IS ENGLISH BEAUTIFUL?

A Pathways student named Carol once wrote of how she came to be studying English in Australia at PLC Armidale. She said that as a young teenager in China, she ‘fell in love with English’. She thought our language was beautiful, and proceeded to win an English writing competition in her native country.

This student went on to advance quickly in her grasp and use of English in the Pathways Program. She greatly impressed some visitors to PLC Armidale when she MC’d a showcase of the program, engaged in humorous banter with the crowd, and hosted a public conversation with a foreign university student. She exuded sophistication and her responses were given with such ease, that the university academics attending marvelled at her success. She certainly made her teachers look good! But how did she achieve this?

I believe that Carol’s enjoyment of language fuelled her learning. She saw English as something of beauty, to be enjoyed, not just something to be mastered for academic purposes. This term in our online Pathways Poetry classes, we have been introducing our students to the sounds of English, its musicality, the rise and fall of intonation, and the beauty and enjoyment of rhyme and rhythm. Our students, who don’t regularly hear English spoken in China, have become attuned to its sounds and have even performed a poetry reading themselves. We hope that they will find their hearts being swept away by the musicality and beauty of the English language, not just pass the exam. Perhaps they will say of their Pathways days, that it was during their education at PLC Armidale, that they too, fell in love with English.

Rebecca Eastment

PLC Pathways Teacher