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LETTERS: End festering English sores

I agree with Kao Shih-fan (高士凡, "Keeping it English in the classroom," Dec. 25, page 8) that learning by speaking and listening in small groups compares favorably to learning through large group discussions or traditional teacher-centered activities, but no matter how many English teachers agree that interaction and communication is how language is best learned, studies show that there are more efficient and rewarding ways to teach English than by staging the dog and pony shows that in large Taiwanese institutions have come to represent the communicative approach.

A serious problem associated with having students practice with each other in a simulated environment is that they listen to language that is not constructed naturally. They hear guesswork collocations from their peers which, when repeated later, do more to amuse and confuse native speakers than to convey their intended meanings.

Assuming the ultimate purpose is natural, fluent communication with native speakers in social, cultural and business contexts, it is irresponsible on the part of instructors and despicable on the part of institutions to facilitate environments wherein learners are guaranteed to reinforce each others' errors.

Sure, the instructor will monitor activities and will also usually comment on them afterward, but with several pairs or groups practicing simultaneously at a downright virulent rate of error perpetuation there is little the instructor can do to prevent language learning sores from festering.

And I am not aware of any evidence of Kao's contention that if students don't speak English in the classroom, they won't speak it outside the classroom and they'll never improve.

Using one's native language to clarify an English word or phrase will facilitate understanding much more than babbling under pressure ever will. There is no need to rush. It's not a race.

Demanding production right on the spot strips the learner of the autonomy that is the indispensable condition of meaningful learning. (By meaningful I refer to how the target language will some day make a positive contribution to one's life.) A caring instructor's responsibility is to help the individual establish their own target context, to assist in choosing appropriate content and media and to be there when guidance is needed.

Unfortunately, many institutions in Taiwan have their instructors teach two-hour conversation classes comprising more than 60 students. Factoring in minimum teacher talk and a break, that works out to just a little over a minute-and-a-half that an instructor can actually listen to any individual student speak, evaluate what needs to be addressed and provide suitable feedback. So temptation heightens to get groups speaking and listening. Group conversation is a dynamic and workable classroom management approach for a high number of students in a department dictating the use of a traditional classroom: The instructor can, through a few simple techniques, basically get a class running all by itself. It's high time instructors began pressuring their institutions to stop this nonsense.

Martin de Jonge

Fulong, Taipei County
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