Spoken Discourse: A Two Way Street . . . Are You Considering Both Directions?
As teachers, we may make statements whose meanings are obvious to us but not so clear to our ELLs. For example, a common technique that teachers use to try to get kids to behave, complete a task, etc. is to compliment one individual, hoping that the rest of the crew will follow suit. Consider this series of sentences:
“I lost track of time. We’ll need to leave for lunch in two minutes, so finish up and get ready to go. (PAUSE) I like the way Bora is cleaning up her work space.”
Often a number of students will scurry to put away their pencils, markers, etc. Your ELL (or plenty of native English speakers too) may not comply. Their failure to clean up could very well be your lack of specific direction. While you may have thought that your “finish up and get ready to go” statement had an implied meaning of “tidy up and wait to be called to get your lunch box and get in line,” you did not state directly what you wanted the students to do. The kids may have heard you, but your intended meaning was not understood. The take-away here is twofold: (1) Think about how you are saying things and (2) Don’t assume that students are being obstinate when they are not doing what you want them to do. Language is a two way street that involves speaker and hearer (which also involves interpretation).
As teachers, we may make statements whose meanings are obvious to us but not so clear to our ELLs. For example, a common technique that teachers use to try to get kids to behave, complete a task, etc. is to compliment one individual, hoping that the rest of the crew will follow suit. Consider this series of sentences:
“I lost track of time. We’ll need to leave for lunch in two minutes, so finish up and get ready to go. (PAUSE) I like the way Bora is cleaning up her work space.”
Often a number of students will scurry to put away their pencils, markers, etc. Your ELL (or plenty of native English speakers too) may not comply. Their failure to clean up could very well be your lack of specific direction. While you may have thought that your “finish up and get ready to go” statement had an implied meaning of “tidy up and wait to be called to get your lunch box and get in line,” you did not state directly what you wanted the students to do. The kids may have heard you, but your intended meaning was not understood. The take-away here is twofold: (1) Think about how you are saying things and (2) Don’t assume that students are being obstinate when they are not doing what you want them to do. Language is a two way street that involves speaker and hearer (which also involves interpretation).