One of the contemporary problems of ESL/EFL teaching is that teachers or tutors find that language instruction is a messy and inexact “science.”
As Brazilian EFL/ESL teacher (and CELTA trainer), Dr. Cecilia Nobre, argued recently on Linkedin.com, if language teachers think “covering the [lesson] plan” will have made the lesson work, we “might be measuring the wrong thing.”
She writes that recently “a trainee told me she felt great about her lesson because she had covered everything in her plan. She had followed every stage, used all her slides, managed the timing well and given clear instructions. Yeah, sounds perfect!”
But the trainee’s students spoke for only about 7 minutes out of the 45-minute class.
Uh-oh.
Nobre tells us “I have spent years sitting at the back of training rooms watching lesson after lesson and I say this with care: we often confuse control with learning.
I too used to fill silence, rescue too quickly and explain before learners had tried. The lesson looked impressive (but the progress was slower than it could have been).”
She lists what should be “the practices of teachers whose learners actually improve–15 habits,” although she observes she may have “missed a few”:
ESL/EFL teachers succeed when . . .
1- They wait (for learners to respond)
2- They listen more than they speak
3- They recycle language relentlessly (re-teaching and re-applying words or phrases within and between classes)
4- They notice patterns instead of isolated errors (that learners make)
5- They trust learners to try first (knowing that learning comes about through effort and errors)
6- They delay explanations (allowing learners to do their crucial cognitive work)
7- They respond to what emerges (from students’ thoughts and expression, not expecting coherent “wholes” in responses)
8- They use fewer materials more deeply (they don’t distract from learning by changing materials artificially)
9- They value learner effort over correctness
10- They let tasks run longer (when they are succeeding in eliciting student interest and learning)
11- They give feedback selectively (correcting only errors that are relevant and timely, or waiting for later to preserve a learning moment)
12- They build routines for noticing (observation may allow insights)
13- They resist rescuing (intervening only when a learner has reached the end of their capacity)
14- They accept mess (learning does not happen tidily or in a linear movement)
15- They intervene with precision (interventions should be brief, direct and unambiguous)
Nobre writes: “Unpredictability is not failure, it’s evidence of thinking in progress.” That is true of lesson plans for teachers and for the learning process of learners.
She observes that while it’s important to consider “pacing” in a class, simply “covering material (strict adherence to a lesson plan) without uptake from learners is just tidy administration.”
Adhering too much to “rigid planning kills responsiveness and responsiveness is where real teaching lives.”
“What matters is what [learners] carry out of the room, not how polished we felt at the front.”
Teachers use “selective feedback” because declining to correct too often “protects fluency and focuses on meaning before form” (because “meaning” is where fluency lies).
“Control feels safe; thinking feels risky. Guess which works?”
Are you an ESL/EFL learner or a teacher? Does Nobre’s list of 15 habits for English language learning make sense to you? Please write in; I’d be delighted to hear from you.