Teaching English methods must be modern and realistic

Teaching English methods must be modern and realistic

Simon Marcus Gower, Executive Principal, High/Scope Indonesia, Jakarta

There have been numerous arguments about what are the best
methods and materials for learning English. Some claim that
textbook examples written by experts that simplify the language
and learning are the best source of material.

This is perhaps likely to be true when learners are at lower
levels but as learners make progress it is necessary for their
materials to progress too and this means that the materials they
use should be more realistic and up-to-date.

Simplification of materials creates an artificial condition in
which the reality of the language is altered and important
context may be lost. Successful language learning largely depends
on contextual clues. These help the learner to understand what is
either said or written by connecting the words or phrases that
combine to constitute the meaning of the message.

Sadly, too often the essence of meaningful communication can
be lost in teaching examples and this is equally true in
Indonesia as it is in any other country in which English is being
learnt. Theorists propose that learning is most successful when
the material to be learnt is reduced into manageable chunks that
the learners may easily digest. However, there is always the
danger that this process of simplification actually makes the
learning strangely more difficult.

The language often just does not work or will not conform to
teachers' desires to neatly place it into easy chunks for the
learners to consume. Also, the risk of artifice resulting from
simplification jeopardizes one of the most critical aspects of
language learning -- namely that it is a practical tool. If the
language learning is allowed to deteriorate to the point where it
no longer resembles or at least reasonably simulates reality,
then its practical value is lost and ultimately it is no longer
really useful to learners.

It is for these reasons that teachers of English in Indonesia
should aim to maximize the authenticity of the language that they
lead their students towards. This means keeping current and
up-to-date with the way the language is used. That is -- Modern
English and its actual usage and this, in turn, means
capitalizing on authentic material that can help keep the
language learning real and relevant.

Keeping up-to-date and aware of Modern English is important.
Even where a learner may have been led to a good knowledge of the
language real deficiencies may still exist. The communicative
ability of the learner may be undermined if care and attention
has not been paid to the way the language is now.

Take the example of an accomplished and intelligent young
Indonesian lady who had received a good and quite formal
education in Europe. Her tutors had given her a quite classical
education that meant that she possessed an excellent appreciation
of classical European literature. But this also meant that she
had developed a very stiff, formal and rather old-fashioned model
of the English language.

Consequently, even when meeting close friends she remained,
seemingly, distant and coldly formal. A typical quite antiquated
greeting from her would be something like "Good morning, Peter,
and how are you today? Isn't it a simply wonderful morning?"
Though well intentioned and perfectly polite, such a greeting
would probably be more familiar to Victorian England than the
twenty-first century -- when and where English is much less
formalized and has become the language of international
communication. The recipient of this greeting wore a quite
puzzled look on his face.

Because her teachers had chosen not to be current with their
teaching of the language she had been equipped with a form of the
language that was really outmoded. Even her friends would be
perplexed, amused and even bemused by her word choice and the
consequent way in which she expressed herself and communicated
with them.

The use of authentic materials is, then, important in
equipping the learners with knowledge and skill they can use now.
The definition of authentic material can be broad but typically
it is thought of as material that is produced in the language not
specifically or premeditatedly prepared for language learning. In
this sense it is bound to prove more challenging to the learners
but importantly it retains those real and natural contextual
clues that will both help the learners and advance their ability
to recognize structures in the language.

In Indonesia printed authentic material may not really be in
abundance in the English language but there are a number of
sources that may be called upon by teachers. This newspaper, The
Jakarta Post, as an English language daily is useful, as are
international magazines such as Newsweek, Time and the Economist.
Also, there are computer-based sources -- the Internet brings a
large quantity of material from which appropriate selections may
be made.

But authentic material should not only be thought of as being
on the printed page or text-based. Authentic listening material
is also a useful learning aid and may prove very important. A
recording of a conversation may provide something very useful and
largely under-examined in language learning -- namely spontaneous
speech production.

Conversation and speech generally requires real-time
processing. Listening is generally more difficult than reading.
Learners have to think fast and grasp meaning on the spur of the
moment. They cannot go back or turn the pages back to recheck
their understanding. For these reasons getting learners either
involved in or listening to real-time speech and conversation
creates real material and real exposure to the language.

With this kind of real exposure learners may develop
strategies that help in their developing language. These may
include listening for keywords, picking up the gist of the
conversation and noticing tone of voice, intonation and rhythm
that will all help to fill in the gaps where there may be any
lack of understanding.

Making the learning of the language real has numerous benefits
and high amongst these is the fact that a more natural and
realistic model of the language is being recognized and pursued.
Often the language is imprecise or faltering, it is not always
strictly grammatically correct; there are many hesitations,
changes of direction, improvisations and fillers.

Giving learners opportunities to become aware of and attuned
to these facets, and even linguistic idiosyncrasies, of English
helps them to be more successful in their receipt and production
of communications. This realistic and hence immediately useful
learning should be the goal of all teachers. Then teachers and
learners alike may really be achieving communicative competence.

The opinions expressed above are personal.