Lessons from English Lessons about Teaching the Faith

Some readers may recall that I live in a rather large community of priests and brothers, with a convent of sisters nearby. Since many are preparing for advanced studies, and almost none are native English speakers, the thought occurred to someone that we should offer a course in academic English. Naturally I assumed that someone else would be asked to teach the course since, having studied Spanish and philosophy, I am uniquely unqualified to offer any instruction of the sort. Indeed, my credentials make me more suited for work at Starbucks (it’s been said that a philosophy degree is the most expensive training for work as a barista) or, alternatively, in medieval Spain.

Qualified by Birth

Yet, by virtue of being born in the United States, it was decided that I had more than enough qualification to provide suitable formation in the realm of English for academics. The logic behind such a decision left me unconvinced: after all, by that reasoning, Shakespeare and Dickens would be unqualified to teach English, although American infants, the Springsteen album “Born in the U.S.A.”, and any animal born on an American farm would meet the criteria.

By the way, Wikipedia reports that Bamboo Harvester, a.k.a. Mr. Ed the Talking Horse, was born in California. According to the same logic, he too would be a suitable teacher, however, he had passed away long before my superiors began looking for an English teacher.

Linguistic Challenges Abound

In any event, logic aside, I was tasked with guiding ten students through the maze of academic English. Fortunately, there are a great number of helpful resources, because academic English is a very serious field, with many very dedicated and talented teachers. In fact, the resources are so excellent and abundant that we who are less serious, somewhat dedicated, and far less talented can use them to our advantage.

The resources available to students include videos and recordings that demonstrate how English sounds are produced with the mouth and tongue. Most of the videos, however, do not show the students spitting on the teacher as they try to produce “th” and “y” sounds. Oddly enough, the spitting seemed to be an essential part of the exercise in our classes.

Nevertheless, even with all the resources, the challenges abound, like trying to explain the English wiles while the students are there with their computers as they’re reading, or to consider what would be a fair fare for the fair. Likewise, there are certain words that lie hidden as mines: sheet and beach have been known to so frighten beginners that they prefer circumlocution with page and shore just to avoid the possibility of causing accidental scandal.

Syntax to the Max

A large part of the difficulty lies in that, as a native English speaker, I simply don’t think about the grammatical rules or syntax: I just know them inherently because I’ve always used them.

Case in point: when we were discussing the comparative forms of adjectives, I mentioned, offhand, that some adjectives have the –er ending, while others use the word more in front of the adjective. We say “smarter” but “more intelligent,” and not “more smart” or “intelligenter.” I concluded that there was not much of a logic to this, other than certain words just sound “right” or “wrong.”

Most of the students nodded affirmatively (which probably indicates I use that explanation far too often and convincingly), but one student raised his hand and gently suggested: “I think the rule is that you use more in front of adjectives that have two or more syllables, except adjectives that end in –y.” This, from a non-native, self-taught English speaker (who pointed out later that this is what our course textbook says, you know, the one entitled Basic English Grammar, which is a book I should clearly be reading more attentively).

So many grammatical rules are this way: understood and used by native speakers, but not consciously. Indeed, a little research reveals many such examples, but this one will suffice: adjectives have a specific order before the noun.(1) As one author writes describes it, adjectives “absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun . . . If you mess with that order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.”(2)

Now, I suspect that sounding like a maniac would depend more on your tone of voice and inflection than word order: while it is true that “large, old, circular, gray metal ax” sounds more natural than “metal gray old circular large ax,” neither word order screams “completely normal person speaking here” at me.

The Larger Point

Be that as it may, there is a point to these maniacal considerations of English, and it is this: in many ways, learning about and living out our Catholic faith is a lot like teaching or learning English. Those of us who were raised in the faith can often simply just take certain teachings for granted: the Church says to go Mass on Sunday, so we go (or at least know that we should go). We just do it.

Now, on the one hand, that’s not necessarily a bad thing because at least we give a certain importance to what the Church teaches simply because she teaches it.  However, the reasonings behind such things are also important, precisely because there are reasons behind the Church’s teachings. Sometimes it’s easier just to say, “That’s what the Church teaches,” but it doesn’t allow us to delve more deeply into the beauty of the Church’s doctrine and dogma.

For instance, we recite the Creed tranquilly at Mass on Sundays, but our profession of faith is the fruit of hundreds of councils, raging debates, thoughtful prayer, and fierce arguments. Indeed, some have even died for their profession of faith: consider Saint Peter of Verona, the Dominican martyr, who, tradition says, after receiving a fatal wound, wrote the words “Credo” (I believe, the first words of the Creed) in the dirt with his own blood.

As an aside, he was rewarded with the fastest canonization in Church history (11 months after his death) and a huge meat cleaver of sorts in his head in art. Some more delicate artists, like Fra Angelico, just picture him with a scar where the cleaver used to be.

This lack of a profound understanding is part of the difficulty we see in the Church today. Particularly in Italy, where Catholicism was very much a part of the culture, there was little encouragement for asking questions and discovering the “why” behind things. In the United States, where Catholicism was neither as widespread nor as dominant as the various Protestant denominations, the culture provides a constant incentive to learn more about the why’s of the faith.

Age-Appropriate Teaching

The teaching of the faith, like the teaching of English, is a delicate balance. When children are young, oftentimes we start out simply giving them material, without much explanation. Indeed, the explanations would be lost on them and probably just confuse them. However, at a certain point, usually in early adolescence, that approach becomes insufficient. The older children, and teenagers in particular, want to know the whys behind things.

We can draw an analogy with the natural sciences: for the young child, it is sufficient to be amazed by the fact that leaves fall from trees during the autumn and come back in the spring. Later, children can be taught about chlorophyll and the chemical changes that produce the color changes, and much later how the changing of the length of the night and day produce chemical changes that produce other chemical changes, etc.

Mention “chlorophyll,” “flavonoids,” and “carotenoids” to a preschooler, and you might as well be speaking Babylonian (emphasis on the babble). However, tell a teenager to “look at all the pretty leaves change color!” you’re likely to be met with such an enormous eye roll that you will probably need to search under furniture for the rolled eyes.

The Duty of Parents

Everything has its time. Especially for parents, it can be frustrating not to have the answers to questions about the faith immediately ready. However, on the one hand, it serves as a reminder that if parents are to be the primary educators in the faith – as the Catechism says, “Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children” (2223) – then they need to learn about their faith as well. Likewise, although that might be difficult, given time constraints, lack of formation, and a world of responsibilities, a person learns a great deal through teaching.

To have read many books and studied a great deal can be helpful, but we really know we have assimilated something and understood it when we can teach it clearly and simply to others. To that end, serving as a volunteer for CCD programs or RCIA is often an excellent opportunity for people to grow in their faith. Sometimes we worry that we don’t know enough, but, with a little preparation, a lot of curiosity, and solid guides like the saints, we can come to appreciate better the why’s.

With that in mind, I suppose I should return to reading the Basic English Grammar.

Notes:

(1) See https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-non-english-speakers-are-taught-this-crazy-english-grammar-rule-you-know-but-have-never-heard-of.

(2) From Mark Forsyth, The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase.