All of us know how important skills are. Language skills are often talked about. Their interrelatedness is also often talked about. That is, you can not talk about speaking, unless you talk about listening and you can not separate writing skill from reading, and so on. But how about other skills? Inter-personal skills, social skills, and so many other skills!
Perhaps, we need to take a comprehensive view.
Here's a story which throws some light on this.
A young man graduated from a university and was just whiling away his time doing nothing for some time. His parents got worried and took him to task. He promised them that he would think of it and would not depend on them any longer. He took a decision. He would send an application for a job, in response to the first advertisement he would see next morning.
Next morning! The newspaper! The first advertisement! It was from a public school. They wanted a swimming coach. This young man felt dissapointed. He did not know swimming. How could he apply for the post of a swimming coach? But he had already taken a decision that he would respond to the first advertisement. So he wrote out an application, using his computer skills. Then he decided to see if he could do something about learning swimming!
He tried his best. But he was so much afraid of water that he did not dare to enter water. Perhaps, the only thing that was possible was to read as much as possible about swimming! He was a good student and had a good reading habit. So he read almost everything that was there in the library on swimming.
One day, to his surprise, he received an invitation for an interview. Again he tried to go to the swimming pool, but he could do nothing about it. He gathetred some courage and reported for the interview. At the interview, he answered all the questions like a parrot. Everbody was impressed. No body asked him if he knew swimming. He was offered the job and was asked to join immediately.
He started his lessons. He gave students long lectures on the subject. He used CDs and all other means to make his teaching effective. It went on for sometime. But students were eagerly waiting to get into water! And he would not talk about it. When the school head also asked him about it, he promised to do something about it.
Next day, he asked his students if some of them knew swimming. Four students said that they knew it. He appointed them as group leaders and asked them to lead a small group of students and teach them. Students learned very fast under the guidance of the group leaders. Very soon almost all the children became experts. The schoolhead was so pleased that he called the young man and said that the annual day of the school would have only one event that year-- and it would be swimming!
The day arrived. All preparations were made. The Chief Guest also arrived. The event started. The Guest was very impressed. He wanted to meet the swimming coach. The swimming coach was in full suit. It surprised the Guest. But he was told that the coach was very special.
As the event was progressing, the coach was cheering the students moving around the pool. And it so happened that he got slipped and the next moment he was in water. He started shouting for help. Students rushed and saved him. He realised that now that was the end of everything. He would be dissmissed. But to his surprise, the school head announced that all of them were very much impressed. They did not know that he also possessed dramatic skills. He was told that he would be given one more responsibilty. In addition to being a swimming coach he will be the incharge of their drama department.
Now tell me how you react to this!
Comments
albertrayan
Harsh, many thanks for the wonderful story. What is the moral of the story?
1) Be a facilitator
2) Try to take risks
3) Have presence of mind.
Now I add another famous anecdote to highlight the importance of presence of mind for teachers of English.
When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking. "I have and idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you." Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!"
When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly Then a supremely pompous professor ask an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool. Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me."
Albert P'Rayan
Editor, ELTeCS ISL
Columnist, Education Express, New Indian Express
ELT resource person
Email: rayanal@yahoo.co.uk
Mobile: +91 988438
Harsh Kadepurkar
Dear Albert
Thanks for your response. And also for your story.
I wish to talk a little more about skills, particularly development of skills. As we all know we can not separate 'listening' from 'speaking' and 'reading' from 'writing', we need to know that there are several other skills that go with the basic language skills. Narrating, describing, reporting, summarising, note-taking and note-making and so many other skills go with language skills. And how about acting skills and dancing skills and athletic skills? The list is unending.
What I want to say today is a little different from all this. Usually skills are taught or dicussed or practised as academic skills. We tend to forget their relevance in our everyday life. For example, when we are dealing with summarising or reporting, our students feel that these skills are important for examination and as soon as the exam is over they will have nothing to do with them. But if we tell them how relevant all these skills are, through an example or two, it helps them to understand its importance. Here's an example:
I ask my students if they share with their parents their experiences at school or college. Some of them 'yes'. Then I ask them if they tell everything that happened in the school. Some of them say 'No, not everything, but only important things'. I ask them how they decide what is important and what is not. They tell me that they have learnt it somehow. Without being conscious of it, they have developed this important skill of language: distinguishing between important and unimportant. The discussion becomes more interesting when I ask them if their parents give a patient listening to everything that they say. Most students tell me that their parents are tired with their hard work during the day, and ask the children to tell them in short whatever they want to say. Here, students have to use their summarising skill and also their reporting skill.
I tell them when they take up jobs, they will experience this again. Your 'boss' or your 'head' may give you some assignment. If you are doing a marketing job, the assignment could be a survey or selling a product. If you are working for a publisher, the assignment could be reviewing a manuscript. But what follows all this is a 'report'. May be a two page report to your immediate 'head'. But often your 'head' has his or her boss. And the 'boss' has his or her 'boss'. So the two page report is to be further summarised into a one page report, and then one paragraph report. And may be for the benefit of the man at the top it could be just one sentence! Look at the various levels. At each level there is a different requirement.
I believe that when you relate the teaching or learning point or item to real life context, it becomes really meaningful and interesting to students.