What Should Every EFL Teacher Know? Quotes

“Adding an extensive reading program to a language course is the most important improvement that a teacher can make, and if this was the only improvement made, the teacher could still feel very satisfied about that.”
― I.S.P. Nation, What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?

“There is another reason for not spending too much time on complex grammatical features. It is not easy to explain the meaning and function of these features. If it is difficult for teachers and grammarians to understand the meaning of these features, it is going to be even more difficult for learners of the language. These features are best learnt through experience, through meeting them many times in input and through having to use them in output.”
― I.S.P. Nation, What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?

“One of the teacher’s main goals should be to help learners become independent vocabulary learners. They can become independent vocabulary learners by knowing how to decide what vocabulary is most useful to learn, by knowing how to learn it through the use of word cards and other strategies, by knowing how to meet the words again by doing lots of extensive reading and listening, and by finding opportunities to produce the words they have learnt through speaking and writing. Rather than teach vocabulary, teachers should be spending that time on training learners in vocabulary learning.”
― I.S.P. Nation, What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?

“Teaching a particular word can only be one step in the gradual learning of that word, so we should not spend too much time on it. The main opportunities for vocabulary teaching should be during intensive reading and when learners ask for words during speaking and writing activities.”
― I.S.P. Nation, What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?

“Research on vocabulary teaching is not very encouraging. Typically, if a teacher teaches ten new words to the learners, they are likely to remember only three or four of them. Vocabulary teaching is also rather time-consuming, and when we compare the amount of learning that learners can do from word cards with the amount of learning from teaching, it is much better if learners spend time using word cards.”
― I.S.P. Nation, What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?

“Experimental studies of vocabulary teaching typically show that out of every ten words that are taught, only about three or four are actually learnt. Most teaching is neither effective nor efficient.”
― I.S.P. Nation, What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?