Over the past ten-odd years as a language instructor, the most common issue that all of my students have expressed is their lack of confidence in their writing and speaking abilities in English. In my first sessions, I always ask the student how they would rate their level of confidence with ten being extremely confident. No matter the age or position in their company, very few students identify their confidence level as over seven. You wouldn't expect the CEO of a massive company managing hundreds of employees to feel embarrassed and inadequate with their writing and speaking abilities. But surprisingly, even the tallest trees have these internal struggles.
Beyond cognitive training, lies an experiential world of performance education. For both native English speakers and second language English speakers, experiential learning has not been very present in their educational history. Many education systems worldwide focus on developing cognitive abilities where grading is mostly conducted in written forms. However, when entering the workforce, it becomes evident that personal progress in one's career depends on the ability to speak and write well.
Shifting from cognitive to performance training requires you to actually perform. In order to improve in your writing and speaking abilities, you need to write and speak. There are so many layers to both disciplines which can only be developed with practice and guidance. Just like learning to play a musical instrument, you need to learn to play the instrument of your voice - both spoken and written.
Perfection and excellence
Perfection does not exist in performance. If you've ever played a role in a theatrical show over a period of time, you'll know that every show's performance is completely different. Tuesday night's show may have a totally different feeling to Friday night's show. The cast, music, script, and setting do not change. The embodiment of a script can never be one hundred percent replicated. This realization is useful for your own journey of building confidence in your performance abilities. It should ease the internal turmoil of striving for perfection.
While perfection does not necessarily exist, excellence does. Coming to terms with the realization that no performance is perfect is no excuse for complacency. Common speech problems may be the overuse of filler words (like "um", "you know" or "like"), over repetition (as in "we we we"), and other issues with rhythm, tone, pitch, stress syllables, pronunciation, articulation, vocal control, and expression. Writing skills are also very layered with many aspects which can be developed such as concept mapping, syntax, word choice, punctuation, paragraph structure, flow, coherency, and grammar. With practice, awareness, time and guidance, you can improve in all areas of performance, working towards excellence.
By working on overcoming your spoken and written performance abilities, your confidence will start to build. The technical development of your performance skills lays the foundation on which your confidence is built. With the guidance of an instructor, your strengths are reinforced and your weaknesses are given attention. Within a dedicated program, this combination slowly and steadily builds your level of confidence.
Autonomous versus guided learning
Where to start
