TeachingEnglish
What would you choose: Fluency over accuracy or accuracy over fluency?
Submitted by Victoria Kamchatka on 23 January, 2012 - 12:12
I would like to share with you what I’ve learnt from my practice. Last year I made such an experiment. I had two classes of 11th graders (16 years old) who were going to finish school and some of them were to take National Exam (it’s optional). I taught the first class using only GTM to get them ready for the exam; the second one was a combination of GTM and CLT including culture content. Accuracy versus Fluency. To gain grammatical competency we focused on grammar practice books, page by page we scrutinized all the chapters of the books, finally, they passed the exam with good results (50-60) but only in reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing. (passing grade was 20 out of 100) But they were not successful to use language for meaningful communication. Fluency versus Accuracy. My second class was exposed to different types of activities and topics including culture content. There were debates, discussions, round tables and what not. My main goal was to teach them to interact, collaborate, negotiate, and make projects i.e. develop their communicative competence. As to grammar, I used the inductive approach, they defined the rules themselves. In the end, they got better results (84-85). I know they are not too much competent in grammar, but they can communicate and if they go to some country they would be able to express themselves. This practice affords them small steps toward autonomy.
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Hello Victoria,
Thanks for sharing your observations with us. I personally favour communicative language activities. But, (there is always a but, isn't it?) at times my students resist to such activities. I think that this is due to some cultural factors and prior learning experiences.
Were your students happy with the techniques you used in class in GTM & CLT? Did anyone asked for something else? How did you group them (did they volunteer? did you observe learning styles and choose accordingly? I would love to learn more...
Thanks for your questions! English textbooks in Russia are mainly designed to CLT. But my students were not ready to use CLT acitivities that time. First, I tried Direct Approach, then ALM, then TPR as a warmer, next was Natural Approach, resort to CLL, and at last, finally CLT (TBI, CBI)! We work to meet our students' interests and needs, right? Thus, I used every possible way to reach them all and get the good outcome out of it. You are absolutely right about prior learning experiences. They had none before. They were in a bad state back then. Almost ten years they had "come-and-go-teachers".
To my luck, they were very open to get knowledge. I didn't tell them that I was searching for a good approach for their class. At least, I brought a lot of variety into class.
Interesting, why do your students resist to some activites?
Dear Victoria,
How many students do you have in your class?
There are usually about 14 pupils even after the class was split into two groups. I do not work at school, and the biggest group I've had so far was of 8 students. I decided not to work at schools because the need to follow the programme, especially with constant State monitoring, makes many teachers slaves of the system, unfortunately very few can go on working creatively. That is why I cannot imagine CLT in class at an ordinary Russian school, only at a specialised* one. I've been working for many years as a private tutor, and many of my pupils comment that there were very few pupils in the class whose level corresponded to their textbooks’ and still the teacher doesn’t pause the ‘race’ to help whose who can hardly say a word. And "come-and-go-teachers" has become a major scourge.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
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* For our foreign colleagues in order not to be misunderstood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialized_school
Hi Victoria,
Thank you for sharing the results of your experiment. It is like a thesis about GTM versus CLT and I am happy to read the outcomes. In Turkey, when students are concentrated on accuracy, they try to make correct, perfect sentences, so day by day they give up speaking. Last week, I asked one of my trainees what she thought about teaching and learning in Turkey depending on the schools they are having their Practicum and the trainees they are together. She says that students in Turkey mostly understand English. They are also good at reading and listening, but they can not speak. Perhaps they need some more activities to do, some more practice in classes.
Dear Anna,
I love working at school! So much creativity and students are really responsive to all innovations and techniques. I teach many classes and the number of Ss varies from 10 to 25. I made experimenting on methods and approaches with the large class (24 students). Teachers usually create a "huge" affective filter in the classroom ignoring the low level proficiency students. It's easier for them to gallop with the textbook than create something to cater for the Ss' levels or abilities. That's a good question "Are they teaching books or students?" I am always against it. That's why I adhere to the Differentiated Instruction. It's not just "a bag of tricks", but the whole new methodology or a single instructional strategy founded by Tomlinson.
Dear Gulnur, thanks for stopping by and for your kind words. I personally think that if we concentrate too much on Ss's mistakes, we become not teachers but hunters for mistakes. Too much pressure on students! Yes, you are right about speaking practice in the classrooms by using interactive tasks in pairs or small groups, creating a supportive environment and building confidence in students.