Harnessing power of words as teachers

In communicating emotions, non-verbal components including gestures, facial expressions and body language play a dominant role. Words have the potential to open any heart or shut any mouth.

However, from a teaching-learning perspective, when facts need to be conveyed with logic and fidelity, words are the only means available to us. More relevant and precise the words, better the understanding of intent. Imbued with a digital ethos and lowered patience, students today prefer fewer words in classrooms. A teacher has to adjust to this accordingly.

One of our college teachers would intermittently ask during the lecture, "Am I clear?" That was his covert admission of being unsure of his delivery. When the teacher knows his subject well, the irrelevant and superfluous words get weeded out, narration has a smooth flow, and the delivery becomes interesting. Teaching becomes a pleasure both to the teacher and learner.

Language, the discretely interwoven assemblage of words, is a powerful relationship builder. The rapport established between the teacher and taught extends beyond the classroom and we all have been witnesses to many such bonds of a lifetime. Words of certain teachers stay forever in our mind. Of course, the making of an impressive delivery requires, besides strong oratory skills, adequate preparation that only a few teachers undertake.

After clarity of thought, the next step in language is brevity. Unwanted verbiage disrupts the rhythm of comprehension. Apt, relevant and precise words bring to fore the nuances of a theory or concept leaving no scope for confusion. A thorough teacher need not go round-about.

I recall Surjeet Mukherjee, a publishing veteran and guest faculty in Delhi University whose 50-minute lecture hardly lasted beyond 15 minutes, after which he would conclude, "That is all I have to tell you today." The remainder of the time was spent on resolving the doubts and queries.

Of course, expressing in fewer words warrants much brainstorming. Concluding a lengthy letter to a friend, Winston Churchill is known to have added, "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter!" It takes patient struggling with a plethora of words to sum up issues concisely.

Simple, unimposing words provide teeth to the communication. German artist Hans Hofmann said, "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." The practice of using difficult or uncommon words, phrases and jargons in certain academia, as in other spheres, stems from the urge to impress, the habit to perpetuate stronghold on the knowledge domain.

Consciously using difficult words implies an absence of spirit to share the knowledge and information with prospective beneficiaries, a practice that must be ended. Commenting on the efficacy of simple expressions for a wider benefit, Albert Einstein said, "Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple and may be expressed in language comprehensible to everyone." There are no theories or concepts in various disciplines that cannot be described simply.

Building vocabulary

It is said, "Your boss has a greater vocabulary than you; that is one reason he is your boss." Only a person with a rich storehouse of words at one's command can pick the most appropriate one. Normally any word approximating the intended word is vented out, with a likelihood of being misinterpreted by the recipient.

Since word acquisition is a painstaking, ongoing process, most professionals, including teachers, are not particular about strengthening their vocabulary. They make do with their limited stock of a few hundred words. Worse, they do not even use the words they know.

Mid-20s set the best ground for vocabulary-building because the acquisition and retention faculties are at their peak in this phase, and the momentum of acquiring new words can be maintained in later years.

Continuously adding new words to your existing vocabulary and bridging the gap between the 'active' vocabulary (the words we speak and write) and the 'passive' vocabulary (words we know or understand but do not use) is the main strategy to improve vocabulary.

Whatever your future job position maybe, in a scientific lab, school, college, factory, software company, marketing organisation, etc or you run your own enterprise, your growth is largely a function of your felicity and ease of handling words. Good communication skills, of which sound vocabulary is the basis, are always rewarding.

(The writer is a Delhi-based freelancer)