"In our quest for quality English language teaching worldwide, research must come first."

James Alatis, TIRF Trustee

The International Research
Foundation
for English Language Education

Why I Give to TIRF > Christopher Bernbrock

Why I Give to TIRF

Christopher Bernbrock

Chris Bernbrock has taught ESL and administered programs in Thailand, China and Southern California. He has an M.A. in TESL and two additional years of doctoral work in Applied Linguistics at UCLA, as well as an M.B.A. from UCLA. In his current work with IBM and the TIRF Board of Trustees he brings global perspective that balances his expertise in business with his abiding interests in language teaching, learning and research.

I give to TIRF out of respect and gratitude in memory of one of it’s founders – Professor Russell N. Campbell; to give a little something back in a field that was for me so formative early on in life; and because I believe wholeheartedly that students young and old as individuals hoping to participate more fully in an increasingly global world, as well as businesses and whole economies, will benefit enormously from the impact TIRF can have on language policy and planning over the years ahead.

Russ Campbell was my teacher, my mentor, my boss for awhile and always a role model who helped me and so many others achieve more and become more than knew we could. I feel like Bill Walton talking about UCLA’s Coach Wooden when I think about Professor Campbell. He brought out the best in us, always set the bar a little higher and taught a whole generation of us the importance of always striving to be our best and what it meant to be truly world class in all we undertook – in our teaching, in our research, in running programs and for some of us in other areas later. Russ personified the best traditions of academe and what it meant to be collegial in our collective responsibility to make the world a better place, and made those of us fortunate enough to have been around him all the better for it. Little did I know or fully appreciate then, but these were lessons in life far beyond the field of applied linguistics. One of the primary reasons I therefore give to TIRF is out of respect in grateful memory of Professor Campbell.

I left the field of Applied Linguistics a couple decades ago, an example of what can happen when someone goes overboard in an area like English for Specific Purposes. For me it was English for Business, and I’ve been in business ever since – with IBM. But what I learned during my ten years in TESL and Applied Linguistics, on both sides of the desk in the classroom, in running programs abroad and in doing research, helped me more in my subsequent career as a businessman than my MBA or any other business training. It was what I learned about being professional from ESL (and from those I studied and worked with throughout those years) that was so very formative for me in my own working life - and has stayed with me ever since. And as business continues to become increasingly global in nature, a background in TESL and Applied Linguistics turned out for me at least to be invaluable in the work world of today. For this reason, too, I choose to give to TIRF – to give a little something back to a field that gave me so much early on in life.

Finally, I wholeheartedly believe in what TIRF is all about. Just as there has been a focus of research and effort to address the issues of a 'digital divide' in the increasingly wired and rapidly evolving world of information and communication technologies these days, so too there is an even more fundamental 'linguistic divide' that is limiting the access and ability of individuals and whole economies to participate, compete, survive and thrive in this new interconnected world. This 'linguistic divide' is largely about having the English language skills and proficiency required for so many of today’s jobs throughout the world in this 21st century workplace. The simple reality is that some level of English is required for an ever growing number of higher level jobs, particularly as economies continue to evolve in a knowledge-intensive world of cross-border trade and commerce. Addressing the issues of this 'linguistic divide' has become strategically imperative for governments, education systems and the private sector in workforce development and economic policy and planning – and TIRF is the one organization with a mission to, in part, address these issues. For this reason also, I give to TIRF.

We all have our own different reasons for why we give to TIRF. These are mine. I hope you will decide to give, or continue to give, to TIRF as well – and maybe even share your own reasons 'why'.