English Success

I've been fascinated over the debate of whether teachers should teach students to acquire or to learn a language. I had been teaching English as a Second Language as well as a Foreign language for many years and when I had the opportunity to hear a well-sought after business consultant who worked with big corporations and companies like Disney mention that the language (the actual words in spoken and written language) didn't matter as much as one's tone of voice and body language in effective communication, I was blown away.
After years of being told by my well-intentioned professors and mentors how important the verbage was, I experience a serious pattern interrupt. But I intuitively knew what effective communication "looked like." The business consultant didn't quote the research but I took note of the figures she gave: in effective face-to-face communication, language accounts for only 7% while body language accounts for 55% and tone of voice 38%. And here I was teaching language learning vs. effective communication through language acquisition. Later on, I had another opportunity to hear Marshall Thurber, another well-respected and sought-after consultant, mention the same findings from Dr. Albert Mehrabian's UCLA study of effective communication. This time the message hit home and I started thinking of ways to make most of my teaching and learning activities as communicative as possible.
I do share the research findings with my students to motivate them to get out of their shells and oftentimes their heads. They get the message and come out of their shells being more expressive. I am so grateful to have come upon this truth about effective communication, and I'm having a blast unlearning and relearning about teaching effective communication with my students.