To really compliment your students' efforts, focus on complementing them. Participation is the best form of praise. Image credits: MorBCN
A comment from Karenne Sylvester on Facebook - in response to a visitor's comment on a recent post of mine, reminded me that I've been meaning to write a blog post playing on the subtle difference between compliment and complement for some time.
Addressing the situation of a learner using a smartphone to answer a question about vocabulary during class, Karenne indicated that she thought a teacher should "complement his ingenuity..."
Now, I'm going to ignore the potential that this was a typo on Karenne's part (and I'm not at all sure it was a typo - she's a very smart cookie is that Sylvester!), because I like her comment exactly as it is (and means).
In other words, instead of trying to always compliment our learners when they do or say things that we find ourselves approving or admiring - through things like overt praise - I think it is far more complimentary to focus on complementing their efforts.
That is, add to what they've said or done. Continue it. Keep the ball rolling.
Showing the learners that what they've said or done is completely (or even only partially, in some cases) comprehensible and something you feel naturally inclined to respond to in a genuinely communicative fashion is by far and away the most effective way to create a sense of validation.
This says:
"I understand you. You can use this language. I'm interested in what you're saying. Let's keep going with it. This is natural. Welcome to the 'club' - we're using the same language here and we are communicating. You're doing it!"
Rather than:
"I approve of your effort here. Nice performance."
The teacher's participation here isn't just better than praise, it is praise, of the very best kind.
It demonstrates what I think is one of the primary principles of good language teaching:
SHOW AND DON'T TELL.
This process of complementing can actually encourage the learners to compliment themselves, internally, privately: "Phew! See that...? You're talking (or writing), dude! This bloody confounded sh#t of a langauge thing isn't as hard or as bad as I thought it was..."
And when that happens, your learners are on a pretty good wicket when it comes to developing internal crteria for good language performance and a basic but powerful source of intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) motivation.
So yeah: COMPLEMENT in order to compliment!
:-)
