{"id":7907,"date":"2022-10-21T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=7907"},"modified":"2022-10-27T01:29:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T00:29:04","slug":"phrases-an-adi-uses-when-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=7907","title":{"rendered":"Phrases (and Methods) an ADI Uses When Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This article was originally published in early 2012 and was based on an even earlier article in which I talked about the most common phrases I seem to use<\/a> when I\u2019m conducting lessons. That earlier article was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but my stats tell me that \u2013 from time to time \u2013 buzzword bingo<\/a> becomes an important topic for many ADIs out there. We seem to be in one such phase again at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest problems faced by many instructors is their educational background \u2013 and getting confused with what is actually required to teach people to drive. I remember when I was doing my Part 3 training, with many lessons of a 2 to 1 nature, hearing ex-miners and labourers trying to talk like Prince Charles (now King Charles, of course) when they were delivering their briefings. They obviously didn\u2019t understand what they were saying \u2013 they just thought it needed to sound \u2018posh\u2019. It would literally be a case of the blind leading the blind if they tried to teach real pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of all that, people with such backgrounds often become ADIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A driving instructor\u2019s job is to teach people to drive to a standard which is good enough to get them through their driving test, and start them off on a lifelong learning curve as they start driving on their own, gaining experience along the way. Nowhere is it written that the training has to be delivered according to Debrett\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a similar vein, if you listened to the Coaching and Lifestyle hawkers out there, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that you can\u2019t be an ADI unless you utilise homeopathy, aromatherapy, and psychotherapy in your lessons. It\u2019s all a lot of bollocks, of course, and these people are just scammers after your money (or in some cases, idiots who actually believe the nonsense they peddle). She wasn\u2019t around long, but there was an ADI advertising on the internet about seven years ago who genuinely provided aromatherapy as part of her pink-themed lessons!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just Say What You Mean<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to effective communication is to say what you mean and not to worry too much about how you say it. For example, don\u2019t keep using the word \u201cobservations\u201d if it is alien to you \u2013 and especially don\u2019t use it if it is alien to your pupil. Just say \u201clook all round\u201d, or something that fits in with the local lingo (or a lingo the pupil understands). Use the occasional fancy word by all means, but make sure you define it first. A lot of pupils have a nasty habit of not telling you when they don\u2019t understand something, and that means your message never gets across \u2013 even though you might plough ahead thinking it has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication has to lead to understanding, and when it doesn\u2019t the implications can be frightening. Take the Show Me\/Tell Me question about testing your brakes. Just imagine what might happen if a pupil passes their test without understanding what ‘spongy or slack’ actually means (and many don’t). It\u2019s far better that they use more familiar words like sloppy, soft, loose, floppy, and so on \u2013 the examiner isn\u2019t going to mark them down for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proper communication isn\u2019t just about reading a lesson plan out loud using a flowery dialect you or your pupils are unfamiliar with. Your perceived eloquence has to be as well received as it is delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Understand What You Say<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For God\u2019s sake, don\u2019t say something if you don\u2019t understand it! Keep it simple enough for your pupil \u2013 and yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give Me An A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some ADIs collect acronyms and sayings as if their lives depended on it. Periodically, one of the forums will light up after someone decides to harvest some new ones and asks for contributions. It\u2019s usually a new ADI who does it, but it is clear that many people absolutely live<\/strong> for the damned things. Unfortunately, most haven\u2019t stopped to consider the effect this has on their pupils. Many learners have enough trouble remembering to put the clutch down when they stop without having to decipher SCALP or whatever brilliant acronym their instructor has pulled from their tickler file for the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rigid systems are not the best way to produce safe drivers \u2013 all they do is produce people who can follow a rigid pattern under set circumstances. However, if circumstances change they often have no Plan B, and that kind of of driver is probably the most dangerous type on our roads. Acronyms might allow someone to remember what something is \u2013 but they do absolutely nothing for understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I explain MSM-PSL-LADA to my pupils at some point simply because it (the MSM part) is in the Highway Code several times. But not at the beginning of their lessons \u2013 only when they\u2019re already doing it later on. The only other times any acronym or silly saying gets discussed is when one of them brings it up, having heard it from a previous instructor or one of their friends. My favourite is the tyres-and-tarmac (TAT) one \u2013 which invariably results in at least a 5m gap between us and the car in front (which is far too much), and which inevitably leads to one or two fewer vehicles getting through that annoyingly brisk set of lights during the evening rush hour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026then don\u2019t assume people will want a song and dance, too! I am aware of at least one ADI who considers his singing ability \u2013 which isn\u2019t shared by those who have heard it \u2013 is worthy of using on driving lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am an introvert, and if someone performs in front of me \u2013 and especially if they try to involve me, or if they are not as good as they think they are \u2013 then I usually want to curl up and die. I am intelligent enough to know that at least half of my pupils would be equally uncomfortable having this forced on them. Christ, many of them are uncomfortable even being asked a question! In other words, know how far you can go \u2013 don\u2019t go as far as you can, because you (think you) can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take The Next Turn\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to overlook the importance of clear and unambiguous directions to pupils during lessons (and on their tests). Not doing so is a mistake that all of us will have made at one time or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, not long after I qualified, I was doing a roundabouts session with a pupil. As we sat at traffic lights just before this one particular multi-lane roundabout I was emphasising that she should stay in lane and follow it around to the second exit. She queried it, and I naively said ‘just follow that car in front’. She did, and we negotiated the roundabout perfectly. Yes, I know what could have happened, because half a mile further on it did. She unexpectedly turned off into a side road. When I asked why she\u2019d done it, she replied ‘you said to follow that car’. Rule #1: make sure you cancel an instruction when it is no longer valid \u2013 even if you<\/u> think a later instruction has superseded it. <\/strong>And don’t ask them to follow other cars – they’ll do that often enough without any encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much more recently, I had a pupil with an irritating habit of asking where we were going before we got anywhere near a junction. On this particular day I’d asked him to stop it because it was causing confusion. Anyway, we were driving back to his school and, as we got near it, we sailed past the normal turn-off (he\u2019d been routinely driving this route unaided on lessons). I thought he may be taking an alternative route and didn\u2019t say anything, but a little further on – when I realised how far out of our way we were heading – something dawned on me, and I asked: ‘did you deliberately go straight ahead back there because I told you not to keep trying to guess where we\u2019re going?’ He replied: ‘yes’. I wasn\u2019t pleased. Rule #2: pupils can be stupid and childish \u2013 don\u2019t make it easier for them to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some learners are so highly strung that they\u2019re like firecrackers next to an open fire. The slightest spark \u2013 even just saying something \u2013 can be enough to make them go off with a bang. A few years ago, I had a guy who had social and personal issues. On one lesson we were accelerating on a 40mph road, and I said calmly: ‘now put it into 3rd gear’. I\u2019m not exaggerating, but his hand spread out like a trawling net, and he went first for the handbrake, then the radio, brushed the gear stick, and then attempted to pull something non-existent under the dashboard just to the left of the steering column. Rule #3: pupils can be very unpredictable \u2013 be ready for anything.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing for these types of behaviour, the ADI has to be really careful not to make matters worse. Even the best pupils can begin to act on a direction before you\u2019ve finished giving it. Therefore, directions such as ‘turn right at the end of the road’ could quite literally lead you up someone\u2019s garden path (or into a canal). A much better structure is ‘at the end of the road, turn right’. That way, there\u2019s nothing they can act on until you get it all out. For this reason, it makes sense to sit in on a few tests and listen to the way the examiner gives instructions. Also, look up the terminology in the examiners\u2019 SOP (DT1)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hear, Hear<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most pupils can hear their mobile phone in their handbag when it receives a text message over the sound of the engine, wind, rain, and a full-on rock concert. Indeed, most can hear it vibrate even when it\u2019s switched to silent. But if you say something like: ‘at the roundabout, we\u2019re going straight ahead 2nd exit. Follow the A52 markings towards Nottingham. Stay in the left-hand lane’, what they actually hear is more like: \u201cblahblahblah blahblahblahblah blah blahblahblah blahblahblah blah LEFT<\/strong> blahblah blahblahblah\u201d. Be prepared for the possibility of a James Bond style left turn on two wheels. This gets better over time for most of them, but it is a genuine issue that the ADI needs to be aware of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, most pupils \u2013 especially the girls – can see a squirrel in a tree three quarters of a mile away and are more than happy to execute an emergency stop to avoid any possibility of harming it. They\u2019re not quite as good when it comes to seeing pedestrians on a crossing just in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cut To The Chase<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To summarise, you don\u2019t need a whole encyclopaedia of clever sayings and phrases. In all honesty, if that\u2019s what you consider makes someone a good instructor then you\u2019re not going to be around for very long. A good instructor cuts through the crap and gets his or her message across clearly and concisely, and in a way the particular pupil<\/strong> understands (so concentrate more on finding out what vocabulary they <\/strong>have) \u2013 and so gets on with the important business of teaching people to drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n