Transcription
Hi everyone! Linda here from ITT, back this week with another live session. Today's topic is fluency versus accuracy in English language teaching. I'm super excited to be here! Thanks so much for joining today.
Actually, this topic I think is really cool and interesting. What inspired this was basically last week's live session where we talked about the top 10 mistakes you should avoid when teaching English as a foreign language. One of them was to be too obsessed and strict with grammar and to over-correct your students.
One of the issues we discussed was fluency and accuracy, and how too many teachers focus too much on accuracy. We had a discussion, and you guys also sent me your opinions in the comments, which was really cool. So, I thought let's continue this conversation because it was really interesting.
Today, we're only going to talk about fluency versus accuracy. There’s going to be a lot of cool information about how to balance the two, and some really great techniques that you can use for this balance. Maybe we’ll discuss which one you should prioritize and when to prioritize it, and all that stuff.
So, that is today's topic. I hope you're going to enjoy it, and I hope we can keep this discussion going that we had last time. Please keep your comments coming; it was great! And yeah, don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss any of our upcoming live sessions.
If you're listening to this as a podcast episode, thank you so much for the download; we really appreciate it. If you are watching right now and you also want to learn more about this podcast, basically we turn all of our live sessions into podcast episodes. You can listen to it when you're on the go, when you're driving, when you're out, or when you're working out—whatever you do when you listen to your podcasts, you can take us with you.
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Please let me know, guys, where are you watching from right now? Where are you? I'm in South Korea, as almost every week, and it is 10:30 a.m. here in South Korea, Friday morning. I'm so excited to jump into the weekend very soon! So, where are you at? Where are you watching from today? Let us know in the comments. I'm always curious; I want to know who I'm talking to here.
I obviously can't see who you are unless you leave a comment. I can see how many people are watching, but I don't know who's watching. So, unless you leave a comment, I will not be able to tell. I would really appreciate just knowing who I'm talking to today. Just say hi in the comments; that would be great!
Also, if there are any technical issues—if you can't see me, can't hear me, or if anything's happening—please let me know in the comments so I can get that fixed. Usually, everything's pretty smooth, but you never know; technical issues can happen at any time, right? It's very unpredictable, as we all know.
So, yeah, that’s what's going on. Let's have a look in the comments here. Amitabha is here! Hi Amitabha, how are you doing? Good morning, Linda! How are you doing today? I'm great, thank you so much! How are you doing, Amitabha? I hope you're doing well. I appreciate you always tuning in so early.
Emilio is here! Hi Linda, greetings from Barcelona! Tuning in again. Oh, Barcelona! I really want to go! I have not been to Barcelona yet, and it looks so great. I really, really want to go! Hopefully, this year—I don't know, we'll see. If I go, I'll let you know, Emilio. You need to show me around!
Great! We also have a 30% off discount code, as every live session. You can scan this QR code that you see right here, and it's always in the upper right-hand corner as well. You can scan that, and it will lead you to an application page where you can fill out an application. It also says at the top, "Congratulations, you qualify for 30% off," or something like this. If you see that, then you know that you have the right link.
But we also have a link that I can share with you in the comments if you can't scan the QR code. I'm going to share that with you right now. Let's see, coming through... I think it did! So, it ends with FB live minus Linda, and this code will get you 30% off any TEFL or TESOL course from ITT.
If you're not yet certified, this is a great opportunity for you to do so. Or if you want to get a specialized course on top of your regular TEFL certificate, or if you want to get the TESOL diploma course, for example, any additional certification—even if you already have an ITT certificate—you can use this for your next one. Also possible, no problem!
I just wanted to put that out there. I always share this in my live sessions, and we only share 30% discount codes in our live sessions. You can't find these anywhere else, okay? So, this is a great opportunity to do that and to apply. If you're thinking about it, I hope this will make your decision easier, right?
Alright, and then if somebody is watching for the first time and has no clue who I am and what we're doing here, let me just give you a quick introduction. Please keep your comments coming about where you're watching from today. I see there are many people watching right now, but only two people told me where they are. So, please, everybody else also share where you are. It doesn't have to be the exact place; if you just want to share the country, that's fine.
My name is Linda. I'm a travel writer, content creator, and also a language teacher. I've taught English for many, many years. I started out tutoring when I was still in middle school and high school. I was tutoring people in English and French at the time. Now, I am teaching English and also German.
It's been a fun ride! I've been teaching English for a very long time, to little kids starting as young as two years old to adults, and even older people, seniors. Yeah, it's really a wide range. If you're interested in Asia, maybe moving and teaching English in Asia, I highly recommend checking out my website, LindaGoesEast.com. I write a lot about Korea, where I live, but also other places in Asia and teaching English in Asia, and all sorts of things like that.
If that is a region that you're interested in, check it out! Also, on Instagram at LindaGoesEast, I'm very active over there, sharing my adventures in Asia. If you want to DM me, send me a message over there; feel free to do so. It's always nice to hear from you guys.
I'm originally from Germany and the USA. My mom is German, my dad is American, and I'm based in South Korea. Before Korea, I also spent some time in China. Why I'm here is because I am a TEFL and TESOL marketing professional for ITT. ITT stands for International TEFL and TESOL Training, and our website is teflcourse.net. Many of you might be familiar; you already have a course, you're taking a course, or you're thinking about it—that's why you're here.
Thank you so much for that! ITT is a leading TEFL and TESOL course provider worldwide. We've been around since the 1990s, so a very long time, and one of the leading providers of TEFL and TESOL training that you can get in the industry.
Mary Jane says she's from Digos City. Interesting! Where is that? Digos City? I need to Google that, but cool! Okay, Mary Jane, thanks so much for joining from Digos City.
Alright, and then let's go back to today's topic. Like I said, fluency versus accuracy. If you watched last week's live session about the 10 mistakes you should avoid when teaching English as a foreign language, this was one thing that we talked about: fluency and accuracy, and over-correcting your students, putting too much emphasis on correct grammar, and all of that.
We had a good conversation going about fluency and accuracy, so I thought, why not expand upon this topic today and talk a little bit about this more in-depth? Very interesting and very good to know as a teacher. So, that's what we're going to do today.
Good! Emilio says accuracy for the study phase, fluency for the activate phase. That's how I would do it based on what I learned so far from the 550-hour course ITT. That's great! I think that is a pretty good way of doing things for sure.
If somebody's not familiar with the study phase and activate phase, this is part of the ESA methodology of teaching that we cover in our courses. E for engage, and maybe even fluency in the engage phase as well, right? You want to get your students talking in the engage phase, so you're not paying too much attention to accuracy during that. You just want to get them talking and thinking in English.
In the study phase, you cover your grammar points and put more emphasis on accuracy. Then again, in the activate phase, maybe you want a balance of accuracy and fluency in there, right? So, it depends. But yep, that sounds about right! I think that's a very good idea.
Cool! So, already we're off to a good start here. Let's jump into today's topic then. First of all, I really want to take some time and define the terms: what is accuracy and what is fluency? What are the differences between the two exactly? So, we're all on the same page, and we all know what we're talking about here.
Okay, so let's do that. I'm going to make myself smaller here so you can read the slides better.
So, accuracy—when we as teachers talk about accuracy, we usually refer to the knowledge and understanding of grammar rules, vocabulary use, and pronunciation, right? Grammar, grammar, grammar! But also vocabulary—how to use the right vocabulary, when to use the right vocabulary, and also correct pronunciation.
So, that's definitely the ability to apply grammar rules and vocabulary in writing, and then also the ability to apply grammar rules, vocabulary, and correct pronunciation in speaking. It's not only about grammar and grammar rules and the correct tense; it's actually much more than that.
It also includes vocabulary use—the right vocabulary at the right time—and the proper pronunciation in writing but also in speaking as well for accuracy. Accuracy can also encompass the following: it goes even deeper than that.
So, an understanding of the various registers that exist within a language. You have formal language, colloquial language, and slang. An understanding of these different types of language—there's not just one way of saying things. There is an informal way, a slang word, but then there's also a formal word or formal expression that says the same thing as the slang word.
So, an understanding of these different registers within the language. At the same time, the ability to demonstrate awareness of context and to use this appropriate level of formality and informality in communication.
Okay, so it goes deeper than just grammar. For example, when you talk to a teacher or a professor, you use a different kind of language than when you talk with your classmates, right? So, this is also accuracy—when you can recognize and use the different levels of formality and informality in communication.
That's also part of accuracy. In other words, an accurate speaker of English should be able to communicate in a way that is appropriate for the situation and context, right? So, context—when you're teaching, when you're talking to a teacher, that's a context. You use more formal language, for example.
Later, when you're talking to your fellow classmates and students or your work colleagues, for example, you use a different kind of language. So, that's also accuracy—not only the grammar rules, right?
Then fluency, on the other hand. Fluency is a little bit harder to define, right? Basically, it involves filling time with talk and processing language at a reasonable speed.
Okay, so when we talk about fluency, we usually mean the ability to speak or write easily. It comes to you easily; you don't have to think too much about it. Then also to speak and write at a reasonable speed, right? It comes to you easily; it flows. You can speak without long pauses and also write without long pauses. That is fluency.
Then also the ability to speak or write with errors that do not hinder communication. That's part of fluency, and that's the big difference between fluency and accuracy here. Because when you speak or write, you can make mistakes when you're fluent because you know how the language works and flows.
So, you can speak and you can write, but you might make some mistakes. But these errors and mistakes do not hinder communication. For example, that's why I prioritize fluency a lot.
When I correct a lot of my students' homework and writing, usually what I pay close attention to is exactly this. I read the sentence or the whole text, and if I understand everything, I think that's already great. That's already the first step.
There might be grammatical errors in there or a word that's not quite right, but if I understand every sentence and what that student means, then that is exactly that. So, then it doesn't hinder my understanding of what that person wants to say, and I think that's very important.
Versus accuracy—if you have inaccuracy when you prioritize accuracy, then that is very different, right? You pay close attention to every error.
Alright, Mary Jane says Davao region 11, Mam Linda. Okay, that's where Digos City is. I still don't know where that is. Where is Davao region 11? I need to Google that, but thank you, Mary Jane! I appreciate that.
Alright, so let's combine those two definitions into a table so we can clearly see what the differences are here between accuracy and fluency.
Alright, so let's take a look. Accuracy, like we just said, refers to the correct use of language, and this includes grammar but also vocabulary and pronunciation.
Okay, the correct use—the correct grammar, the correct vocabulary, correct pronunciation. Fluency refers to the ability to communicate effectively and smoothly.
Okay, so you might use wrong grammar, you might use the wrong vocabulary, and you might use wrong pronunciation, but it's still understandable. It doesn't hinder your communication, right?
The next point: accuracy involves using appropriate language for different contexts, such as formal and informal situations. Alright, like we just said.
Versus fluency, which involves the ability to speak without hesitation or long pauses. Right? And I think we see this a lot. We have students like this, don't we? We have some students who are very meticulous about grammar and about using accurate language, and they usually need a lot more time to speak or write because they don't want to make mistakes.
They want to use 100% correct grammar, so it takes them a lot longer maybe to make a sentence. Versus students who are better at fluency—they just speak. They don't really think too much about the grammar, right? They just speak without hesitation and long pauses.
So, we all know these two types of students, I think. Then the last point here: accuracy is more focused on the technical aspects of language, and fluency is more focused on the ability to communicate naturally and effectively.
Whichever one's more important to you depends on a couple of different factors, or is important to your student. It depends on different factors, and we're going to talk about these factors also in just a minute.
But until here, I think it makes sense. It's pretty clear. We know now exactly—everybody should know now what's accuracy and what's fluency. We defined the terms. We understand accuracy is not only just grammar, but it also includes context, correct context, and also includes correct pronunciation and these things.
Fluency includes a flow, smooth talking, but also effective communication. So, those two terms go much deeper than what we might initially think they mean.
Okay, let me take some water here.
Alright, then now, of course, the question becomes: accuracy and fluency— which comes first? Which should be prioritized? Which should come first, which should come second? Which is more important?
So, let's answer that question. But maybe until here, what do you guys think? Which one is more important to you in your teaching or also in your learning? I want to ask that question to you guys first.
So, what do you think? Which one for you personally? Which one is more important? Is it more accuracy that you use correct grammar, or that your students use correct grammar? Or do you think fluency is more important? Let me know! Let me know in the comments. That would be really, really interesting.
Maybe, yeah, I'm even going to make a banner here. So, what is more important to you: accuracy or fluency? Let's see. Before we move on any further, let me know in the comments what you think. What's more important for you personally?
And again, there's no right or wrong answer, right? I'm not putting you on the spot here; I just want to know.
Alright, Mary Jane says fluency. Montserrat says fluency. Jacombe says fluency. Okay, we got three fluency! Fluency, fluency, fluency again! This depends on you personally and your teaching style or your learning style. There is no right or wrong answer to it.
Damn says fluency. Okay, so we got four fluency so far. Interesting! Let's give it a few more seconds to see if somebody else also puts a comment. That would be great, and then we can move on.
So, what is more important to you: accuracy or fluency? Based on what we've learned so far in this presentation, do you rather have them speaking than hesitating to speak?
Okay, so that's why you pick fluency. You want them to speak rather than hesitating and worrying too much about, "Oh, is this the right grammar?" etc. Cool!
Daniel says, "I think fluency comes first, as that's how we all learn since we're kids. Then comes accuracy." That's a good point! We might see that in our presentation soon. Good point!
Okay, so everybody says fluency so far. Interesting! Because I remember last time when we talked about this, there were a couple of people who preferred accuracy. So, interesting! Maybe they're not watching today.
Emilio says, "Depending if I want to work on the productive skill or receptive skill of a certain student." Yes, good point! So, productive skills—you have writing and speaking, right? Receptive skills—you have listening and reading.
Okay, so which one for productive skills? What would you say? Is it more important? Is accuracy more important or fluency in productive skills? And then receptive skills— which one is more important? What do you think, Emilio? That's also an interesting discussion. That's a good point! Please elaborate on that, Emilio. I'm curious.
And again, if anybody hasn't answered yet, what is more important to you: accuracy or fluency? Accuracy or fluency in your language teaching, from a teacher's view or also from a student's perspective? Very interesting!
So again, fluency, fluency, fluency, fluency. Daniel also says fluency. Emilio says it depends if you work on productive skills or receptive skills.
Let's see if we get any more answers, and then we can move on about which comes first, which should come first, and which might naturally come first.
But certainly, if you're listening to this as a podcast, let me know in the podcast comments. Think about it! Really think about it: what is more important to you personally as a teacher or as a student? Accuracy or fluency?
Okay, I'm going to keep an eye on the comments if there's anything coming through.
Okay, about this from anybody else, but let's dive in and have a look. So, which comes first?
The order in which fluency and accuracy develop depends on various factors. So, it depends—kind of what Emilio says, it depends, right? It depends on the situation, on different things.
It depends on things like instructional style, your teaching style, but also developmental factors. So, when you think about—and this is something we talked about last time as well—the traditional approach to language teaching, the old school way of language teaching here, they prioritize accuracy over fluency, right?
Like the old TG style—older teachers are very much like that because they believe that accuracy provides a strong foundation for fluency. This is something that somebody last time also said in our presentation here in our live session. Somebody said, "When you have a strong foundation, you should learn grammar and all these things first, and then fluency comes second."
So, this is kind of the traditional approach to language learning—the old school approach, right? So, that is that. But recent studies have actually shown that acquiring fluency before accuracy may be more effective for some language learners.
So, they've done studies on this. And here, Daniel says, "Once we reach accuracy, then we are able to focus on mastery." Maybe once we reach fluency, we are able to focus on mastery. Is that what you wanted to say? Or accuracy? Maybe you meant the other way around.
Anyway, yeah, so the old school approach was more focused on accuracy over fluency. We see this a lot in a lot of students I talk to, especially in Asian countries here in Korea, where it's all about textbook learning. They learn English just to pass a test; they never really have any speaking practice.
So, very old school style of learning is very much still alive, especially here in Korea as well. It's more important that you know the grammar, that you understand reading comprehension, and things like that. Very much alive here!
So, maybe some people should take some notes during this. Recent studies have shown that acquiring fluency before accuracy may be more effective for some language learners.
So, let's dive more into that. These are the factors that determine which should come first. So, different instructional styles—this is different teaching styles. Whether you are, for example, a more communication-based teacher or you are a task-based teacher, right?
And this can also depend on the type of lesson, the type of class that you teach. For example, if we teach English grammar specifically, you're an English grammar teacher, you might focus more on accuracy, right? Because that's just a given when you teach English grammar.
So then you focus more on accuracy, and then maybe the next class that the students have would be an English speaking class. So then this class would focus more on fluency. So, it balances it out, right?
Also, depending on what kind of exercises you do, this might be more communication-based or task-based. Think about a debate class—great example! I've taught debate a little bit before. You have to certainly learn the correct expressions and vocabulary for the debates.
So, this would be definitely more accuracy first—maybe 20% accuracy. You teach expressions and vocabulary for the debate, the formal order of debating. But then during the debate, you obviously have to focus more on fluency, right?
That's super important in the debate that your point can come across, right? So, maybe a debate class might be 20% accuracy, 80% fluency, or 30% accuracy, 70% fluency—something like that.
So, that's one point—one factor here. Then we also have developmental factors like age and language background. So, younger students—what we talked about before—especially children, when we as children, we're young and we acquire our first language, we often develop fluency before accuracy.
Right? Best example—when you learn your own native language, you watch little kids who are starting to talk and learn their own language. It's always fluency first before accuracy, right?
So, when you have young students, this might also be the case. But if you have older students, and maybe they already have a language background, they already learn several different languages, they are able to compare different grammar aspects, they might prefer or pick up accuracy first.
So, it depends. For example, I live in Korea; I learn Korean, and recently I started learning Japanese. So, I think I'm probably more on the wall. It might be 50/50 actually with fluency and accuracy, but because I already know Korean and their grammar is very similar, the grammar structures are very similar to Japanese, I'm kind of using that to help me.
So, this might be more of an accuracy approach here, for example. So, this language background, age, and then we also have to take into consideration the personality of the student.
So, sometimes it just depends on the individual student. Some language learners, they might acquire fluency before accuracy, while others might acquire accuracy first.
So, there's always some students who just love grammar. They pick up grammar; they pick up the rules; they know it very well, and they use it very well. But then they might have trouble speaking, right? It's just strengths and weaknesses.
It sometimes just comes down to the individual student. Some other students, they're really bad at grammar; they can't make a grammatically correct sentence, but they still love talking, and they just use the wrong grammar, but I still understand what they're saying.
So, it depends on the student. We all know students like this, right? It can happen!
Alright, so Emilio says fluency for productive skills and accuracy for receptive skills. Yeah, okay, good! Daniel says, "Yeah, I mean we begin with fluency—speaking and listening—so we can move on to accuracy, grammar, and vocabulary. As a result, we get into mastery by implementing all the elements of language learning."
Yep, I'm oversimplifying, as you might know. Yes, of course! I understand!
So, that's really good points! So, sometimes it just comes down to the individual student and how a student might learn better. They're not all the same. One of the mistakes we mentioned last time: not every student is the same.
So, here as well, right? So, accuracy and fluency—how can we promote parallel growth? How can we grow them all together at the same time effectively? What can we do here?
Let's have a look! There are some instructional methods, some teaching methods that may promote parallel growth in both accuracy and fluency. For example, there is this super popular method that tackles exactly this, and this is called the TPRS method—Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling.
This is an instructional method that uses storytelling as a teaching tool. This is very, very interesting! There have actually been some research and studies on this.
So, students who were taught with TPRS, they compare favorably in test scores and also general language proficiencies. So, it has benefits on both ends. They do well with test scores, which is accuracy, right? But they also are great in general language proficiency, which would be more fluency.
So, this method is beneficial for both accuracy and fluency. As you can see, accuracy and fluency can be developed within the same class activities with the right teaching strategies.
I wonder, has anybody here heard about TPRS before—Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling? If you have, let me know in the comments. And if you've used it, let me know!
You're very interactive today! I really want to get you to talk with me today!
Cool! Tuyet says, "Yes, I have heard of this method from AJ Hoge videos." Oh, I need to check it out! AJ Hoge! Cool!
Okay, have you used it in your own classroom? What do you think about it? What was your impression? Very cool!
We're also going to dive into this method, and I'm going to talk about it and how you can use it in your own classroom. But Tuyet has heard about the TPRS method. Cool!
How about you other guys? Daniel, Emilio, have you heard about it? Nesman, Montserrat, Mary Jane, have you heard about it? Amitabha, if you're still here, have you heard about it?
Okay, Mary Jane says no, not yet. Okay, great! Good! We're learning something new! I love that!
Good! I'm happy about it! But also, Tuyet, maybe you can give us some insight now that I'm going to explain the TPRS method, and we're going to talk about it more.
Maybe, Tuyet, you can give us some information and additional input if there's something that I'm missing. Not really? Not yet? Okay!
So, this is the TPRS method! Again, it is called TPRS, which stands for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. Let's have a look!
There are three steps to this methodology. Good to know: TPRS, or Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, was created by Blaine Ray, who is a Spanish teacher in the late 1980s.
I think he's an American Spanish teacher, right? I think! So, that is where this methodology comes from. He developed it, and these are the three steps.
First is called establish meaning. The second step is ask the story, and the third step is read and literacy.
So, three steps! I have been using this method for my learning. This method is very effective for my learning as it encourages me to retell what I have read or listened to from materials and videos.
Oh, that's interesting! How you're using it for yourself for self-studying! That's really cool! Nice!
So, this method is really helpful to enhance our creativity. Interesting! So, now that we're going through each of the steps, Tuyet, let us know if this is also what you do, if this makes sense!
Cool! I would love to learn more about how you're using it for your own studies! That's really cool!
Alright, so we're going to go through all of these three steps of the TPRS method.
So, TPRS Step One is establish meaning. This means we first identify key unfamiliar target language words that the students are going to see in the story.
Okay, so storytelling—there is a story! First, before we dive into the story, we learn key vocabulary and maybe expressions and phrases that will appear in this story later.
This is similar to what you normally would do when you teach a regular class, right? Normally, you would introduce new vocabulary, and then you read a text where this vocabulary appears. So, this is similar to that.
So, these words, they will be used many times during the lesson. Those are key words. The teacher also tells the class what the words mean in English or their first language, right?
So, in English means English to English. If you have a word, you can explain in English what it means, or you give them the word in their language for the word. So, this depends on how you normally do that.
So, that's the first step—establishing meaning—the important vocabulary words that they need to know for what is coming up in the lesson.
So, step two is then ask the story. Okay, so next, you move on to creating a story that uses the target structures.
So, what you can do, you as the teacher, you can give the students the basic plot of the story. So, what happens in the story? Then the class, the students, they decide the details.
For example, if you give a brief plot of the story, you could say there's a character who wants something, and then the character goes somewhere to buy it. But at the store or wherever they go, they don't have it.
Okay, so this is very vague, right? Now your students, you as a class, can come up with all the details.
So, for example, for this prompt here, for this story, the target structures might be "want," "I want this and this and this," or "goes to go," and "doesn't have."
For example, if you have these target structures, you can make a story around these three target structures—how to use "want," "I want something," "to go," and "doesn't have."
All these things, so you can build this into your story.
Then step number three is you read the story. Okay, so this part still is ask the story and create the story.
So, what you can do is you can write the whole story out on your board or, you know, online, whatever tool you use to write down the story, or every student writes the story on the paper.
This is asking the story and creating the story—making the story, okay?
Then step three is read. Since the story asking—the ask the story step two portion of the lesson is very listening-focused, right? Everybody's listening to the story.
The next step is now to engage them in interpretive reading. This means giving students a printed or projected version of the class story and reading it together.
So, printed means, for example, you could do this TPRS over different lessons, right? You don't have to put this all into one class; it might be a little too much.
So, in the first part of the first lesson that you teach, you could do step one and two, then you have the story. Then for the next lesson, you as a teacher prepare the printed-out version, for example.
Or if you have more time and you do it in one class, you can just project it with your computer or whatever with a projector, and then you read the class story together.
Then often, this is followed by some fun activities like running dictation, so the students have to write the story again as fast as they can, or any number of text-based review games and activities, like what you normally would do in a regular class.
So, these are the three steps of TPRS.
Let's review this! First step was establishing meaning, so you teach your students the important vocabulary and phrases and expressions that they need to know.
Then you come up together with a story based on a vague prompt—a vague idea that you give them, right? To lead them in the right direction, but they fill in all the details.
Students love doing this! They love making up a character and making up all the places, so it's super engaging! You get them super involved, right?
You ask the story, you come up with the story, you write down the story, and then you read the story together.
After that, you can do more practice with that—more text-based exercises that you come up with. You can put in more vocabulary activities after this, etc., etc.
But this is the TPRS method, which encourages both accuracy and fluency.
Alright, and here's a big comment from Tuyet, who is using this methodology. "I have applied this method following AJ Hoge's guideline when my English was at an intermediate level. I read short stories or listened to many short stories. When I finished reading materials or listening to stories, I tried to apply TPRS to retell what I have read or listened to. It was like I told the same stories but using my own language or new terms. This method helps me improve paraphrasing skills."
This is a great approach! I love this, Tuyet! I love this! You take the TPRS method and make it suitable for self-studying! So, this is really great!
We should all do this too! And this works in every language, obviously, right? So, you pick a short story—either a written one if you read a short story or a video—and then you retell it in your own words. That's also really cool!
Yeah, and you can even, before that, you can also establish meaning. You can give them the key vocabulary and key phrases that they should then use when they retell the story.
And then you can also read it. Nice! Good!
So, this is the TPRS method, and maybe everyone who's already teaching out there, I challenge you to use this in one of your next classes and see how it goes. Then report back to us with your findings! I would be very interested in that!
So, very, very cool!
Alright, so this is TPRS, which again promotes both accuracy and fluency. There have been some studies on that which show how effective it is, so try it out!
And Daniel says, "Linda, this teaching technique reminded me of that called the reading approach created back in 1930."
Yeah, there are some similarities! This is sort of a more modern version, you know? Usually, with all these teaching ideas, they kind of piggyback off of each other, so definitely some similarities there. Good point, Daniel! Thank you!
Okay, so now we talked a lot about fluency and accuracy—what you can do to combine the two with the TPRS method, for example.
So, the question still becomes: can you be fluent but not accurate? That's another question a lot of people are thinking. Can you be fluent but not accurate? Is this something that can happen?
That's a lot of teachers' worries, right? That if you don't focus enough on accuracy, you might become fluent, but you still have messed up grammar and everything.
So, let's look at that! The answer is yes! It is certainly possible to speak a language fluently but not accurately, or not accurately all the time, right?
So, this possibility exists for both L2 language learners and also native speakers alike, okay? And especially native speakers!
I think a lot of non-native English speakers always think native English speakers use perfect grammar all the time and they know their language best, but they actually don't, right?
Here's a great book that talks about exactly this issue, and I really wanted to share that with you. For anybody who's interested, I'm actually going to share the link so you can get this book for you as well.
It is called "Between You and I," and this book covers a lot of these mistakes that especially native English speakers make all the time and not even realizing it.
For example, the title already—"Between You and I"—right? Confusion between these pronouns. "Between you and me" is actually right, but a lot of people just say "between you and I," and they don't even realize it.
It's become like this fixed expression. But the book also talks about different things like confusion between the verbs "can" and "may."
So, for example, "Can I go to the bathroom?" instead of "May I go to the bathroom?" Also common mistakes like "it's" versus "its," right? I mean, this is just classic! Or "there," "their," "then" versus "than," and many others.
So, if you want to read more about these things—common mistakes even native English speakers make—this is a great book to read: "Between You and I."
This is where you can get it on Amazon if you're interested. But this just shows you that, yeah, it is possible to be fluent but not accurate and not accurate 100% of the time.
If you're a non-native English speaker, think about your own native language. Do you know the grammar perfectly? Are you using the perfect grammar of your language all the time? Probably not either, right?
So, yeah, maybe a closing point here. Is anybody interested? Has anybody read this book before? Let me know if you have!
But yeah, so don't just assume. I think this is just saying that there's no one 100% accurate. Following this "I need to be 100% accurate" thing is not realistic; it doesn't exist.
Because even native English speakers are not 100% accurate. I think that's what I'm trying to say with that.
So, check out this book! It's really great, especially for teachers. Maybe if you're a native English speaker, you kind of find yourself in this book as well.
So, it is all about accuracy and fluency and finding the right balance, I would say. This is our main takeaway here!
Okay, from everything that we've learned today, this is really what you should look out for: balancing the two—balancing accuracy and fluency.
Alright! And Daniel says, "Oh, this is great! Thank you for introducing this book to us! I'm going to give it a go as soon as possible!" Thank you!
Cool! And then if you read it, let us know next time or whenever you finish it, and give us some feedback! That'd be great!
But yeah, sure! So, balancing accuracy and fluency—this should be the main takeaway of today's live session.
How you can do that? Balance accuracy and fluency by using activities that foster both skills, right? That's the key!
It's also what we learn in the ESA methodology. You should just balance—have activities that foster both skills, both accuracy and fluency.
When practicing fluency, teachers should aim for student self-expression and be more concerned about content than forms. This is fluency! You should focus on the students talking, get them communicating, and not really worry about the grammar too much.
Teachers should refrain from openly correcting students' mistakes, especially during fluency-oriented classes, right? If it's a grammar class, of course, you should correct them and say, "No, it is 'go,' 'went,' 'gone,' right?" Not "go, went, went," or whatever it is.
But during fluency-oriented exercises, do not openly correct students' mistakes because correcting students' mistakes openly can make them very anxious and reluctant to express themselves, right?
There are certain students who take this stuff very seriously. If you correct them openly and you call them out for making a mistake, some of them might never raise their hand or never speak again in your class.
Or it takes them a long time to open up again. There are students like that, so this is a very bad way of doing it, especially in communication, speaking, fluency-oriented exercises.
So, what you should do is to correct students—to correct students is to model the proper form by correctly repeating their sentences.
So, if they say, for example, "Teacher, yesterday I go to the movie theater," right? You say, "Oh, yesterday you went to the movie theater."
Then you have them repeat it correctly. They hear the correct version; they can correct themselves, and it's not like, "Hey, you made a mistake! Don't say 'go' yesterday!"
Okay? So, this way, it is a very unobtrusive way of correcting students, and it just goes over much better.
So, I hope that these five key points here for balancing the two will help you in your future classes. Maybe also the TPRS method can help you, and this book that I recommended to you can help you in learning more about accuracy and fluency and how to really get the best of both worlds into your classroom.
Amitabha here has a big comment I also want to read out. "Between accuracy and fluency, I would vouch for the former—accuracy—as I belong to the old school of teaching and thought and have been taught English and have been taught as such in an English medium school.
No, I was not aware of the TPRS method of teaching process. Also, I have not come across the said book, but I will definitely have a look at that. Thanks a lot, Linda, for sharing this information!"
Yeah, listen, everybody! You do you! If you prefer an accuracy-focused teaching style and way to run your lessons, go for it! Go for it!
What I'm saying is definitely balance the two. Don't have anything overpowering the other; they're both equally important.
The key here is to balance it and not to focus 100% of your time on only one of each, but really have them kind of work together—one and one.
The TPRS method is one way of doing it. It's not the only way of doing it; it's one of the ways that I wanted to introduce to you because it's become popular in recent years.
So, I thought I'd put it into today's lesson. But everybody, you do you! And what I said earlier, sometimes it also comes down to the individual student. You know your students best!
So, if you have students where the majority of the students prefer accuracy as well, they are grammar-obsessed; they love soaking it all up—go for it!
It also depends: are you teaching an English grammar class? Focus more on accuracy. Are you teaching a debate class, an English speaking class? You should probably focus more on fluency.
So, it all depends on the circumstances. We talked about all these factors that it depends on some time ago.
So, there we go! Daniel says, "Based on what we've learned today, we can say that both fluency and accuracy can be blended together by using the TPRS method."
Yes! Perfect summary, Daniel! Love it! Thank you so much!
Yeah, that's what we can say for sure! They're both equally important, right?
So, this is the end of today's session. We're going into Q&A for a few minutes. I think some of you guys may have some additional comments and feedback that you want to share with us, or some questions about accuracy, fluency, or also just TEFL/TESOL in general.
Now is your time to shine! Leave your comments, and I can answer your questions, or we can discuss this further. Now is the time to do so!
I just want to mention that again, we have 30% off. I have a link for you guys, so if you're not yet TEFL or TESOL certified, now is a great time to do that with this 30% off link.
You can scan this QR code, or again, I'm going to share a link with you in the comment section so you can copy and paste this link, and you can get 30% off any of ITT's TEFL courses.
So, I just wanted to put that out there one more time. The link looks like this. This is it! So, go ahead and copy-paste that if you're interested.
Then Amitabha has another comment here: "Living examples of being fluent but inaccurate can be often found in chatting or discussion sessions over social media."
Yes! Totally! 100%! There's very inaccurate grammar and things like that going on on social media—punctuation, oh my gosh, all these things, right?
But it doesn't hinder communication, right? Even if you don't use punctuation, even if you don't use the correct spelling most of the time, people understand what those social media posts and people are talking about. So, that's fluency!
Alright, Nesman is asking, "What level of English language are we doing for fluency versus accuracy?"
You can really do this for any level, right? Any level! Like we said earlier, especially children, they usually pick up fluency first, right?
So, if you have really, really young students—like I'm thinking kindergarten, two, three, four years old—you’re probably not going to teach them grammar rules. They can't even write yet, probably, right?
So then you would do more fluency things—games and songs and getting them to talk—and you don't really worry about correct grammar that much. But you should correct maybe pronunciation.
So again, it's a mix of both! So, the fluency versus accuracy is not really limited to one age group. This is for every age group, but the ratio of fluency versus accuracy might differ per age group.
Emilio says, "Off-topic question: should I get one certificate or the six different certification options for the 550-hour course? I'll need to legalize them going to Vietnam. What would you recommend?"
Okay, so just from my personal opinion, if you need to get them legalized, that is not for free, right? That costs money.
So, it's cheaper to get just one certificate legalized instead of six. If you have six different certificates, you have to get them all legalized—that can get very expensive, I imagine.
So, maybe I would just do one in your case. I would have to figure out maybe how much that is to legalize each certificate, and then depending on your budget, maybe just one certificate might make more sense.
I think it really comes down to your own preference. You know, in your resume, you can write down "550-hour certificate course" and then list all the individual courses behind that.
So, you have all of them on your resume, but maybe just for practicality reasons, I think maybe one certificate is easier to get legalized. It's cheaper than if you have six. Just my opinion!
Alright, Siam is asking, "How to keep new words in lexicon? Any easy way? I get stuck in the middle while speaking; I don't find words."
Oh, okay! You know, I think a great way of building your vocabulary is to take an English proficiency test, right? Like IELTS or a Cambridge certificate.
Or maybe you don't even have to take the test, but you buy one of their test preparation books, right? Because usually for these kinds of tests, you need to learn, I don't know, 500 vocabulary words.
So, all of these words will be in there, and depending on what your level is—if your current level is like A2, B1—you get either your level book, an A2 or a B1 book, or you get the next level higher book.
Then you focus on the vocabulary that is recommended in this book, and you go through it. You don't even have to take the test at the end; just buy the test prep book and go over that vocabulary because usually this vocabulary is obviously very useful for general English, and they adapted it for this particular level.
So, maybe that would be a good way of going about that. I hope that makes sense!
Amitabha says, "Yes, I fully agree and support the view expressed by you, Linda, that we should have a judicious admixture of accuracy and fluency in teaching English to young learners."
Good! Yeah, I think that makes the most sense, right? Again, you will know your students best, so you can tell: is my student more focused on fluency or accuracy? What do they respond best to?
And that's how you adjust your lesson plans. Good stuff! Thank you, guys!
Alright, I'm going to take maybe a few more questions if there are some coming through, and then we can sign off for today.
Oh, Daniel says, "Soon enough, AI tools will help new generations deal with language inaccuracy, but I'm not sure about how it will go with fluency."
Though AI is taking over the world, isn't it? I mean, in the last few months, all the new AI things that have come out is just insane! It's insane!
Good or bad? I mean, some are really helpful and useful. A lot of stuff has been said about ChatGPT, and there's even been some countries, I think Italy, that has banned the AI tool ChatGPT. I think it was Italy—crazy!
So, yeah, what a time to be alive right now in terms of AI tools, right? Definitely crazy! And I'm excited to see how this is implemented in our teaching field, right, with AI.
So, very exciting! Also a little bit scary, not gonna lie! It's a little bit scary! So, we'll keep an eye on that.
Maybe that would be a good topic for our future live session: AI tools in teaching English as a foreign language. I should write it down! That's actually a good topic!
I don't know if there's a lot out yet, but I feel like in the next few months, we might see some incredible things. So, I'm gonna write that down!
Or just some recent developments with AI in English language teaching. There might be some cool stuff out there. I'm gonna take a look for you guys!
You know what? I'm gonna keep that! I wrote it down! So, we'll see if this will be a future live session. It might be interesting!
If any of you have any news to share in terms of AI with English language teaching, pass this on to me! Send it to me, and I'll check it out!
So, you can reach me again—best way is probably here on Instagram at LindaGoesEast. Just send me anything you see that has to do with that!
But yeah, interesting!
Alright, let's do maybe one last question or comment, and then we're gonna say goodbye!
Okay, Sam says, "Well, I'm doing my undergrad in literature right. Since English is not my native language, I can't make my essay special with magical or powerful words. How to make an essay strong?"
Briefly say, you know, I would suggest, like I said, get one of those books to—or maybe also, I'm sure there are some books for essay writing and how to use magical words.
But also what I like to use—maybe this will help you—let me find the URL. There is, and you might already know this, but there is this website called Thesaurus.
Thesaurus, is that it? So, this—and if you have a word, it will find you a synonym for that word that sounds maybe better.
So, you can check that out! For example, you put in "want," "I want," "want," and it will give you synonyms for "want" that sound like they might be better.
So, you can do that! This might maybe polish your essay a little bit! Maybe that will help!
Alright, Amitabha here has the last question. "Linda, did you have any chance to view and visit the various extensive wooden walkways on rice fields at Sunchan Bay Wetland Reserve in South Korea?"
That's a great question! Love it! Yeah, I have been down there! Actually, exactly this place that you're talking about! I have been there!
Yeah, it's really cool! I think I actually, on my website, I have an article about it and pictures. Let me see...
Yeah, so you can check it out and let me know if this is what you're talking about! But yeah, oh, I think in 2020 I was down there!
2020! Ah, the connection is like really slow on my end! I hope it's okay for you guys!
But here, Amitabha, this is the Sunchan Bay thing that you were talking about! I was there! Yeah, it was really pretty there!
I want to go again! There is like one time of the year where everything turns red—all the reeds, so it looks really cool! So, I want to go down there at that time again! One time! Looks cool!
Gemma says, "How would you cheer work with students to be good at accuracy despite nowadays technology and communication issues?"
Yeah, I mean, just with accuracy, I think just a lot of drills and exercises and work, work, work, right? Pronunciation—accurate pronunciation drills!
Maybe you could do even songs or things like tongue twisters! And then accuracy with writing—I mean, you just have to write, write, write with grammar!
Give them as many grammar worksheets as possible! I think that's the only way for accuracy to really—you just have to practice, practice, practice!
I think, but I think, yeah, the TPRS method might be just a really cool way to get your students interactive, interested, and this one encourages both accuracy and fluency.
So, maybe try that! I think that'd be cool!
Book Thief says, "It's lovely to see you, dear ma'am!" Thank you!
We're actually at the end already, so this was the last question! I have to sign off now!
Really nice to see you all, and thank you so much for being here! You can always watch the replay and keep commenting, and we'll get back to you even after the live is finished.
Also, we always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes, so this one will be on our podcast very soon! If you're interested, you can find us at every place that you get your podcasts from.
So, you can type in TEFL and TESOL podcast, ITT, and you will find us there.
All of our live sessions are always in our playlists; we never delete them! So, you can always re-watch! You can look through the playlist and see if there's something that you like.
If you have any topic suggestions and ideas here, let me know at LindaGoesEast on Instagram! Send them into me!
Then, yeah, I'll see you again next week! I will be here, and I hope I'll see you there as well!
Thank you so much for all of your comments! Today was really great and interactive, so I really appreciated that!
So, that lets me know that you're enjoying these topics, and I'm gonna go down this direction for future topics to keep our discussion going!
So, I really appreciate that for everyone who was here today and really watched the whole session!
Thank you so much for all of you coming back every week! I really appreciate it! I know I say this every time, but I really, really mean it!
I really, really appreciate you guys so much because that's why I'm doing this, right? If there was no one here, no one listening, no one watching, no one commenting, then why would I be here, right?
So, I'm here because of you guys, honestly!
So, yeah, I hope everybody has a great weekend, and I can't wait to hear what you guys are up to next week when we chat again!
Then, yeah, I'm gonna let you guys go and go on with your day or maybe go to bed, wherever you are!
And yeah, we're gonna go from there! So, thank you guys so much! I'm gonna see you next time, I hope!
Alright, bye-bye!