Dear Reza, you've asked a really thought-provoking question. I witness difficult situation with English in my country as well. But to my way of thinking, the proof of English classes is not in language learning but in opening up new perspectives for students as future specialists. Unfortunately, not all of English teachers get it and consider their subject as just a part of the curriculum. That causes students thinking about English as inevitable evil and they neither succeed in it, nor spend this precious time on something more practical, as you said, or what they are more up to.

How do you evaluate the quality of English teaching in your country?

There are of course more wide-spread languages - Mandarin and Spanish define the top-two in the world, but both for an understanding of different cultures, and for the possibility of an international career, it is important to learn more than your own native language well.

Dear Riza,

The same observations you make about learning English can often be made about learning other subjects, such as Algebra.

We as teachers have to make knowledge available to students in as interesting ways as we can devise.

Whether the students are receptive, enthusiastic, or bored is dependent, to a huge extent, on the culture, the economy, and the opportunities surrounding the students. It is a massive problem that a solitary teacher can do little to solve. We can only hope that a few of the students will ultimately embrace the wisdom and knowledge that is being offered by their teachers.

Dear Dr. Biria

Thanks for the thought-provoking question. This is really a controversial question among practitioners. I think the words "indiscriminately in different world countries" may bring some ideas more than just the target career of the learners to the discussion. In different countries, teaching English requires different factors be taken into account, such as students' first language, culture, and individual differences. Therefore, learners' target situation needs, first language, culture, and their background knowledge would definitely affect the teaching methodology. Taking discriminations into consideration makes a teacher as a flexible and creative artist.

In my opinion, the value of the language course does not lie in the students' preference or the usefulness of the language (these may vary greatly), but lies in the possibilities the course provides to students in general. It's natural that some students like a language and others don't, but the core value of the course is still there as long as there are students who love it.  Also, we cannot expect the same achievements from our students, just as we cannot make all students like the same course. 

It is a mistake to think of education as being only a utilitarian endeavor.   The curriculum SHOULD be designed based on research about the outcome skills AND knowledge.  

So the people who actually create the curriculum need to make this determination (or sometimes the governmental offices above the curriculum developers).

Your question about "should" may be answered differently in different countries and at different levels of education.  Some of the question may be what the students want, but the more important question is what do they NEED.

I will answer NO, this should not be so. Unless for countries such as Nigeria (where I come from) where English is the official language of the nation. It is the official language because Nigeria has about 350 language and hundreds of ethnic groups. This invariably makes it difficult for people to understand themselves in such a place with cacophony of voices.

The perception of English language as a superior language has been problematic for a long time, even among researchers and scholars. There are many European countries and Asian nations that conduct their education in their national languages rather than English. This is all in a conscious bid to de-westernise nations, customs, pedagogy and structures.

In South Africa where I am currently completing my doctoral studies, there have been calls for decolonization and de-westernization of education - curriculum, hegemonic English structures and systems and methods. This has even led to serious protests by South African students for a good part of 2016. They agitate for decolonisation of higher education in South African universities where there are still trappings of apartheid and white supremacist tendencies.

I think I have blabbed too much... Will stop here. Don't know if this means anything to your question?

¬Chikezie

Dear Chikezie is it correct to say (I come from) or( I came from)

Even English is your National language the question here I think is about scientific language which even native speakers may need to study

It is difficult to study a new language. There should be a strong motivation to do it. There are several reasons to be able to communicate in a foreign language - employment, professional, educational, cultural, and leisure requirements. Let's look at them separately:

- employment - if a job is requiring one to visit, read, write, and understand a foreign language, while being in foreign countries and communicating to foreign nationals - English, to better or to worse, is a language of choice. It has happened historically, and it is the fact which is difficult to ignore.

Scientists have developed Esperanto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

as a common international language, but it didn't work out and got no serious spread. Whereas almost all International organizations, committees, conferences, meetings, institutions, banking, healthcare, custom and transportation services, etc. used to utilize to one or another extent English, along with the national language. There are other languages like German, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, French, etc. which are used by millions of people. However, none of them got so much worldwide spread and recognition like English. Irrespective to the reasons, it is the fact to deal with. 

-professional and -educational - if important for initial and continues education books, journals, and magazines, video and presentation materials, major scientific and engineering organizations, exhibitions, marketing and sales events, and communication to foreign colleagues worldwide require to utilize English - it is another strong reason to study it.

-cultural, -leisure - English speaking countries are interesting and exiting tourist destination, they collectively have rich histories, demonstrate significant cultural, educational, entertainment, sport, healthcare, transportation, housing, scientific and technological standards.

As a final note - I learned that a foreign language is worth to know even a little bit. Sometimes, with a few right words and hands one can express many things. So that even a bit English purhaps may eventually pay. 

Dear Riza, I think that as English is a world-wide used language, we do need teaching it for students of all countries.

Regards

For international communication purposes, I believe that the constructed international auxiliary language, Esperanto, should be taught in different countries world over. However, it is a pity that the trend in different countries is to adopt English rather than Esperanto.

In our country of Japan, with the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020, the government has proposed changes to increase the level of English ability in their students. Changes like starting introductory English classes in 3rd grade elementary school and making the subject compulsory from the 5th grade. However, English education in Japan is not working. See the links below:

https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/whats-wrong-with-english-education-in-japan-pull-up-a-chair

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/02/15/language/lets-discuss-english-language-education-japan/#.WTNztlKB2-E

http://web.iess.ehime-u.ac.jp/raineruto1/02RD2.pdf

English is the first language in the world thus I think it should be taught in all countries but not indiscriminately

Best Regards @ Reza Biria

The English language subject is a very important subject, and it has a distinct nature like the rest of the other subjects, so it must be taught according to specific controls and standards and not random, and that the English language teacher must possess a set of teaching skills for teaching the English language, along with teaching skills The public that he should be able to also master.

It is possible to teach the English language to all students in different countries of the world, but taking into account the mother tongue and the countries' needs for it

Dear Dr. Reza Biria ,

This link related to your topic:

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/should-non-english-speaking-countries-teach-in-english

Since English has become one of the most dominating global languages, for knowledge acquisition and communication a good command of English has become very important in the current context. Hence English being taught indiscriminately to all students in different world countries is always advantages to the learners.