Day 3. Communication competence and grammar accuracy... I see grammar as a scaffolding which aids in building our languages skills and allows climb up the tower of our language proficiency. When one i

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Anna

Day 3. Communication competence and grammar accuracy... I see grammar as a scaffolding which aids in building our languages skills and allows climb up the tower of our language proficiency. When one is able to form affirmative and negative sentences as well as questions in Present Continuous, forming Past Continuous goes very smoothly. Scaffolding is a rigid structure usually made of steel. There is a fairly big chance that one may use Present or Past Continuous, yet becoming an expert of mixed conditionals may be left as a treat to delight oneself on an upper-level balcony. We need to identify the steel. Mistakenly, people tend to think that speaking competence does not involve regular speaking practice from the very beginning, but is magically obtained once a certain level of English is reached. Surprisingly, speaking fluency requires speaking practice. Grammar drills, listening, reading comprehension exercises – they all are very helpful but relying solely on them will not guarantee speaking fluency. “I am not ready yet – I still have not learnt the future perfect continuous!”, “When my level is a bit higher, I will be able to speak with foreigners. But not now!" Our inner fear knows no limits to pseudo-logical excuses. Let’s then focus solely on COMMUNICATION. Language school advertisements lure me with their English communication courses. Appealing to my sloth-like nature they make the offer even more tempting: No grammar! No homework! No tests! New and innovative methods! Relaxed atmosphere! Low prices! No pain – all and every gain. I had a crazy idea that if I spoke English to people from a few countries from each continent I would gain the experience with various Englishes and become a self-confident English speaker. It worked. I had yet another crazy idea that involved my students: Phone assignments to obtain certain information in English from people of various nationalities. Recently one of my intermediate students who had accepted the phone call challenge (after me repeatedly nagging her: I know you think you can't do it; I know you think your English level is too low; I know you are stressed; try to dial the number and at least say hello - if you get too nervous you will simply hang up the phone) said with almost annoyingly cheeky confidence: "I know I make many mistakes and my sentences are clumsy but I CAN EXPRESS in English EVERYTHING I want. Now I need to learn more words to communicate faster". Is teaching more about transferring knowledge or believing and encouraging learners?

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Day 3. Communication competence and grammar accuracy...

I see grammar as a scaffolding which aids in building our languages skills and allows us to climb up ascend the tower of our language proficiency. When one is able to form affirmative and negative sentences as well as questions in Present Continuous, being able to forming Past Continuous goes very smoothly. Scaffolding is a rigid structure usually made of steel. There is a fairly big chance that one may use Present or Past Continuous, yet becoming an expert of mixed conditionals may be left as a treat to delight oneself on an upper-level balcony. We need to identify the steel.

Mistakenly, people tend to think that speaking competence does not involve regular speaking practice from the very beginning, but is magically obtained once a certain level of English is reached. Surprisingly, speaking fluency requires speaking practice. Grammar drills, listening, reading comprehension exercises – they all are very helpful, but relying solely on them will not guarantee speaking fluency. “I am not yet ready yet – I still have still not learnt the Future Perfect Continuous!”, “When my level is a bit higher, I will be able to speak with foreigners. But not for now!" Our inner fear knows no limits to pseudo-logical excuses.

Let’s then focus solely on COMMUNICATION. Language school advertisements lure me with their English communication courses. Appealing to my sloth-like nature, they make the offer even more tempting: No grammar! No homework! No tests! New and innovative methods! Relaxed atmosphere! Low prices! No pain – all and every gain.

I had a crazy idea that if I spoke English to people from a few countries from each continent I would gain the experience with various different varieties of Englishes and become a self-confident English learner speaker. It worked. I had yet another crazy idea that involved my students: Phone assignments to obtain certain information in English from people of various nationalities. Recently one of my intermediate students who had accepted the phone call challenge (after me repeatedly nagging her: I know you think you can't do it; I know you think your English level is too low; I know you are stressed; try to dial the number and at least say hello - if you get too nervous you will simply hang up the phone) said with almost annoyingly cheeky confidence: "I know I make many mistakes and my sentences are clumsy but I CAN EXPRESS in English EVERYTHING I want. Now I need to learn more words to communicate faster".

Is teaching more about transferring knowledge or believing and encouraging learners?

Day 3. Communication competence and grammatical accuracy...

I see grammar as a scaffolding* which aids in building our language skills and allows us to climb up the tower of our language proficiency. When one is able to form affirmative and negative sentences as well as questions in present continuous, forming past continuous goes very smoothly. Scaffolding is a rigid structure usually made of steel. There is a fairly big chance that one may use present or pPast cContinuous, yet becoming an expert of mixed conditionals may be left as a treat to delight oneself on an upper-level balcony. We need to identify the steel.

Mistakenly, people tend to think that speaking competence does not involve regular speaking practice from the very beginning, but is magically obtained once a certain level of English is reached. Surprisingly, speaking fluency requires speaking practice. Grammar drills, listening, reading comprehension exercises – they all are very helpful but relying solely on them will not guarantee speaking fluency. “I am not ready yet – I still have not learnt the future perfect continuous!”, “When my level is a bit higher, I will be able to speak with foreigners. But not now!" Our inner fear knows no limits to pseudo-logical excuses.

Let’s then focus solely on COMMUNICATION. Language school advertisements lure me with their English communication courses. Appealing to my sloth-like nature they make the offer even more tempting: No grammar! No homework! No tests! New and innovative methods! Relaxed atmosphere! Low prices! No pain – all and every gain.

I had a crazy idea that if I spoke English to people from a few countries from each continent I would gain experience with several types of English and become a self-confident English speaker. It worked. I had yet another crazy idea that involved my students: Phone assignments to obtain specific information in English from various nationalities. Recently, one of my intermediate students who had accepted the phone call challenge (after my repeated nagging: I know you think you can't do it; I know you think your English level is too low; I know you are stressed; try to dial the number and at least say hello - if you get too nervous you can simply hang up) said with almost annoyingly cheeky confidence: "I know I make many mistakes and my sentences are clumsy but I CAN EXPRESS in English EVERYTHING I want. Now I need to learn more words to communicate faster".

Is teaching more about transferring knowledge or believing and encouraging learners?

*or, a scaffold. Both words are commonly used.

Very well written!

Teaching is about providing the optimum conditions for learning! If someone doesn't want to learn, you are wasting your energy.

Christian, thank you for your reply! Somebody said: If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I agree that transferring knowledge and encouraging learners go hand in hand. I am just curious what is the share of encouraging and what is the share of transferring knowledge in the teaching process. I used to think that transferring knowledge was the main task while motivating was the additional one. Some latest experiences have shown me that it can also be the other way round. Which is for me surprising. I studied teaching at the university, not coaching:) Yes, we "all know" how to motivate others as we do it every day (maybe:). But if motivating students is the pillar of teaching (maybe it is an exaggeration:) not a peripheral task - I need to study a bit more about coaching:) Cheers!

Very metaphorical! But I agree, I think that for most people, the value of language lies in being able to communicate. So what if you make lots of mistakes, if your point is clear, then you're well on your way. Some people say that if you start out making lots of mistakes, you'll reinforce those mistakes and keep speaking a garbled language, but I think that's not true, I think we're actually all very smart and can smooth out the mistakes over time as long as we have a bit of guidance. So transferring knowledge and encouraging learners go hand in hand. Teachers should let students express themselves first and foremost, trying new things and patterns even if they don't nail it. And then teachers can gently guide students towards the correct way over time. Being able to speak a language with mistakes is better than not being able to speak it at all! Obviously for things like TOEFL, this is perhaps a somewhat dangerous attitude, but I think for all other purposes, most people would agree. In fact, these ideas have probably been formalised in some ESL or linguistics theory somewhere, as professional teachers would be able to provide.

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