Good post Turnoi!

I think you made a very good point about the difference between being an expert at as opposed to in something.

In a similar sense, that is what I was trying to get across to my college students at the beginning of the semester. I asked them to consider what difference there often is between "learning" something as opposed to "studying" something. Many of them didn't seem to be able to work out what I was trying to get across, so I asked them if they often hear people saying that they are "studying" to ride a bike, swim , play basketball or drive a car. Of course they all said no. I then emphasis how these things are learned/learnt, rather than studied and then they began to realize that learning means acquiring skills and practical knowledge, and is the doing rather than the reading about...Then I ask them if they are ONLY studying English or if they are also LEARNING English. Of course a problem many FTs come across in China is that many students have a proficient head knowledge of English, but at the same time lack the skills or ability to actually put it into practice and use it. You could say they are good "in" English, but not good "at" English.

This semester I'm encouraging students to use their dictionaries as little as possible in class, because I sense that this practice is holding them back from acquiring a natural fluency in English. If they look a word up in Chinese they are slowing their thinking process down and are probably not going to retain the meaning for long, and if they look it up in English, even then they may misunderstand the word by looking at it in the wrong context.

I've taken a cue from KJ and Fish this semester. I'm in the process of incorporating activities based on word roots, vocabulary charts and small newspaper reports, where students are told to work out new vocabulary by looking at the context. Since using these activities I can see why they've been using these methods, but you need student cooperation for them to succeed. If the inventor of the e-dictionary was an English teacher he should be charged with treason!

I'm very sorry, I've performed my usual trick and gone completely off-topic.

An ideal teacher surely needs a good balance of both expertise in subject knowledge, and an ability in being able to TEACH that knowledge and connect with his students. If we were seriously lacking in one or other of the above, it would probably hold us back from being successful (sorry for stating the obvious). I suppose the obvious answer is to train teachers to have a considerable knowledge of both. Would that be too difficult?