Bill Van Patten always says, "what's on page 32 [of the textbook] is not what ends up in your head," and I am realizing more and more just how true that statement is. Language really is not subject matter. We can make "mistakes" in our grammar and still communicate our message perfectly. That is the beauty of language!
When I was teaching for grammar, I was often tired, impatient and VERY frustrated with my students. It is so exhausting to have students not get things after we have drilled it over and over again. But we have to ask ourselves, "if they're not getting it, is what I'm doing not working?" The answer, for me at least, was no. I was expecting students to be able to learn and apply grammar without communicating any messages, and I DEFINITELY was not giving them enough input before asking them to produce the language. They were practicing grammar, and it was meaningless to all except for the three students who like grammar. Are you going to remember something that is meaningless? I'm definitely not.
The other thing that Bill VanPatten has stated is that a communicative approach does not mean teaching the same old textbook material in a communicative way. Last year, I had trouble wrapping my head around that. I thought, "nahhhhh, I disagree. I can take our textbook and teach the same stuff communicatively." I was wrong. Wrongo. Totally wrong. Totes magotes wrong.
The easiest thing that I can bring this back to is stem-change verbs. For those of you who do not know what they are, all you have to know is that they are words that have one thing in common: a grammatical structure. Last year, I took a group of stem-change verbs, and thought "I am going to use this grammatical structure but teach it by asking the students real questions about themselves. That's communicative!" The problem was that the students were recognizing that it was grammar practice. I knew it, and they knew it. I found myself frustrated teaching this, and it felt like I was in my first semester of teaching again when I valued grammar over communication. Don't get me wrong, though, this was a step in the right direction, but it wasn't enough because it wasn't truly communicative; there was no purpose to what we were learning.
To try to combat that this year, before I teach a lesson or before I give an assessment, I always ask myself "what do I want students to be able to do with this?" If my answer is "I want to see if they can conjugate these verbs" or anything grammar based, I scrap it. Instead, my answer needs to be "I want to see if the students can tell me ______ about themselves" or "I want to see what I can learn about my students' lives from this" or "I want to see how well my students know me." I think you get the point. In other words, they need to communicate/comprehend a message--not a grammatical structure. Grammar is a tool for communicating a message; it is not the sole purpose for learning a language.
This year, the power of input has truly hit me. I knew input was great last year, but I was not doing enough of it. I was not spending enough class time checking to see what students could understand without producing the language; I was focused more on what they could produce. Production is great, but it really only works if they have been exposed to the language enough. It's amazing how much they can produce once they have had the opportunity to take in the language.
I am working very hard this year to develop thematic units, and this has made the world of difference for me. I had a professor, Doctora Guillermina Elissondo, in college who used to always say "learning a language is more than just learning to speak the language; it is learning to think in a different way and appreciate those who have had different experiences." With thematic units, I feel like the students are acquiring the language as we discuss a painting, an artist, a product, a practice, a different perspective, a similar perspective, a musician, etc as opposed to just learning grammar. The students and I are learning so much more, and class is fun! Another reason to be happy! We just have so much to talk about! I look around my class, and I watch all my students speaking with each other in Spanish, and I can't even keep up with all of the conversations. How can I not love my job when I am surrounded by that?!
When grammar was my focus, we did the same activities over and over again; it was boring, monotonous, and it didn't work. As I learn more and more about communicative language teaching, the more I notice that my students are engaged and "getting it." It's easier for them, it's more interesting to them and to me, we learn so much about each other, art, etc. That's what language is about.
This year, although there are still many flaws in my teaching, I finally am starting to feel like I am not teaching the students a textbook. This makes me so happy, and this is a huge part of why I believe that I leave school with a goofy smile on my face every day. I am teaching content and the students are getting it and constantly exceeding my expectations. It feels AMAZING. They are happy, and I am happy. Communicative language teaching has saved me from becoming a cranky, annoyed teacher. I cannot say enough how much I truly love my job.
Thanks for reading and please comment!
Timothy
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