And it has been commonly agreed that, of the Englishspeakers in the world today, between 60 and 80% are notnative speakers. The British Council’s landmark English2000 project predicted that over a billion people wouldbe studying English by the year 2000. In fact, accordingto David Crystal in 1997, “A conservative estimate is that1,200,000,000 to 1,500,000,000 people in the world arereasonably competent in English.”So, if English is an essential life skill for allwho work, travel, or merely inhabit today’sworld, how can English language educa-tors—as a profession—accelerate, promote,and ensurecommunicative competence inEFL learners? Essentially, the question is:How can we make English unforgettable?
Quantitative factors affectinglearner achievement.
In light of thefact that many learners feel shame at theirlack of communicative ability,especiallytheir poor ability to understand and usespoken English after years of instruction,it’simportant for us to examine ourexpectations. Just what arereasonableexpectations, given the reality of the EFLsetting? One simply can’tignore the purelyquantitative element in estimating totalinstructional contact hours in this setting. A typicalacademic year is between 30 and 40 weeks, withinstructional times varying widely: normally from asfew as three hours of instruction per week to five; more,of course, in intensive courses. However, calculatingfive hours of instruction per week for 35 weeks yields175 hours. A hundred seventy-five hours might seem likealot of instruction—until one realizes that there are only168hours in one week! So one year’s study amounts tonot much more than one week’s time!No one would expect to master a language in just a fewweeks, but quantitatively that is what several years of instruction actually is. Taking that into account, the levellearners reach after four or five years is really quite good;perhaps they are what Crystal called “reasonably compe-tent,” in spite of their self-criticism. We know the levelmost learners reach from instruction alone: althoughthere are wide differences among learners, most speak hesitantly yet functionally with grammatical errors andinadequate vocabulary, and almost all have difficultyunderstanding rapid native speech.
Qualitative factors affecting learnerachievement.
More importantly, the success of English instruction in the EFL setting is also compro-mised by qualitative factors: the paucity of authenticEnglish input and the almost total lack of opportunityfor authentic practice outside the classroom.No teacher alone can possibly provideenough quantity or quality of input, norconstruct enough opportunities for practice,to even come near to matching the impactof an authentic English-speaking environ-ment. Materials must, therefore, be theteacher’s partner in repairing the deficitsof the setting.In our view,however, most textbooks usedin the EFL setting don’tprovide adequateor repeated input; almost none recyclematerial enough for it to be remembered,and the amount of practice includeddoesn’tapproach the quantity necessaryto create confident competency. And text-books tend to approach classroom learningas a linear process, with vocabulary andgrammar taught one following the other like footsteps onamarch, until the “syllabus” is ”covered” with virtuallyno integration along the way.In contrast, the language-learning experience in an envi-ronment in which the learner is surrounded by the targetlanguage is more three-dimensional, with exposures andpractice reinforcing each other and the student’s facilitygrowing geometrically. It is, as Diane Larsen-Freemanputs it, “dynamic, complex, and nonlinear.” Multiple,varied, and repeated exposures to target language providean inescapable echo; immediate opportunities to practiceabound, and previously learned language can be continu-ally observed in similar, though not identical, contexts.The environment itself makes language “unforgettable.”No wonder study in an English-speaking country is suchapowerful learning experience. The dilemma, then, fac-ing the profession is how to overcome the quantitativeand qualitative factors inherent in the EFL setting thatmake achievement of communicative competence seemso elusive.
Ahundred seventy-five hours mightseem like a lot ofinstruction – untilone realizes thatthere are only 168hours in one week!So one year’s studyamounts to notmuch more than oneweek’s time!
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