I have consistently been surprised by how much my mind must be switched on in this new career I've taken up. In my past work experience I'd never really had to concern myself with being so focused on exactly what I was doing while I was working. Perhaps that says more about the work I was doing than me per se, but now I'm enjoying the challenge of moderating my language.
By that I do not mean avoiding invectives, as we were all probably told a few times in our youth. Instead I'm talking about actually controlling the level and quantity of English that you use. As a native speaker of the language, it took me starting this work and having to study English daily before I realised just how complex, grammatically speaking, we make conversations without even considering it.
Let's take my first paragraph in this post as an example. As far as tenses go, I used Present Perfect, Past Perfect, Past Continuous, Present Simple and Present Continuous. That's five tenses in five lines and those lines also contain a scattering of modals and even a touch of Latin. Scary stuff!
When you start to teach people English, particularly at lower levels, it quickly hits you that you must make a real conscious effort to control the words and phrases that you use. I think my biggest reminder moment recently was speaking to a reasonably good low level student about past activities and all was going well. I asked if she went to Austria this summer on holiday and she replied in the negative. Without thinking I then asked her if she had ever been to Austria on holiday....and got a worried and confused expression from her. It seems that she has not experienced the have you ever present perfect before and so as far as she was concerned I might as well have spoken French to her for those few words.
Needless to say I quickly rephrased the question so that she understood and we could continue talking but it resonated with me and I try to keep it in mind whenever I'm teaching. This kind of language awareness is a cornerstone of the EFL profession and what we all do at Class but it's not yet a fully natural skill for me. I'm still learning but I enjoy the challenge and it makes me examine my own language closely on a daily basis.
For those of you who don't teach, I would simply offer the advice to think about what you are saying if you ever run into a non-native speaker who you need to communicate with. Be it a tourist, family friend or any other person, make sure that you really consider the kind of language you are using. Keep your phrases simple if the person is struggling and try not to add more complex language or grammar to explain your point (one of my big weaknesses, I'm an explainer by heart).
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