ABSTRACT
A hidden aspect of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) studentsin writing classes or elsewhere-is the colonial legacy of the profession, a legacy that in some senses taints those of us who teach these students. This legacy can involve, on some unspoken and mainly unacknowledged level, a feeling of superiority of West to East, of English to other (especially nonEuropean) languages, so that teaching English becomes a kind of preaching “a better way” to the “natives.” We who teach ESL classes, as well as composition classes that include nonnative English speakers, must confront the possible consequences of this colonial shadow.
