My name is Rick Robinson, and I have been an ESL instructor at Laney College for almost 40 years. As I see it, I have two important jobs. My main job is to be your ESL coach, and my second job is to be your ESL doctor, the man who can fix your “broken English”!
I’m not really your teacher! That’s someone else — but who?
Your real English teacher is you — because only you can actually teach yourself this language! If you are going to do that job well, you must promise to do all of the homework that I give you and to come to class—on time, every day. If you do your job, I promise that I’ll do mine. I’ll coach you and help you fix your English as we go along.
I’ll admit that some students find me to be a little bit different. Of course, “different” doesn’t mean bad (…it doesn’t necessarily mean good, either, for that matter), so I hope that you will find my “different” teaching approach to be a good one for you.
We will work together to build the framework of your language, and then, we’ll put the individual bricks into place later on. I won’t focus very much on your textbook—but you definitely should! You should read and practice the lessons in every chapter every day. My main goal is to show you the Big Picture of English as quickly as possible, and then, immediately, I’ll try to get you to start speaking, listening, reading and writing in English.
One more thing: I can answer most of your questions about English, but it’s important for you to know that sometimes the best answer (the only answer) is, “Just because!”
Oh yes, and — stay connected!
—————— Rick Robinson —————— ESL Doctor and Coach 