Confidence and Fluency: an ESL Teacher’s perspective.

If you’re struggling to master a second language, you know the terror that comes from chatting with a stranger and suddenly realizing you don’t know a key word or sentence structure. You likely pause and perhaps utter a few filler words like “uh” or “er”, maybe even lose track of what you were saying completely. It’s embarrassing. You might try to describe the word you’re looking for if you manage to keep your head, and if you’re good at this the other person understands and helps you out. And as a note, most people are happy to help and since everyone forgets a word now and then (it’s on the tip of my tongue, we say), no one will even blink an eye if you can’t find your word. Still, most of us hate/dread these situations and go out our way to avoid them (or, like me, you learn key…