Chapter 10: What We Think Happens

Assalamualaikum wr. wb.

At this moment I will continue share the other chapter from the ebook "I Still Can't Speak English". The chapter is about what we think happened.



So, the idea behind EOT is to make the practice conversation enjoyable and personally memorable to try to improve recall of the language when it is needed again at another time. The practice session can be repeated with numerous different practice partners and not become stale or boring because everyone naturally responds slightly differently.

The repetition of the patterns of successful communication and the negotiation of meaning leading to shared understanding in natural conversation produces a very intense but manageable and personalised social learning experience. This is similar to how we learned our first language but is faster because we have already learned one language fluently, have adult brain power and a few tools (grammar rules and technology) to turbo-charge the process.

I often get calls on Skype from English learners who wish to practise their English with me. I normally don’t take unscheduled calls of this nature but from time to time, to create a ‘control’ to the case studies and to illustrate what happens when someone doesn’t prepare properly before they try to speak, I have taken the calls and recorded them. 

You can listen to a prime example with another Chinese English learner, Amy, on my podcast page here:

http://languagesoutthere.podomatic.com/entry/2011-03-15T04_13_30-07_00

The preparation is important for a few reasons. Firstly the exercises rehearse the language to be used.

Secondly the language studied is at your approximate current speaking level and thirdly it gives you something to talk about, a way into a conversation that is interesting to you and your partner and helps create a conversation.

When you perform a series of successful practice conversations that you had previously thought impossible you experience a noticeable emotional reaction. This reaction is one of excitement even euphoria or rapture.

When a series of lessons that produce this reaction to real language use are put together to form a course, it is possible to reduce your level of anxiety before and during speaking, boost your confidence considerably, improve your fluency, improve your accuracy and make the whole experience sociable, memorable and enjoyable.

Thank you for reading my blog's again. I hope it will be useful and bless for all of us, aamiin

Wassalamualaikum wr. wb.