English Encounters of the Classroom Kind

Written by Dr. David E. Shaffer

I have been tasked with recollecting teaching events that have in some way been noteworthy – classroom-related episodes that have been gems of surprise, wonder, or regret, or possibly ah-ha moments. (You may recall that three such snapshots in teaching appeared in the March edition of this column.) Here I recall some jewels in the learning process for the student and/or the teacher that are related to mispronunciations, misunderstandings of meaning, and a poor understanding of how language is learned.

“Dirty” Words
Students everywhere learning English as a foreign language (EFL) will, unsurprisingly, encounter problems with pronunciation. Some problems are particular to certain first languages; some are particular to Korean EFL students. One is the “s” sound: When it is followed by a long or short “i” sound, the “s” is often sounded as “sh” by Korean learners. The most vivid example of this that I have, from many years ago, is a student talking about Korean customs and how “Koreans like to sit on the floor” (with a distinct sh-sound for sit). I smiled, a couple students chuckled, and I then proceeded to practice with the offending student the correct pronunciation of sit so that she would never again commit the same gaffe with such defecating results.

Reflecting on my “good deed for the day,” with both time and experience, I came to realize that my little pronunciation practice on sit that day probably had very little if any effect on the student’s pronunciation. It takes much more than a couple of correct pronunciation attempts in class to rectify a bad pronunciation habit. On top of that, I had not told the student that her incorrect pronunciation was a far different word in English than what she had intended. And even more importantly, I had not told her that her mispronunciation was considered foul language in many social settings.

If this were the only “dirty word” problem that I had encountered over the years, I would be happy. First-language interference has caused many students to have problems correctly pronouncing peanuts and version, to name a couple. Other times it is not a pronunciation problem. Students will occasionally use damn, ass, and piss in conversation class, and even the F-word, not realizing the offensive weight they carry or their inappropriateness in a classroom setting. And how would I react? Well, as a novice teacher, I would retort with something like “Don’t you ever say that in my class again!” But with reflection and maturation, I came to realize that there was not much English teaching contained in such remarks. What the students needed to know was what exactly they had said that had irritated me, why it had irritated me, and what would have been a more appropriate expression. This is the modus operandi that I eventually adopted, and I even developed a “dirty word” lesson into my advanced classes.

“Dirty” Sweatshirts
English has often been used in Korea more for decoration than for what it says. This began decades ago when foreign-made products were considered to be of better quality than domestic ones. Storefronts began to put English words on their store windows to attract customers. This morphed into school notebook covers carrying all kinds of nonsensical English and later onto T-shirts. Often this is innocuous – but not always. Sometimes a student will come to class, almost always a female for some reason, wearing a shirt containing English that would be embarrassing to them if they knew what it said.

One instance that stands out is a student’s black sweatshirt that had a nice, somewhat romantic photo of a couple on the front. Later in the class, when the students were doing group work, I noticed that the back of her sweatshirt carried a list of names as found in movie credits. Closer inspection of the listed names – names like Ben Dover, Fanny Deep, Buster Hymen, and Cherry Poppins – revealed that she was wearing a shirt promoting an adult movie! “Oh my! What should I do?” I thought. What I did do at the end of class was go up to her and explain what was on her shirt. I am not so sure she understood. On reflection, what I should have done, as a follow-up in a later class, was explain to the whole class the dangers of buying clothing and merchandise containing English that they have not read or do not understand. I never saw that girl wear that sweatshirt again. But I did try to instill upon future classes that one should always be aware of what a product says in English before buying it – or wearing it!

Teaching Idioms
When I first started teaching English in Korea, I did not have a pleasant time – and neither did the students. The available textbooks (both of them) contained listen-and-repeat dialogues interspersed with grammar points, much in the audiolingual tradition. The students got bored quickly, and I got frustrated. When it came time to start a new semester, I thought I would liven up my course by teaching idioms instead. “What could be more interesting than learning English idioms?” I rationalized. What resulted, however, was that no matter how much I explained the new idioms, the students would use them incorrectly – in totally wrong situations, or in grammatically mangled sentences, almost 100 percent of the time. I was puzzled – and discouraged.

It was not until some years later, with advances in second language acquisition, that I realized that learners needed to experience expressions such as idioms in meaningful contexts, either written or spoken, numerous times in order to grasp fully the scope of their meaning and proper use. And besides, though English idioms may be colorful, their frequency of use is quite low. I threw away my idiom book, and decided to spend class time on more useful, more frequently used English.

Why have I related these “encounters”? So you and your students do not make the same mistakes related here, and to let you know that missteps can be turned into productive learning experiences for everyone involved.

The Author
David E. Shaffer is vice-president of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of Korea TESOL (KOTESOL). On behalf of the chapter, he invites you to participate in the teacher development workshops at their monthly meetings (always on a Saturday). For many years, Dr. Shaffer has been a professor of English Language at Chosun University, where he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses. He is a long-time member of KOTESOL and a holder of various KOTESOL positions; at present he is national president. Dr. Shaffer credits KOTESOL for much of his professional development in English language teaching, scholarship, and leadership. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News.