Advice on how to help higher-level student with bad communication skills

Hi everyone

I'm having a bit of trouble supporting one of my students and would like to get some advice on how to help her. She's an interesting case because outwardly, her English level appears to be pretty high - her knowledge of vocabulary is excellent and she can grasp grammatical concepts quickly and understand relatively natural spoken English very well. The problem is that her production skills are pretty terrible, to be frank. I take a communicative approach to teaching, so I always allow lots of opportunity for speaking and expression, however, when she answers a question or gives a presentation, her ideas come out so muddled that it's difficult to follow the thread of conversation, even if the language she uses is relatively high level. It's the same with her written work. Here's an example of what she wrote on the topic "my ideal workplace environment":

We are human and have some different emotions, sometimes they can change into positive, sometimes into negative. At the same time, we should ignore all our thoughts to be effective at work. It can seem so easy at the first glaze, but it is not. I think this is the thing which is brought by modern life.

People were more obvious about their ideas and feelings in the old times. Because competitions can be lower than today at work, school, etc. You needn’t pretend to be so powerful if you were not feeling. That's why I want to avoid these competitions in my life, specifically at my workplace. I just want to be beneficial to my company.

Everybody should be kind and not judgmental if there is any conflict in the atmosphere. Everybody can learn if they can share their knowledge with each other.

When I step into my workplace, I just want to be happy and feel good things like belonging. These are very important for my efficient work. When I am getting motivated, I can be more effective. If there is a negative feeling in the atmosphere, I may miss my focus.

I don't know where to begin with this! Has anyone got any experience of a case like this? Should I just focus on particular structural/ grammar points? Or is this more a question of soft skill development?

Thanks.

I'd just go through some of the errors closely with her.

What's her L1?

That's what I ended up doing. It was good I think but I was wondering if there is a particular methodology for improving communication skills that someone might have tried and tested. Her L1 is Turkish.

It looks like the main problem is the vocabulary, but the grammar too to a similar extent. That's what's leading to the incoherence.

I had a strong feeling you were going to say she's Turkish. It's very typical that Turkish learners give the impression of being fluent and quite impressive when they speak, but lack of control of things like collocation and verb constructions leads to serious incoherence problems. This is obviously from interference from the L1.

I'd keep focusing on lexical and grammatical accuracy. There's no quick way to do this. It's not really the communication skills that are the priority here.

Thank you for the input! This has been really helpful

I often tell people to write shorter, summer sentences. That would be the case here. She's trying to run although she hasn't fully mastered walking.

I would ask her to use words she understands. I would ask her to say what she means to say.

Tarheel said:

I often tell people to write shorter, summer sentences.

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I'm trying to work out the typo but I can't! What did you mean to write?

Autocorrect strikes again. Simpler?

emsr2d2 said:

I'm trying to work out the typo but I can't! What did you mean to write?

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shorter, simpler sentences

It's too late for me to change that.

probus said:

Autocorrect strikes again. Simpler?

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Exactly! Sometimes the computer automatically changes something and I don't catch it.

beazer said:

That's what I ended up doing. It was good I think but I was wondering if there is a particular methodology for improving communication skills that someone might have tried and tested. Her L1 is Turkish.

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I am a graduate student in clinical psychology, However, in English class, my junior classmates could write way more professional essays on the effects of advertisement and marketing on consumers than I can. I am not educated in marketing and I can't think of even one study, any facts, rules, etc. While they use their common sense and general knowledge or maybe a piece of good news they have heard recently, I just write my essay like kindergarten kiddos. I had the same problem when I just started to improve my English academic writing skills due to entering college after 20 years in a thoroughly new subject. At first, I had no idea how to summarize a paper. I was embarrassed to ask my professor to correct my summaries. I believe lack of knowledge and hadn't read enough papers were the cause.

Something can be new to you for 20 hours or maybe twenty days, but definitely not 20 years.

Hi everyone,

a Turkish English teacher here and I'm a little bit shocked to see this topic being discussed among non-Turkish people, to be honest. Actually, it is a very well known fact in Turkey that the students know the grammar rules perfectly but when it comes to speaking, they just can't put their thoughts into words. "Why can't we talk English?" is a very common question in Turkey. Because the students are never exposed to the language! They don't consume any English materials in their daily lives. When they do watch movies in English, they are more focused on the Turkish subtitles. They are not aware that this is a language, not a lesson like maths. Teachers can't speak English, either. All they do is teach grammar. All of the exams are on paper. Speaking and listening skills are never tested in an exam. So they are never bothered.

I learned English through memorizing dialogues and acting them out, listening to podcasts 24/7 and watching American youtubers all the time. I have a page on instagram where I teach daily phrases with movie scenes.

So, this is why I choose to teach English using chunks, phrases, collocations and expressions. Because that's how I learned it and that's what Turkish learners lack. Actually, I was just searching the web hoping to find a forum so that I could ask the question:"how can I teach phrases and expressions in a speaking class?" Currently I am preparing an online speaking course where I want to teach phrases, sentence patterns, collocations to help students speak more fluently. But I'm kind of stuck. I want them to learn the phrases in context. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Tarheel said:

I often tell people to write shorter, summer sentences. That would be the case here. She's trying to run although she hasn't fully mastered walking.

I would ask her to use words she understands. I would ask her to say what she means to say.

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Shorter, simpler sentences

Try:

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It seems like you have a pretty good handle on things.