ABSTRACT
The first thing that comes to mind is a cliché: I don’t teach English; I teach people. And the most important thing about teaching people is helping them to build conceptual bridges between what they already know and what is in the process of being learned. That principle holds true for any subject, not just English. However, it has special meaning for the discipline of English, because our students come to us with many and diverse proficiencies as language users. However, they are not always intellectually aware of their proficiencies. A lot of what we do as English teachers is help our students become aware of the history and structures of what they already do ‘automatically’ with language. I’m thinking, for example of children’s vibrant use of metaphor; of even very young children’s use of complex structures when they are trying to communicate complex situations; of the much researched unthinkingly correct placement of adjectives when several are used to modify one word; and of the tendency to ‘make up’ words or creatively apply words to fit a new situation.
