During the 18 months of writing the new edition of Outcomes I put my teaching and language learning efforts on hold. Back in January 2022, when we started the project, I was teaching a beginner Spanish class and learning Russian, but it quickly became clear that my addled brain was not going to do multitasking very well, so the lessons came to an end.
Now Outcomes is finished and I’m back in the classroom. I’m teaching a low-level Spanish class with a colleague at Lexical Lab and also starting again with Russian as what I think we might describe as a false beginner. And in both cases I remain struck by the absurdity of the traditional low level syllabus which still seems to be largely predicated on a building block approach to grammar plus lists of words for practising that grammar.
Going back to the classroom as a learner I am acutely aware of the many many things I have forgotten, but I also remember quite a lot. For example, I am quite capable of recalling past forms if I can remember the actual verb I want to use it with! The problem is the forgotten lexis more than grammar yet, most Elementary coursebooks suggest that the opposite is the issue: we need to practise the grammar in building blocks all over again. In many English courses you still don’t even see an example of a past form till about halfway through ab elementary book! Most coursebooks will also endeavour to restrict the possibility of its use too, through the controlled tasks. In our Spanish classes we try and focus more on natural kinds of conversations (as we do in Outcomes Beginner and Elementary). When you do this, while a task may predominantly require some very simple grammar such as the present form of the verb to be, you quickly see how some students will attempt to produce other forms – sometimes ‘correctly’ (because they have actually studied before) and at other times not. The insights of a lexical approach show how some ‘grammar; can be taught as as vocabulary. For example, in our first classes introducing ourselves (essentially using I am / you are, someone tried to ask How long have you been a teacher? We taught the pattern Cuanto tiempo llevas (como professor / en Londres / alli). Another person wanted to say was and we taught era – that is, the word and not the whole underlying structure. These got practised and reused by most students. Some weren’t always accurate using it, but it enabled an extra level of the conversation and understanding between the students. How long would an English student have to wait to see and be encouraged to use these forms in their beginner or elementary coursebook?
Part of the reason for taking up these beginner classes – both teaching and learning – was for my own professional development so to speak and to feed into our training , in this case specifically Teaching Languages at Low Levels. I felt that our book Teaching Lexically was more aimed at B1 and above, and our online course gives a better outline of how to apply a more lexical approach at low levels. Teaching and learning different languages has refreshed what it feels like to be a student and also a non-native speaker teacher which provides helpful examples for the course. It’s also given inspiration for a general consideration of language learning and how we think about levl, goals an achievement. Broadly speaking this is the theme of our webinar series this year which kicks off on Saturday 27th by thinking about B1 as the final destination for most students. That’s certainly the limit of my ambitions with my current language learning. It seems to me that having B1 as an ultimate goal (inaccurate semi-fluency) should make a difference to how we conceive the teaching of languages at low levels. Would you agree? Why not join me for the webinar and our follow-up discussion?
Andrew Walkley
