Smelly TESL Assumptions
So after reading Assumptions have a Sell By date over at the Passionate Users blog, I got to wondering about the ideas, practices and assumptions that live inside the world of TESOL. I wonder just how many times we do things in the classroom just because it’s “the way things are done in the classroom.”
Have we, as Sierra so nicely puts it: “sniffed the milk” lately? When was the last time we really sat down to examine the usefullness and the meaningfulness of our classroom practice? Are we really helping our students/clients with what we do? Is what we do based on updated thought and research, or have we just fallen into the well-worn paths that all other esl instructors have marched on before us?
Think about it a moment. I dare you. I have a sneaky suspicion that there are a lot of path walkers out there, and I include myself on these trails as well. Let me try out an example of a well worn path that I am trying my best to break off of: Non-authentic testing.
Non-authentic. You know: student/client finishes their unit work and we dish out an exam with fill in the blank answers that he/she should have memorized responses to. That could be vocabulary work, grammar exercises, etc. Most books these days offer built-in exams after each unit, making your life oh so easy - but the exams that I have experienced of this nature, have followed the classic memorize, memorize, memorize - then spill out format. Students usually do great on these things, but what do they really prove? How have your student’s english skills been impacted? Has their language use and on the job performance changed? I think we rarely can give a solid, affirmative answer to that.
Sniff-sniff - smells bad. We need to check our assessment assumptions. Most testing that esl schools offer have gone bad. (Maybe they never were good to start with.)
What about the assumption of English class? Everybody “knows” that when you go to learn English, you have to do it inside the four walls of a classroom. (Meeting room, cafeteria, empty storage closet etc.) I don’t think the whole idea of this has gone bad, but I sure do think it could use a better container. Do 3 hour blocks of English time per week make a difference? If students/clients are not encouraged to engage OUTSIDE of class, following something similar to an 80/20 ratio where 80% english learning is done by me OUTSIDE, and the other 20% is done in the classroom, then I think we’re dealing with something that has gone bad.
Sniff-sniff - yuck! Are those lumps in there!
We should all know that learning a second, third, fourth language requires massive exposure to it. 3 hours a week kind of falls short of massive. I think it sorta falls into the “drip” category. So what needs to change here: the way we work in the classroom. It shouldn’t be “feeding.” It should be equipping and inspiring. By feeding, I mean WE - the teacher and our wonder books - are the source of language learning. Students are just passive receivers. Maybe we encourage them to talk, read, listen and write in class, but we fail to break out of our classroom walls. We fail to help them to “take it on” outside of class.
An updated learning experience would be helping your students/clients to find meaningful content - stuff that’s actually USEFUL and MEANINGFUL to their work or personal lives. The internet is a bank vault of rich content - podcasts can provide audio content to meet almost any listening requirement. Help your students to connect to it. Teach them how to listen to it - but on their own. Same goes for reading. (Blogs, focused articles etc.) The idea is all about equipping here. Showing and teaching how they can do it on their own, and inspiring them to do it. I love reading AJ’s blog, he’s right in the middle of this sort of work for his own language learning. (http://effortlessacquisition.blogspot.com/)
Those are just a few assumptions that are out there, but if we took the time, I think we could come up with a big bucketfull in need of careful consideration. What do you think? Are we doing “smelly” things just because it’s the way everyone else has done it before us?
Consider this: “It’s not enough to “sniff the milk.” We have to recognize that some of
the things which we believe are part of the fabric of our universe
might just be milk in disguise.”(Assumptions have a sell by date. Sierra)
