Are you a robocaller?

It’s almost quaint to think that in the early days of email, we opened emails upon the trust that all of the emails were meant for us.  (At least I did.)  An email from Steve Johnson around the turn of the century changed all of that–an email in my junk hotmail, nonetheless.  Mind you, I didn’t know any Steve Johnson, but by gosh, that’s a human name so it must be someone who’s trying to reach me!  And I opened it.  I don’t remember what marketing or scam it was, but, whaddayaknow, it was spam.  Welcome to the e-jungle, Thomas.

Phone robocalls are no different. As I wrote the last sentence I got a call from Atkins, Arkansas that wasn’t marked Spam Likely, and my monkey brain still wanted to see who it might actually be. My poor over-90 dad gets a dozen robocalls a day on a landline with a ringer volume that would make Alexander Graham Bell renounce his work.  

Unless you made up a drinking contest for who gets the most robocalls in an hour, I can’t imagine anyone enjoying them.  With that science settled, I’d like to attach this negative term to a bad classroom practice of many language instructors, and this one might sting a little.  In my love affair with acronyms as a mnemonic, here we go:  ROBO calling = calling for Responses One By One.    

ROBO calling occurs when language instructors go around the class asking each student for the next answer.  As one student answers, the rest sit, checking to see if their answer was correct and waiting their turn.  If their answer is wrong, they change it to the correct one, as if that will magically improve their accuracy.  This also happens with speaking. “You say it.  Now YOU say it.  Now YOU say it.”    I wish this were rare, but I think it’s baked into much of language instruction worldwide.

I’ve also experienced this countless times as a student, and most of you probably have as well.  Because it’s such a common school practice, we don’t necessarily recognize it for what it is. At best, it’s a wildly inefficient use of time by a well-meaning instructor.  At worst, it’s an intentional timesuck by a lazy teacher.  When I wrote about the E for Effort, this is one observable aspect of it.  

With very small classes or certain activities there can be some value, but I will maintain that there is almost always a more efficient use of class time that is more impactful.  (My last post provides one short example.)  To stop the ROBO calling, the first step is to be aware of its inefficiency. It's a step in the right direction for instantly creating more class time to utilize for meaningful student output that builds accuracy and confidence.  

Upcoming Presentations::

Illinois TESOL-Bilingual Education Virtual Fall Workshop 10/18

Wisconsin TESOL 11/8

ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo - New Orleans 11/23