IN THE CLASSROOM
This
Patience
is a virtue
Paul Bress praises a much-forgotten quality.
I
t hardly needs stating that English
language teaching has changed
radically over the last generation.
For one thing, it never even used to be
called ELT (it was EFL when I started
my teaching career). For another, there
have been significant methodological
changes, with the emphasis now much
more on deciding on, and helping
students achieve, communicative
objectives rather than talking about the
target language. And finally, there have
been enormous technological changes:
with each passing year, more and more
teaching, testing and independent
learning is done online.
Patience is an ability
But there is one aspect of language
teaching that remains as important as
ever perhaps even more so now. The
quality I am referring to is patience. As
a (very poor) practitioner of yoga, I am
more aware of my yoga tutors ability to
be patient with me than I am of any
other ability. The same applies,
assuredly, to our ELT students. Many of
these, particularly students with little
self-confidence, must really crave a
patient teacher. Against this
background, what practical steps can we
take in order to increase our patience
and, thereby, offer our students the time
and space in which to learn effectively?
Here are four suggestions:
1 Try to imagine what it is like to
be your students (especially
those who are struggling with
the language).
This is, by far, the most important step.
Impatience derives, largely, from a
compulsive preoccupation with our own
thoughts, feelings and intentions. When
we are preoccupied with our own
concerns, we absolutely detest operating
at a speed that is different from our own.
If, instead, we can try to engage in a
more empathic style of communication,
then our impatience is likely to lose a lot
of its fuel. As we listen (and watch) our
students more intently, we should find
that we change both mentally and
physiologically. Empathic listening
should help rid us of our impatience and
allow us to teach much much better.
2 Dont move your body around
nervously.
If you engage in an empathic way of
communicating, then this should follow
naturally. However, sometimes its a
good idea to give yourself that extra
chance to empathise properly. This
means sitting comfortably on a chair so
that you are at eye level with your
student(s). Lean back, stretch your legs
out, intertwine your fingers and relax. If
you are constantly pacing up and down
the classroom, you will cease to be able
to enter into the individual worlds of
your students.
3 Be prepared not to meet the
learning objectives (when its
clearly not possible).
Of course, its generally a good principle
not only to set communicative
objectives, but also to do your very best
to help your students to achieve them.
However, its the mark of a more
enlightened teacher to be able to let go
of the above principle on certain
occasions. Your students heads are full
of any number of preoccupations and
distractions. Sometimes they are not in a
psychological state of readiness to learn
www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 87 July 2013
what you want them to learn.
doesnt signal defeat for the teacher; its
just how people learn. Even though we
plan syllabuses very rigorously, there
will always be a gap between our good
intentions and the actual working of the
students minds. The result of this
willingness to wave goodbye to
syllabuses and plans is that you can give
your students the time and space to fully
internalise what you are trying to teach
them.
4 Dont intervene before a
learning opportunity has
definitely passed.
Sometimes, a teachers anxieties make it
very difficult (painful even) to listen to a
student struggling over a word, phrase,
clause, sentence or longer utterance.
Silences are often, for some strange
reason, considered to be the enemy. But
behaviourist days are long gone. We
must not expect our students to behave
like performing seals! They need time in
which to hypothesise, begin, self-correct,
reformulate and finally produce a piece
of English which reflects their best
efforts. To jump in before this process is
realised is to rob them of a valuable
learning opportunity.
Even though everything is so much
faster today than it used to be, I think
the need for patience is just as important
as it ever was. When things go wrong in
this digital age, they tend to fail
completely. How many times have you
been unable to send a text, or record a
programme on your digibox, or
download something from a website?
The scope for disappointment today is
enormous. It is important to nurture our
patience both inside and outside the
ELT classroom, and this should prove
beneficial to both our home and
professional lives.
Paul Bress lives in
Herne Bay, UK, where
he teaches English to
overseas students and
also writes novels and
paints. His novels are:
The Man Who Didnt Age,
The Dysfunctional Family,
For Adults Only, The
Check-out Operator and
Life Swap, all published
by Fast-Print and
available on Kindle. His
paintings can be viewed
at http://paulbressgallery.
blogspot.co.uk.
paulbress@talktalk.net
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