THINK ABOUT QUANTITY of OUTPUTS BEFORE QUALITY of OUTPUTS

 

Think About Quantity of Outputs Before Quality of Outputs

           

I identified that there is a misconception and asymmetry regarding the relationship between a language input and output.

During my teaching experience, I came across quite a few students who are afraid of making mistakes in speaking and writing in public. 

They struggle with seeking a proper way to form sentences or to speak. 

Finally, they are likely to speak and write less because of these existing imaginary hardships.

Moreover, those students tend to spend more time on diligently reading textbooks and trying to memorize grammar and vocabulary. 

Eventually, even though they absorb sufficient information for them to be able to speak and write, they are reluctant to do that because they are not sure whether they are correct in speaking and writing, whose presumption seemingly indicates that 

“I should be correct in saying and writing to communicate with people in a foreign language”. 

In addition, as formerly mentioned, once you speak and write, what you speak and write is likely to be exposed to being judged, which generates a fear that is likely to make people consider that “I should be correct”.

Then what happened? 

As I previously indicated, a language output will elevate the level of your language. 

A language output involves lots of mistakes. 

You are free to fail. 

In other words, you need to fail to be correct. 

If you are afraid of making mistakes, you are unlikely to improve your language skills. 

Therefore, we need to talk about quantity before quality. 

Quantity will lead to quality, not the other way around. 

What do you think about comparing an individual who read 10 foreign books yearly and make a summary of the mentioned books and another individual who read 10 foreign books yearly without any language outputs concerning those books. 

Which one will get better at a language? 

It is apparent that the former one will get better at it since no matter how much information you absorbed, as long as there is no corresponding language output, you are not likely to memorize or remember what you read before or what were the points in those books. 

The repetition by a language output is essential to make your language better and stable in the long run.   

In a language-learning, 

I deem that everyone is always in the process of the improvement. 

There is no an end to a language learning. 

You can go as far as you want. 

If you want to be an eloquent speaker, you may need to have a wider set of vocabulary, if you want to write an academic paper, you need to know how to write well and in a certain manner that a specific language defines.

What you need to do is to address the needs for the improvement and act on it. 

It is essential for them to know what is needed to be done to get better at a language. 

During a language output, they will know those needs. 

And it is ok to make mistakes because those mistakes will make a language learner realize what needs are insufficient and the absence of their efforts.

The point being, the quantity of language outputs correlates with the quality of language outputs.

Moreover, there is a false belief that you get better at a language by studying more. It is verifiable to what extent “studying” indicates a language output. 

We are so used to deeming a language input such as reading as a study in a general context. 

It is crucial for a language learner to focus on a language output first and further on the quantity of a language output not the quality of output. 

It is not viable to achieve the quality before quantity. 

The quality of what you speak and write is derived from the quantity of how much you speak and write. 

Be aware of that it is normal and ok to make mistakes in speaking and writing since we are in the process of the improvement.

In reality, a piece of advice for people who are afraid of making mistakes, it is not how to say it in a correct manner but how to let people understand what your message is in every possible way. 

You need to vary a way to get your message across until they fully understand what you mean by words since even though you may have constructed a grammatically perfect sentence and tell people that sentence, there may be an unclosed gap between what you want to tell and what he or she understands. 

You can control yourself but cannot control others so that you need to vary a way to deliver your message sometimes.

Listener may not understand what you are telling sufficiently. 

Having said that, the communication is interactive between a sender of the message and a receiver. 

As a result, the extent of the understanding depends on the nature and the attributes of a listener as well. 

Therefore, do not worry about making mistakes. All that a language learner is required to do is to focus on the improvement in a language-learning, which is to address the gap between how good you want to be and how you are now in terms of a language-learning. 

I would deliberately say that you need to make mistakes in order to get better at a language.  

Make more mistakes to get better!

Thanks for reading,

Hilano Aquihisa