"Success in English" by Bruce Bagnell

In a publication of Taipei Municipal Cung Cheng Senior High School, Y-generation (No. 2 April, 1996), I found this article by Mr. Bruce Bagnell.

I got to know Bruce when we worked together compiling junior high school English textbooks starting from 1996. A native speaker and then a professor at NTU, he provided constructional suggestions on the English we would use in the textbooks. He is a very nice gentleman, working with him was a pleasant experience, no pressure at all. I was glad to come across this article when cleaning out old stuff. Before giving this publication away, I typed up the article for English teachers and learners.

Be faithful to the original, I leave two blanks after each sentence, which, however, is not the norm now.

Success in English

Bruce Bagnell

Yesterday a young man sat down next to me on the bus.  From his school uniform, I knew he was a student at Taipei Municipal Fu Hsing High School.  As he was alone, I expected a silent ride into town. Instead, much to my pleasant surprise, he asked me a few questions in English, starting a conversation in which both Mandarin and English were used until he got off the bus some 20 minutes later.  Usually a student will feel too embarrassed to start to speak to a foreigner, much less practice his English, but this boy dared to be successful, and won.

During our conversation I learned that, actually, he didn’t consider himself to be a good student in English.  Like most students, he found English difficult, especially to understand and to speak, having very little opportunity to use English. I encouraged him to keep trying, assuming him that, if he would continue to take chances and opportunities like the one he took beginning a conversation with me, he would surely find success.

After he got off the bus, I began to think about the real meaning of success in English.  Is the student with the highest grade the most successful in English?  It depends.  A student who doesn’t do well on tests may in fact be the one who can carry on a conversation and make a foreign friend, while the “best student” keeps quiet, losing the chance to learn more about the people and language of native English speakers.  The “best student,” too, may confine his English to the textbook, while the so-so or even poor student spends time reading English magazines or trying to understand English radio programs or movies.  Who is successful here?

Of course a poor student in English class may never try to learn more English outside of school (indeed, most students who do poorly in English are not stupid; they are just not interested in English!). just as a student who is at the top of his English class may not enjoy outside readings and English language media.  The point here is, however, that “success” in English should never be determined by test scores alone.  The student who learns more about other people, or computers, or his favorite hobby or interest by using English is, each time he does so, a success.  In this way, a lifetime of successes is ahead of anyone who dares to use English in any of the many ways English is available to us outside the textbook: on TV or the radio, in magazines or newspapers, in books and journals, on computer programs [and now we have the so-called "Internet", on street signs or advertisements, on maps and graphs, and especially, from the many hundreds of millions of English speakers.  Like the one you might sit down next to on the bus.

For you to download:

Success in English