PRIORITIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH

The key priority is to read, write and understand. It is to use both simple and complex structures as the total writing infrastructure.

The secondary priority is to build within that infrastructure the application of grammar, parts of speech, tenses, moods, active and passive voice, idioms, and words.

This is proceeding from the whole to the part. It is setting the forest in place before moving to examine the trees, branches and leaves.

There are teachers who go in the opposite direction. They focus on the trees, branches and leaves. Some never put it all together as a forest. They never teach the students to write.

But their students are experts in nouns, verbs and past, present and future tenses. They know how to write correct sentences but have no idea of how to put the language structures together.

The strategy for the skilled teacher is to start the process of writing and then use the grammar etc as enabling tasks within the framework of writing.

Students have to be shown how to use the existing grammar and vocabulary to improve the polish and quality of their writing. Grammar by itself is useless.

Writing framework and knowledge of subject are terminal tasks. Grammar and vocabulary are enabling tasks that can not stand alone.

That is why this teacher focuses on writing skills. The enabling skills are quietly integrated as the year goes by.