accuray or fluency

[kirky]

Hello all:

How do you think the students' level and the stage of the lesson affects whether the teacher focuses on accuracy or fluency? Could the learner's environment (L1 or L2) also affect this?


What does everyone think? It was a question on my TEFL course.

[totyfroty]

I want to say my opinion about it.Sometimes,teachers doesnot care at all about fluency. They taught you accurate grammar and how to write good essays but they ignore the pronunciation.

I think the environment also affect this. Maybe the mother language affest this too.

have a nice day

[Tdol]

While there has to be a degree of accuracy for an utterance to be comprehensible, it is possible to achieve fluency without much regard to accuracy; I can gabble away in Khmer and make myself understood, but it's riddled with mistakes, but getting my message across is the most important thing for me and accuracy will come with time.

In terms of an individual lesson, in free practice, fluency is likely to be of greater importance and laying too much emphasis on accuracy in this stage could impede students' communication. By the same measure, when practising a specific point, there should be an emphasis on accuracy to focus on the form being taught.

[dzineb]

Originally Posted by totyfroty

I want to say my opinion about it.Sometimes,teachers doesnot care at all about fluency. They taught you accurate grammar and how to write good essays but they ignore the pronunciation.

I think the environment also affect this. Maybe the mother language affest this too.

have a nice day

I think that as teachers we should also take into account fluency not only focusing on accuracy.This is maily when the objective is to develop the learners' creativity in writing or speaking.When teaching literature for example, if we base our assessment on accuracy we will never provide leaners with the opportunity to express their ideas .

[Heads Up English]

Break the lesson into two distinct phases, the first focused on presenting and practicing the target language. Here students will need to drill the language for accuracy. The second phase of the lesson should allow students the chance to extend the target language and mix grammar and vocabulary from other lessons. As Tdol says, think of this as free practice. Students will work on fluency in this part of the lesson.

Both fluency and accuracy are integral to producing students who can speak English well. If you're interested, I wrote an article that goes into more detail:

http://www.headsupenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Item id=72

In Japan, where I teach, teachers focus too much on accuracy. It can really get frustrating.

Hope the ideas help.

Chris Cotter
Just print and teach materials at Heads Up English.
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[direstraits]

true but suppose two conflicting thoughts accidentally bump points vividly in the process of attempting to construct meaningless clarity..would the calamity of the conjunction of the malfunction of the sanction of the adaptation of the word proliferation be affected the same way as the present formation of the form would be affect if it were to,suppose,crash into a doubtful period? also, is it possible for one to be a pen while knowing one is really a pencil made from stencils?

[Iconic Woman]

[QUOTE=Heads Up English;307085]Break the lesson into two distinct phases, the first focused on presenting and practicing the target language. Here students will need to drill the language for accuracy. The second phase of the lesson should allow students the chance to extend the target language and mix grammar and vocabulary from other lessons. As Tdol says, think of this as free practice. Students will work on fluency in this part of the lesson."

I would agree with this, but I think it is better to get the students to practice fluency first, before launching into the grammar/accuracy part of the lesson. This is better for the inhibited or over-conscientious students - giving them the chance to practice freely without agonising over their tenses etc. It also allows the teacher to identify the most frequent mistakes and focus on them in the next part of the lesson, after which students can practice what they've learnt (hopefully) with more attention to accuracy.

[Ever Student]

Hello,
I am studying "Teaching English" in Iran.
All comments above are on the accuracy and fluency of learning language. Now I'd like to talk more about the effect of mother tongue on new language.
Advocators of ALM method believe that native language affects one's learning and it has to be eliminated over the class setting. They considered it an interfering factor.
On the contrary, according to Brown, "the first language, however, may be more readily used to bridge gaps that the adult learner cannot fill by generalization within the second language, in this case the first language can be a faciliator; and not just an interfering factor."When you think what you want to say, you will refer to your own language. So it may help you how to make sense your speaking or writing, What's more, this way can prevent learners from imitating and practicing by rote memory.