meaning ill. This brings me to many thoughts of what it means to be in academia... how we change our communication patterns... not wanting to "offend" anyone... if we are true to reality... what do we offer the world when we write up our articles with our numerous acronyms and descriptions that only other academics read....

I have no definitive answers to these thoughts and questions, just posing them here to share my thoughts. It's perhaps an interesting research study. I will now get back to my foreigners and share a cup of coffee with them.

Source used: http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/a/esl_acronyms.htm by About.com on Tuesday, August 9, 2011.