LOOK RIGHT, KEEP LEFT for Conversation

You know how you get a new car, married, break your arm... and suddenly you notice how many people around you are driving that car, getting married, sporting casts...? It's like that for me now about the real job of English teachers. Confirming conversations, published articles, innovative education programs... are popping up all over the place now that I understand the real job of teachers is not to stuff students' heads with boring senseless information that doesn't make a difference, isn't accurate and forgotten as soon as tests are completed. My job is to teach the patterns that are always true which empower students as quickly as possible to USE THE ENGLISH THEY HAVE comfortably in authentic situations. My job is to prepare them quickly and competently to support their success and continued learning in the real world. 

I was trained to teach letters, numbers, vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing to English learners. It didn't take long to notice no matter how much students studied, they never spoke English confidently. Most never spoke English outside the classroom at all.

From Rita Baker's first book Brain Power https://amzn.to/19OFwgh I learned human brains are pattern seeking, meaning making machines. We don't process or retain details. Burdening learners with exhaustive nuances of spelling, grammar, phrasal verbs, word order... is the car-analogy equivalent of teaching Newton's Laws of Motion and expecting them to drive. It doesn't work. All I had to do was discard everything I had been trained to teach and find the patterns that are always true.

It wasn't nearly as difficult as I had expected. And loads of great minds have cottoned on to the process of learning languages and the language teachers' role in the process. 

Jason West English Out There

Benjamin Constable: How People Really Learn Languages  

Benny Lewis: The Secret to Learning Many Languages 

A great way to start looking at this innovative approach to learning is to see the whole picture and decide how to proceed from there. You probably never looked at the critical parts of successful conversation in this way before so I'll walk you through it.

Vocabulary, Context and Participation are Given

• Vocabulary: Words are really helpful in conversation.
• Context: Context is everything, more so than words because people convey messages using only context and body language all the time.
• Participation: Fluency is only attainable by actually speaking to others.

Clockwise from the top:

Intelligibility is composed of Word Stress and Pausing. English is a stress-based language. Native speakers have unlimited tolerance for individual sound omission or substitution and grammar mistakes don't even register but if the word stress is missing or in the wrong place English speakers can't guess what a non-native speaker is saying. Frequent tiny pauses are necessary for the brain to process what is being said and to form responses.

Grammar is relatively insignificant, probably a smaller wedge than indicated in the pie chart. If grammar is wrong or totally missing, conversations are still successful. (Native speakers' grammar is terrible.)

Confidence can't be underestimated. Some cultures are naturally unselfconscious about making mistakes and these people learn to speak English the fastest.

Culture is the unwritten rules of behavior that underpin any social group of people. Including but not limited to: Good manners. When is it my turn to talk? How long do I talk? How much information is appropriate to share with strangers?...

Strategies are what to do when things go wrong. Rita Baker counselled me to Look Right, Keep Left and control my instinct to turn right in a crisis. This was my survival strategy if things went wrong.

Expressions and Humor are true indicators of fluency not tests. English is idiomatic and abstract not linear or concrete as grammar suggests.

Non-Verbal aspects of conversation, for example, gestures, body language, tone of voice... are stronger indicators of meaning than words any day of the week. Some say up to 80% of the message.

Listening and Watching are the cornerstones of successful learning and successful conversation. It can't be emphasized enough that learners MUST listen to and watch hundreds of hours of a new language in order to be successful using that language.

Look Right, Keep Left is the least amount of information I needed to successfully drive a left-hand drive car in a left-hand drive country. Word stress and pausing are the least amount of information an English learner needs to make themselves intelligible in an English speaking environment.

Listening, Watching, Word Stress and Pausing cover 50% of the elements required for Speaking Fluency. Someone should tell learners they have enough vocabulary and information to speak English successfully now. As soon as you do you'll start to notice the way we teach English is evolving all over the place!

Yours in ESL,

Judy Thompson

p.s. Are you looking for Accents as a feature? For the most part it isn't. Everyone has an accent. When Accent interferes with Intelligibility then you have a problem that needs to be addressed. The best accent coach (also a pattern thinker like Rita Baker) is Peggy Tharpe. www.americanpronunciationcoach.com