ADI Part 3 - Vague and Specific Language

Vague and Specific Language

Having said elsewhere that the words you use account for less than 20% of any communication you engage in, it makes sense to ensure that words you do use get the message across accurately.

A common situation is that one person says something knowing exactly what they mean, the other person hear's the words but interprets them differently. They then attach a completely different meaning to what was said to them.

Think about this very common situation . . . you are teaching the reverse left exercise and your learner hasn't steered enough . . . you decide to intervene with positive instruction and say "steer a bit more . . ." the learner hears what you say and reacts . . . now you have to say "No, that's far too much . . . take a bit off . . . more, more . . .a bit more . . ."

You just can't understand why the learner doesn't know exactly what you mean. After all, it's simple.

Another example, you are teaching reverse park . . . your learner reverses to the point of turn and you say "now, look over your shoulder . . .no, no . . . the other shoulder"

Again, it's sometimes hard to imagine why any learner could be so stupid as to not know exactly what you mean.

This time, you're driving in a busy town centre. You see a pedestrian crossing some distance away with a lady just walking up to it, intending to step out. You say to your learner "what can you see ahead . . .?" Your learner replies "that red van . . ." You can't believe your learners response, and you say "slow down because this lady's going to cross". In the process your learner misses a vital learning point in not being able to decide what to do for themselves.

Well, lets take a close look at our first example.

"steer a bit more . . ." Now, what does that mean to you?

I can guarantee that if we line up 10 people in a field and ask them to kick a football a 'little bit', we would end up with the balls at many varying distances from us. That's because 'a little bit' is open to interpretation by each of them.

Ask 10 drivers to steer a bit, and each of them could steer differently. Think about that.

The fact is that words or phrases like 'a bit', 'a lot', 'slower' or 'faster' mean completely different things to different people.

These phrases are very vague, in that they have no specific meaning and are left to the interpretation of the listener. Problems and disaster are not far away.

You should try to ensure that you always use very specific language, rather than vague language, open to interpretation by the learner.

In the first case let's be specific . . . 'Dave, I want you to turn the wheel a quarter of a turn to the left". Now your learner has nothing to interpret, nothing to get wrong. You just ensure that they know what a quarter, or half or a full turn actually is. You can then use these phrases specifically.

In the later example, approaching the pedestrian crossing, the problem was in the "what can you see ahead . . .?.

Think about it . . . again, let's ask 10 people "what's ahead . . .?" we'll probably get 10 different answers.

The truth is that the entire world outside the front windscreen is ahead, so when your learner replies "that red van . . .", you may think of them as stupid, but your learner is right. They could just have easily have said "that tree" or "another road" or "a shop" or "the lady about to step onto the crossing"

This latter example is very interesting, and it's something we'll explore further in the section on question and answer techniques.

So, you could here have used a far more specific, targeted question. Now, by being specific, the learner knows exactly what we want them to pay attention to.

Other examples of the use of vague language are 'press the pedal a bit more'. What exactly does that mean?

Try to be more specific . . . "press the pedal about the thickness of a pound coin". Now, there's far less room for personal interpretation and our learner has a better picture of what's needed.

"Look out the window till you reach the point of turn, then over your shoulder as you turn". As the instructor, you know exactly what you mean. But does the learner? And the learner is without doubt the most important person on the lesson.

Try "We need to keep up all round observations throughout, but you need to look through that window (perhaps pointing to it) for the point of turn, then over your right shoulder before you turn . . . " Can you see how this is far more specific, leaving very little to the imagination?

Catch yourself using vague language, and work to eradicate it. Try to avoid phrases that could be interpreted differently by different people.

Avoid phrases that include 'a bit more', 'a bit less', 'slower', 'faster' (how much slower or faster? 100mph? 200mph? 5mph?) 'a lot', 'a little bit', 'the window' (which window?) 'the car' (which car?) 'what can you see ahead?' (the entire world in front of us)

Try to think of examples of vague language and how you'll replace it with specific language. No need to be on a training session, or even in a car. This is something you can think about. An awful lot of part 3 training is!

ADIT Team