Teaching English - "Down on the Island" by Jim Cooper

During the 1950’s, a young professor from the United States named Jim Cooper went to the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez to teach an English course. As he began teaching in Puerto Rico, Cooper encountered many issues involving the education in “El Colegio”, as locals refer to the UPR Mayagüez. First of all, students didn’t even take English courses seriously, mostly because they underestimated it and thought everyone passed automatically. However, this was completely untrue. Most students didn’t speak English at all, unless they came from bilingual private schools or emigrated from the United States.

This issue clearly portrays Puerto Rico’s political status and educational public system in the 1950’s, mostly because the English language was completely foreign to people who were raised in rural areas of the island. In fact, even English professors didn’t know how to speak English fluently. Many had very thick accents, which made the teaching progress even more difficult for students. Jim Cooper even criticizes when Puerto Ricans mispronounced words, such as “feel” and “fill”, among others.

The process of settling English as a second language in Puerto Rico has improved in the last few decades due to the large amount of exposure from the internet, television, media, social websites, movies, and music. However, the approach for teaching English was completely different in the early 50’s. Therefore, it’s very clear how older generations speak a minimum –or none– English, compared to younger generations who have been exposed to the language from a very early age.