Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cj1976]

What are your opinions on this? It seems that Koreans place too much emphasis on accuracy at the expense of fluency. A lot of Koreans have a good TOEIC score but have poor conversational ability.
This is an interview question that I've encountered, and I'm curious to know what experienced ESL teachers think on the matter.

Thanks

[TeeBee]

Personally, I think fluency (and confidence!) is more important than accuracy. Native speakers don't use the language accurately when speaking. Everyone makes "mistakes" when speaking, and everyone has moments when they can't remember a word or use the wrong word.

For me, there's nothing more unnatural than someone who speaks perfectly (when they do speak, since the conversation has probably moved by the time they formulate a "perfect" sentence"). You can often spot a non-native speaker because they try and speak perfectly.

Focusing on accuracy prevents people from using the language on an everyday basis, and picking up a feel for how it is really used. Accuracy is important in written English, but in my opinion it should really take a backseat when teaching spoken English.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

There should be much more stress on fluency over accuracy in Korea, to be sure. For speaking I'm always much more concerned about fluency (or lack thereof); however, for listening I usually do excercises that focus on accuracy. My thinking behind this is that just by listening to me throughout the lesson they're trying (well, some of them) to get the gist of what I'm saying, i.e. listening for fluency.

[jadarite]

I don't see how one weighs more or less than the other. It depends on context. I would think accuracy is the most important because this is the only chance they have of learning the correct answers in class. After they leave class, it won't matter if they are fluent or not. No one outside the classroom will know the difference.

However, being accurate gives the person awareness and confidence to use the language outside of the classroom. If I were the student and had a translator with me everywhere I went, then I wouldn't care about accuracy because I know they would be there to clarify my mistakes (like a co-teacher explaining something such as grammar to students).

I have gone to Korean stores and asked for things, only to get a strange look from the store owner because I wasn't looking for exactly the thing they showed me. It was close, in the same category and all, but either it was a piece that didn't fit or was something a little different than what I was expecting.

[BS.Dos.]

Fluency, fluency, fluency. At least, that's what my TESOL taught me. However, you shouldn't assume that that should mean ignoring pronunciation work etc (Ss, Ts and Ds spring to mind), as you shouldn't. What you shouldn't be wasting your time on however, is unnecessary correction and conditioning work that only serves to undermine your students confidence. Getting anal about grammar points etc is a complete waste of time, especially considering the level of most of the students over here. You should think of accuracy as being the gloss and fluency as being the primer. I'd rather my students attempted to converse with me as naturally as is possible, in disjointed sentences if they have to, rather than pausing, as they do, for minutes at a time, mentally pondering over the correct and exact construction of whatever it is they want to say, before then attempting to say it. You should be aspiring to get them to the point where their cognitive learning skills kick-in and they start making connections for themselves rather than getting pedantic over the insignificant minutiae.

Silence is the enemy of the language instructor, not mistake making.

[BS.Dos.]

[Bread]

I've met people who made lots of grammatical errors and often couldn't find exactly the right words for what they wanted to say, but they were 100% fluent. I understood everything that they were saying, and they understood everything I was saying.

And that's the most important thing anyway. Most people want to be able to speak to people in English, not to write research papers in it.

The people I've met who were great speakers with poor accuracy were almost all from Latin countries. I have a feeling that the reason is that they were more outgoing and less self-conscious about speaking in front of others than Asians are in general.

[Bread]

[Thiuda]

I aim for inteligibility; fluency and accuracy in equal measure.

[Thiuda]

[BS.Dos.]

^so why did you have to say it twice?

[aka Dave]

Some EFL specialists differentiate between mistakes and errors. Mistakes are minor slips when a student fails to use a structure he's already mastered.

Errors are when the student misuses a structure and is unaware of its correct usage or of the structure itself. Errors probably should be corrected, at least after the students finished speaking, so you can introduce the structure.

Mistakes you can let go, unless they're chronic (which means you might be dealing with errors).

As for fluency through accuracy, I emphasize fluency in conversation classes, but not at the total expense of accuracy. They can mutually compliment each other; higher accuracy often goes with higher fluency.

[jadarite]

There is an understanding that native speakers are fluent. Based on what native speakers speak, we determine fluency. This is why countries like Korea hire native English speakers. So, I can see the connection with the "straight line" direct approach.

But folks, the reality is you can say "Me that candy wants", "Wants me that candy", or "That candy!! Me wants!!"

Doesn't matter how you deal the words out, the message is clear. The thing with countries like Korea is that they think they already have the accuracy. JUST TEACH MY CHILD TO BE FLUENT. JUST TEACH THE STUDENTS TO BE FLUENT.

Are native speakers 100% fluent though? What makes them function in society isn't fluency but accuracy.

Now stop calling that thing a rubber folks, it's an eraser. I don't care how fluent you think you are, if you aren't accurate, you will not be understood.

[brento1138]

Fluency is most important (i try to make my students fluent first) but there's always the problem of bad habits developing with accuracy that are hard to get rid of. But it is possible to get rid of the bad habits... just takes lots of work on the student's part...

So, I'd focus more on fluency first, then fine tune the accuracy

[Yu_Bum_suk]