We are all selling something aren’t we? We sell our skills and experience to future employers. We sell our vision to potential investors. We sell products to consumers and services to clients. Some of us even try to sell Gods to non-believers. Never before has the ability to sell been more critical for survival (relatively speaking) than today. So the question that poses itself for you as an English learner is: Are you able to sell in English? Are you able to persuade? Are you able to impress? Are you able to charm? Are you able to evoke trust in your audience? Are you able to do more than just “deliver the package”? First things first, let me just get something out of the way. You don’t have to be a native speaker to do all of the above and as I have repeatedly said, many native speakers can’t achieve any of it.
Having been a fully dedicated English coach and trainer for the last 7 years, I can assertively claim that most ESL schools and teachers are not qualified or equipped to train the students to speak English with impact. There is always too much emphasis on structure (syntax and grammar) and content (vocabulary), but seldom on oral performance. Our approach to defining oral competence is somewhat outdated. We are only critical of the students’ ability to communicate facts and information, but never of their ability to impact. The ability to impact should be assessed primarily based on the audience’s reaction to the learners’ message not only based on their comprehension of it. Most teachers claim that “the way they (students) sound is not that important as long as we can understand what they’re saying”. I don’t know how we ever came to the conclusion that “the way they sound is not that important” when sound is the most basic and primitive entity of language. Why is the way we sound so underrated? Very few teachers and schools truly understand and believe in the enormous role that improving the way the students sound plays in the development of their grammar and vocabulary. Very few recognize and acknowledge the interconnection between meaning and sound. That is the reason that many students hit a plateau in learning and consequently, lose motivation and throw in the towel (give up).
Clarity or intelligibility doesn’t cut it. We are living in very different times. The world has grown more demanding and competitive and only those with the ability to impact will survive it. It’s not just good enough to “deliver” information, you ought to be able to sell it. If “delivery” is all you can do with the language, one day, you will be redundant. They are training robots for that and they’re getting darn good at it too. Intelligibility should only be a prerequisite for effective oral communication and not the ultimate goal.
Do not be a “delivery guy”, be a salesman!
So what do you guys think? Should the students seek a higher level of oral competence (which, for me, is the ability to impact)? Or should they just settle for intelligibility?
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