A colleague and I were recently discussing the issue of
which aspects of our professional practice as language instructors are informed
by our formal training, which by our classroom teaching experience and which by
our own personal experience as learners and users of additional languages. The
topic came up in regards to the issue of the acquisition of metaphorical
competence. For both of us, our own experiences of the process of becoming aware
of the metaphorical schemata we hold in our L1, and then overcoming those to
fully acquire metaphorical competence in other languages greatly informs how we
approach teaching from the most basic structures to collocations, phrasal
verbs, and idioms.
Anyway, I’ve been
doing a lot of travel and work in one of my additional languages lately, doing
a lot of meetings and presentations in Spanish across Latin America. This has
also made me reflect on how much of my teaching is informed by my own
experiences in learning and using additional languages. Very practical
strategies for learning and communication are another area that I draw on,
sharing my own strategies with my students. There are the things we always
advise our students to do—we all
have our old chestnuts—but it’s good to have a reminder every so
often of some of the real-life challenges that may come up and some practical
advice on how to cope.
Here is what has stood out for me lately:
Predict and Prepare
One mantra I always emphasize when working with advanced
users of academic English preparing for academic presentations, conferences or
their thesis defence is predict and
prepare. In advance of any particular event or context where they will have
to talk about their research or discuss ideas in their field, they should think
hard to predict what they have to talk about, and questions they may be asked
or the responses they may have to give. Then, I advise them to actually sit
down and prepare a list of the key words, concepts, terminology, expressions
they will need to draw on in doing all of the above. They should not just make a
simple list, but include common synonyms or collocations and related word
forms, as well as pronunciation. Most people are used to the concept of
rehearsing presentations, but I encourage students to also practice
smaller-scale or more informal sections of these communicative events, such as
Q and A responses, answers to certain predicted interview questions, and
rebuttals to criticisms of one’s
research.
I’ve
certainly had to practice what I preach in this respect with regards to my
recent work in Spanish. When presenting in English, I don’t tend to script things too closely;
I’ll prepare notes or points on a
Powerpoint and then speak off of them rather extemporaneously. But in Spanish I’ve been speaking about an area with a
lot of specialized terminology, which I’ve
really had to research and prepare for. Thankfully, a lot of the questions I
receive are easily predictable, so that has helped me focus my preparation.
Regional variation and Register
I’ve done work in 7 different Latin America countries in the last while, each with its own patterns of second person pronoun use (tu, usted, vos, etc.) and variation in register. I’ll try to read up on the use of pronouns in each country before I get there, but there’s only so much an article can tell you. I try to be very sensitive and observant around patterns of use and how they vary in service encounters, meetings and when speaking to and advising youth and prospective students, where the age factor comes into play. But it’s tricky! I try to err on the side of formality if in doubt.
This has inspired me to put more emphasis on register in my
classes. Sometimes there can be a tendency to view English as simple in this
respect, as there is only one second person singular pronoun. But I am feeling
inspired about spending more time on examining the other ways register,
hierarchy, respect, distance, etc. are expressed in English in interpersonal
encounters, and encouraging learners to be observant and sensitive to these
phenomena. I used to spend a lot of time approaching register in this way when
I taught a lot of business English, but in an EAP context I find the focus
tends to be on informal vs. academic writing and speech. I think the regional
variation in register in Anglophone countries is also important, but as is
usual in many ELT materials, the discussion tends to stop at British vs.
American differences. Those trying to figure out register in Canada are left to
figure it out for themselves! Observation of patterns and sensitivity become
all the more important.
Informal Recasts
Awareness of the fact that even recasts in formal classroom
settings go ignored most of the time has left me determined to try to listen
for them and incorporate them to improve my accuracy, especially of vocabulary.
For example, in a conversation with a student, I had used the term biología marítima to refer to marine
biology, but he replied using the term biología
marina. “Whoops!”, I said to myself, and took note to
correct that term in my internal dictionary.
Does awareness of the research around recasts and the fact
that they often lead to very little uptake make learners more likely to listen
for them, take them in, and therefore make them more likely to be effective? I
think it does, and always bring this up in class, especially in speaking and
pronunciation classes.
Paraphrasing
Finally, not that there as any doubt, but these experiences
have driven home the importance of fluency and confidence (over accuracy) in
asserting yourself and being accepted as a user of a particular language. Many
people, whether subconsciously or consciously, hold the idea that fluency
(interplaying with pronunciation here) in a language reflects your cognitive state.
So in real-life professional communicative situations it’s best to just employ any strategies necessary to get on
with things, rather than getting hung up on grammatical mistakes or blanking on
a particular piece of vocab. Finding time in class not just to discuss these
strategies, but to practice them via role plays or other activities is very
important.
I’m thrilled to present at the 