Unlearning to learn

A friend emailed me a notice about a talk by the grammarian Michael Swan recently. The seminar had a very intriguing title: What is happening to English, and how much does it matter? & Getting activity, movement and creativity into grammar lessons. But hey and wow, it’s Michael Swan! I have his book on the shelf. This definitely merits a long drive into Jurong, I thought to myself.

There was a very good turnout for the talk and Swan began the talk by telling us that we need to unlearn many things about grammar that we learnt in school because those rules are not in use anymore. He then went on to give 5 principles (well, it’s 4 +1 but I’ll explain later) to consider when teaching English and I thought these may be useful to you if you weren’t there to listen to him.

1. The room is your enemy. An intriguing statement but Swan simply meant that as teachers, we are often too concerned with what we should be doing in any lesson. But the really important issue should be what pupils do in a lesson. This means getting pupils actively using the language is more important than all the teaching that we try to do.

2. Quality and quantity are both important. We need pupils to use a large amount of language but we also want this language to be rich. How often do we have pupils talking during our classes and using a variety of structures, vocabulary and expressions? How can we create such a situation in our classroom where this can happen?

3. Group work and pair work are important for grammar practice. To allow for this we need to be tolerant of some noise and a loss of control. Teachers often worry about the mistakes pupils make in group and pair work and they are also worried that pupils may resort to using their mother tongues to get the task done. Well, you can’t do much about this but with group and pair work, you’d be assured that many more pupils will have opportunities to speak in English.

4. Activities that have an information gap present the most opportunity for language use and practice. An information gap simply means that one party has some information that the other party lacks. When this is the case, there is more motivation to communicate as the need for communication becomes real.

5. This fifth principle was not shown or clearly mentioned (as it often happens in talks) but from my notes, I decided that this could be it: Don’t try to teach too much. Rather focus on giving a lot of practice so that pupils learn and are able to use a smaller number of structures but with greater confidence. In other words, do more with less.

In any lesson, who gets to be most interesting? Swan said that it should not be the teacher or the materials. The students should the most interesting. So while their English might not be perfect, we can make them the most interesting by creating activities that allow them to be creative. One activity that he used to illustrate this is writing horoscopes for each other after reading some examples. A book that he mentioned which has good activities for grammar and oral fluency is Penny Ur’s classic Discussions that Work. I know that this is in RELC library but I’m sure it’s in NIE too.

Swan’s presentation was witty and full of old fashioned charm and he certainly was not the dull grammarian I’ve always imagined him to be. What he said about the changes in English also made very good sense. In a nutshell, his message is language change and variation is natural and inevitable. He pointed out that while native speakers are a valuable model of the language, native speaker competence is not a realistic aim. His advice to language teachers amidst the changes in English is simple:

1. Keep calm as these changes are merely small ripples in the vast English language ocean.

2. Stay informed by using good grammars and usage guides and good dictionaries. And keeping company with young people can also help us keep up with the changes and be more contemporary in our language use.

3. Be realistic. He suggested that teachers can only teach a small part of the language so they should concentrate on what matters most. He advised against perfectionism and to remember that rules are approximations. And as for accuracy think about: how much do we need; how much can we achieve? And how much can we afford.

I am not sure what you make of his views but here’s my take and let me summarise it in 5 points.

1. We need to unlearn old rules instead of hanging on to them and passing them on to our pupils mindlessly. Teachers often tell me that they were taught certain rules for example, not to use because to begin a sentence and they say this to their students without explaining why. Swan gave some other examples like the use of shall and whom, both of which are on their way out. Times have changed and so have rules.

2. We cover too much material in class but we don’t have enough opportunities for pupils to use real language. Worksheets don’t teach language and we do the most harm when we rely on worksheets to teach English. In short, we have quantity (of the wrong sort) and not enough quality.

3. Teachers are still too focused on what they want to teach rather than what students should learn, and on what they need to cover, than on what students need to be doing with the language taught. Try writing a lesson plan focused on what pupils will do instead of what you will do.

4. We still need to teach less. Do more with less. Help students master the basics of grammar well rather than teach the whole gamut.

5. We need better references for grammar and we need to be more diligent about looking up things that we don’t understand. Doing this will also help us understand the changes going on in the language.

And incase you're wondering, yup that's a photo of Michael Swan taken at the talk.


Speaking of unlearning reminded me of a Youtube video on unlearning featuring my favourite Star Wars guru, Yoda. You can watch it here:

Fill That Bucket

July and August have been good months. I have had many rich and happy moments and if I sound like I am trying to chalk up such experiences, you are right. Good times don’t come easily although I also believe that one must go looking for good times. And good times don’t mean shopping trips or anything involving money. I revel in my positive moments and I try to stretch them as much as I can.

Recently, this notion of a positive moment was confirmed in a book review by Gary Tomlinson. The book reviewed is How full is your bucket by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton. Don Clifton proposed the idea that our lives are shaped by the kind of interactions we have. He said we all have an invisible bucket which can be filled or emptied depending on what others do or say to us. When our bucket is full, we feel good. When it’s empty, we feel awful.

We also have a dipper with which we can fill our buckets or dip into others’ to empty or fill their buckets. By now, you should have gathered that if you constantly empty other people’s buckets by saying or doing negative things to them, you will cause them misery and suffering. Filling their buckets with good deeds and words though will give them joy and the more unexpected your act is, the better the recipient feels. So on a daily basis, we can either fill a bucket to make people feel good or we can dip into someone’s bucket and take away their joy. A very simple concept really, and as I read that I remember someone I’ve met who consciously fill other people’s buckets.

I don’t know if I’ve recounted this experience before but it merits retelling. My husband and I sometimes walk around Bedok Reservoir and some mornings we will meet this elderly uncle who is also walking around the reservoir. But what is amazing about him is his unfailing good humour. He shouts good morning to all and sundry and sometimes we can hear him well before we see him. He also tells everyone to take it easy and watch their step and he does this all with a big smile on his face. Few people remain unaffected by his bonhomie and many people respond positively. Imagine all the good cheer going around the reservoir and the park each morning when this uncle takes a walk.

One morning, I watched him approaching us from a distance. In between, a woman was sitting on a bench dressed more to be seen than to take a walk. She also had a less than friendly looking face. My husband would say that I should not pass judgements but you probably know what I mean. There are friendly approachable faces and there are those whom you’ll want to avoid. As the old uncle approached her, she lit a cigarette, completely unaware of him. I watched the old man and wondered if he would say good morning. He walked past her, looked at her warily, as if he was trying to make a decision. Then, as if he sensed that he would not get a good reception, he just turned and walked on without his customary greeting.

When I think back on this episode, I often wondered if the woman would have been unexpectedly and pleasantly surprised by the man’s greeting. It might have filled her bucket. But then again, I know that sometimes no wonder how giving you are, there are some moments when you probably should not give and if you do, you may get hurt. I have no doubt that some people groan when they see this old uncle approaching; sometimes, we just want to be our grumpy selves in the morning and the last thing we want is to meet Mr Happy-go-lucky. So not everyone appreciates his good naturedness and I am sure that it has backfired on him a few times. But that hasn’t stopped him and I guess the secret to his success is to fill buckets with no expectations at all.

But ultimately, making strangers feel good is a piece of cake compared to making those we love feel good. It seems that the people we love are the ones who try us the most. Be that as it may, working towards a positive home environment must be the number one priority in our lives. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman is reported to have said that there are 20,000 individual moments in a waking day, and we always remember a positive or a negative moment but never a neutral one. This is something worth remembering as we go about our lives. We can create a positive or negative moment even as we put one foot in front of the other. John Gottman’s research on marriage suggests that a magic ratio of 5:1 in terms of the balance of positive to negative interactions is crucial for a successful marriage. This means 5 positive interactions to one negative interaction. Educators may take this same ratio and apply it to their daily interactions with pupils. Bosses and workers can use this same ratio in their working environment. We too, can use this ratio in our daily interactions with people.

How can we increase our magic ratio of positive to negative moments? The five strategies are well documented so I will just provide you with the link and you can read about them yourself here.

I think, without a doubt, we all love a positive moment. And I also believe that it’s not hard for us to create a positive moment for others. Indeed, the one positive moment we create for someone may be the one that ultimately makes the person’s bucket overflow with happiness. Or we can contribute one negative moment which ultimately breaks the camel’s back. Would we not rather be responsible for the former? So go ahead. Fill some buckets today.

PS: A week after writing this, I receive my usual Happiness project e-newsletter (www.happiness-project.com) and read a discussion on throwing away other people’s thrash to boost our self esteem. Well, I don’t need to boost my self esteem but I must confess that littering is something that makes me mad. Every morning when I walk along the park connector in my neighbourhood, I get really upset by the volumes of thrash left by party revellers, pious worshippers, liquor imbibers, fast food consumers and cigarette smokers. I must confess that the discussion made me think about picking up that thrash instead of complaining about it, but the truth is I will spend all morning working instead of walking, if I embark on this plan. So my resolution is to be more diligent about picking up the thrash around my own condo when I see it. Read the discussion for yourself here and see if it inspires you too.

It's Teachers' Day!

Happy Teachers’ Day everyone!
May this day help you remember why you became a teacher.

I don’t usually make fun of teachers, but on this occasion, here’s a bad limerick for all English teachers.

There was, in Singapore, a teacher of English,
Who, sadly, was often full of anguish.
She said, “There’s so much to teach
You know, those eight parts of speech.
Oh, will the teaching ever be finished?”