 |
There are many students that do attend classes, but who
do not accept the teacher’s authority. And I am, of course, not speaking of
students having to tremble in front of the teacher, or believing that he or she
is the highest authority in the respective language. There are, especially in
developing countries, students who almost require their teacher to be a
demigod-figure who knows everything and is infallible.
What I mean is students with the attitude that „I
consider the teacher competent only as far as explaining words and grammar
goes. For everything else, I myself am the best expert.” What is that
everything else? Generally: how to learn. More specifically: how to develop
discipline, establish routines, use more productive training methods at home,
self-correct, measure progress, make use of your time more efficiently,
overcome psychological barriers and failure, systematize materials and the
learning process, and periodically audit and improve your system.
Most students have the attitude that the only thing
missing is the factual knowledge about words and grammar. That is why they love
having the teacher explain. What impresses them most is a teacher masterfully explaining
the difference between words X and Y. That is why they love watching, again and
again, Youtube videos with explanations about one and the same grammar topic.
„Maybe I find a still better explanation of the present continuous than the ten
I have watched already”.
In reality, almost no student comes to classes with
highly-developed skills in the areas named-above. On the contrary, many have
developed extremely bad learning habits: impatience and the need for quick
results, no matter what; negative self-talk and self-handicapping strategies;
total lack of discipline and persistance; aversion for taking notes
systematically, and for documenting and analyzing their own mistakes, etc.
Yes, it may very well be that your concrete teacher is
not very competent in handling all those issues. It may be the school’s fault,
that forces him or her to focus exclusively on teaching to the book and leaving
no time to address other issues. On the other hand, many language teachers show
little to no interest in other things apart from explaining language.
What is to be done?
·
Make a list
of all attitudes and skills necessary for mastering a foreign language. Start
with those listed above, and add some more: public speaking, voice training,
body language, intercultural skills, emotional intelligence, etc. etc.
·
Then, try to
find an authority figure/a role model/teacher for every one of those.
·
Establish
your objectives for all those ares.
·
Make your
own „lesson plan” on how to improve in them (e.g. listening to podcasts,
reading a certain amount of pages from their books, practicing XYZ), APART from
what you do for your normal language class.
If
you like the attitude of these articles, please check out my online courses : at the
moment, German for Russian- and Romanian-speakers, as well as on goal-setting.
If
you are interested in improving your English in the area of business
presentations, I know of no better address than Tom Antion. Please check him
out following this link.
Stay tuned!
Gerhard
About the GO
Method
The GO
Method applies research in psychology as well as principles of quality
management to the language teaching process. It conforms to key elements of the
ISO 9001 standard, while being more specific on teaching-related issues.
Customers get access to easily adaptable document templates.
Check us out
at The GO
Method.
About me
Psychologist
and polyglot from Hamburg /Germany (*1979). Married with children. MA in
psychology from the University of Hamburg. More than 15 years of experience as
a university lecturer in psychology as well as a consultant for UNICEF, Terre
des Hommes, IOM, the EU and private companies. Coordinator of the GO Method
network, with representatives in more than 90 countries worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment