In my perfect world, there would be little difference between desire and reality. When I had an idea, for a story or a film for example, I would be able to create that with only a minimum of effort. Then I could go on to the next wonderful idea. If I wanted to learn something, like a language, it would be very easy. All I would have to do is read through the grammar and vocabulary once, understand it intellectually, and then I would be able to speak that language perfectly. Continue reading »

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Speaking generally, there are two types of language learner: the first type gets really worried about making errors or mistakes. They think about everything that they say carefully. Sometimes, if they start to say something, and then realise they have made a mistake, they will stop and correct that mistake, maybe returning to the beginning of the sentence. They might pause between each word, contemplating what the right word or phrase is before they say it.

For these learners, generally, their accuracy is high, but their fluency is low.

The other type of language learner doesn’t really care about making mistakes or errors. They have an idea in their head of what they want to communicate, and they say it with whatever words and language feel the most natural. They make frequent mistakes, sometimes in every sentence! Their grammar can be a mixture of English and their native language. They either don’t know or don’t care if they are making errors or mistakes.

These learners have high fluency, but low accuracy.

So which one is more important – fluency or accuracy? Because I’m a Libran, and I like balance, I’m going to say that both fluency and accuracy are equally important. At the end of the day, it depends on what your goal is for learning English.

Language, essentially, is used for communication. So you have to ask yourself – what do I want to be able to communicate? How well do I need to speak English?

For example, if you are working in a restaurant or a retail shop, the level of English you need is quite basic. You need to known certain words or phrases related to your job – the items you are selling, how much they cost, and certain social phrases like how’s it going, thank you and see you later.

This is all you need to communicate with your customers. It’s not important to communicate accurately – the customer will understand both what you want？ and what do you want？ equally well. But it’s very important to communicate the information quickly. Time is money, as they say. In this situation, fluency is the key.

On the other hand, if you are studying at university, or perhaps working in an office environment, accuracy becomes very important. This is especially true when you are trying to communicate complicated thoughts or ideas. In these situations, speaking quickly, but with lots of errors, becomes very confusing for the listener. This is because the errors and mistakes distort, or change, the meaning of what you are trying to say. So you need to pay more attention to what you are saying.

So what should you focus on, fluency or accuracy?

The answer depends on what kind of learner you are. If you focus too much on accuracy, and therefore speak very slowly, you need to improve your fluency. Speaking too slowly is bad for maintaining a conversation. After a few seconds of silence, the person you are talking to starts thinking about something else. Communication is failing, you need to speak faster. Don’t worry about making errors or mistakes – most are not serious, and don’t affect communication.

But if you focus too much on fluency, you need to ask yourself if you are achieving your goals in communication. Are your mistakes and errors causing problems for the people who listen to you? If the answer is yes, you need to slow down and pay more attention to what you say. Speaking really fast, with lots of errors, is very problematic for the people who are listening to you.

And if you are somewhere in the middle? Now you have to take a balanced approach. When you are in the safe environment of a classroom, with the support of teachers and fellow-learners, you should focus on accuracy, because these people can help correct your mistakes and errors. But when you are outside the classroom – when you are at work, or socialising with friends – concentrate on communicating as fluently as possible.

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Students say this to me all the time. I always ask why? Sometimes, the students say that they are planning to take the IELTS test soon, to study at TAFE, or university, or to immigrate to Australia. But other times they say they only want to improve their reading and writing. They want to be serious students, and they think the IELTS class is a more serious class.

They are wrong.

Yes, an IELTS class is more serious, but it is extremely important to remember that it is an exam class. The purpose is to introduce students to the IELTS test, and give them strategies, hints and tips to improve their test score. An IELTS class is not designed to improve a students’ English.

So why do students who aren’t doing the IELTS test want to study in an IELTS class? Sometimes, the style of teaching in Australia is difficult for students to adjust to. This is especially true if the student comes from a country, like Japan, Korea or China, where learning English is a very formal experience.

The General English classroom in Australia and other English speaking countries focuses on communication. There is a lot of emphasis on improving listening and speaking skills. There is less focus on accuracy and more on fluency. There is more focus on fun, and enjoying language, than there is on doing millions of useless grammar exercises and getting each one 100% correct.

Some students don’t like this because they aren’t used to it. They’re used to gruff teachers who crack the whip and tell them to work harder, not teachers who smile and say to relax.

So when students like this want to go to the IELTS class where they can ‘work hard’, I understand why they want to do it. But I still always recommend that they try General English for a little longer, because at the end of the day it will be better for improving their English ability. If a student is really interested in improving their reading and writing, my advice is to study an Academic English course.

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