Language is a slice of cake rather than a piece of cake

Language is a slice of cake. How is it possible to compare a slice of cake to language?

A cake is usually baked as one whole pastry and in order to partake some, we need a knife to divide or slice it. Similar to a language, one whole cake symbolizes one whole language and language teachers share only a slice of the language in the classroom. A lot of students are over confident about having to know their target language or ambitious to be fluent in that language at the end of the school term. However, one language is wide and dynamic that it is even impossible to learn 1% of the English words in just one sitting. As the idiom goes, "it's a piece of cake" which means it's straightforward or a child's play - certainly not!  What we are teaching the students is a small portion of the whole and this slice of knowledge must be relevant and useful for their daily lives and future careers.

Baking a cake must be done meticulously and accurately when mixing ingredients and baking at a certain temperature in order to have a delicious product. Bakers have their own ways of baking a cake and the end-product also differs.  Therefore, when we teach English for instance, it goes with proper process, methods and strategies. It is crucial that students learn a language through a proper process or result to despising the language or be overwhelmed with the massive of information to acquire a language.

A cake when it is served must be tempting not only on its outside appearance but also its taste. If the cake is neatly sliced and presented, you would never refuse it unless you are diabetic to sweets. Anyway, same thing with teaching we must be able to convince a student that the language is good; a language that is valuable and helpful to their own successes in life. Attracting the students into the language, however, encompasses appropriate content (ingredients), methods (baking procedure), techniques (baking secrets) and materials (baking tools) depending on the target consumer, the student.

This course is valuable for me as an English teacher to widen my perspective more on language teaching and to acquire more strategies in teaching non-English speakers.


Farah Fawcett Lipawen