Gang Banger in the Classroom – Principle # 3 – Communication

Awareness of the wrong vocabulary 

Oftentimes teachers and school administrators are unaware that their instructions and explanations go right over the heads of many of their students because of their choice of words.  I remember accompanying many students to a meeting with a teacher or with the Vice-Principle as their advocate and sitting there with the student listening to what they were being told.  One time as the Vice-Principle was trying to convey to the student that if they didn’t want to be considered a gang member, they should not be associated in any way with gang members, she said, “If it walks like duck, talks like a duck, and acts like a duck, then it probably is a duck”. After we left the office I asked, “Did you understand what the V.P. was saying to you?” to which the student replied, “No”.  This was not a matter of whether or not the student could understand or speak English, but simply a matter of the choice of words used and the V.P. and not being aware of, or not caring about, being understood.  I can hear some teachers saying, “Well I’m not going to come down to their level of speech, they are going to have to come up to mine”, well OK, but in the meantime, they still don’t understand. 

This is a dilemma because students should improve their vocabulary.  Yet, what does it hurt to explain things in a couple of ways in order to make sure we are teaching and not just talking?   As teachers we are primarily communicators and one of the key principles for quality communication is to understand your audience.  To know who you are speaking to and at what level to share your knowledge, information or message so that it penetrates in a lasting and effective way.  Vocabulary is a matter of who I am speaking to.  One set of words for one kind of audience and another set of words for another.  I speak one way around my family and friends, and another around professionals and still another around teens.  The issue is not simply talking and being heard by the listeners, but rather using my words to connect with my audience and engaging their heart and mind to at least understand, if not also to agree, with the message or teaching. 

The other important key in communication is our ability to listen empathetically, or to practice “empathic listening” as it is called.  Of course this is not always practical in the daily setting of a class room, however, wherever and whenever possible, I suggest that if a teacher, who is dealing with a problem student that is constantly disrupting the class, could make time for listening, a powerful form of communication, the student will many times reciprocate and listen when the teacher is teaching.  This attentiveness, coupled with the teacher’s appropriate vocabulary will make for a productive class room environment.  I am not suggesting that a teacher should not incorporate “new words” into the instruction so as to help student’s increase and improve their vocabulary.  But I am suggesting that more value be given to whether or not true communication is taking place between the instructor and the students and one measure of true communication is the ability of the instructor to communicate knowledge and important information in terms that the student understands.  After all, effective teaching is really not a matter of what the teacher knows, but how much the students know what the teacher knows