It is judging a pro-gram not just for correctness and efficiency but foraesthetics, and a system’s design for simplicity andelegance.
This quote from the reading denotes a very special skill that I impart onto my students when it comes to the artistry of crafting natural-sounding sentences in Spanish. While it is all well and good to get the meaning of a sentence across, as this is of course the first goal of any communication, there is then also the need to do so in a manner which presents oneself as a scholar. For example, while simply saying "Hey, you!" will certainly get the point across that you are grabbing someone's attention, the phrase "May I please have your attention?" will do so much more effectively as it displays respect and a higher level of command over the language. I do not only teach CT skills of course, they play a great role in how I design my classes as well. For example, while it may seem like a great undertaking for the students to learn to have a full conversation by their first two weeks, through the ability of CT to divide and simplify the steps and processes necessary to arrive at that level of ability, I have never had a class fail to at least meet with the state standards for a basic conversation of a novice-level.