Speaking of motivating students, isn't the average class of twenty usually like this? Nearly always like this?
10 people - They think the language is hard. They can't do it. It just isn't them. Other people are good at it. They are unresponsive. Their minds wander. Spoon feeding is necessary.
7 people - They do OK. They think they are reasonable language learners. They are prepared to have a go at some things.
3 people - They think they are good. They talk a lot. They are motivated (by their apparent talent) to study in their spare time. They love English!
Isn't this sort of inescapable? Take away the best 3 and the next best 3 bloom. People love to be good at something. That is the motivation that drives us most when we study, and we can't all be the good student. It seems to me that in order to drag the averages up a little you need a method where the good student doesn't utterly dominate and deflate the others. That is the opposite of what we tend to provide.
The average class
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fluffyhamster
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It's certainly difficult for everyone to have their say - even the teacher - with some vocal (and often quite mouthy and rude) students. I've found that some Japanese seem to think they can get away with things in "English" conversation that even Americans wouldn't get away with! The solution I found was to look for other jobs (school managers just don't want to know - it's easier for them to recruit a new teacher every four months, apparently), but I suppose one could try beating the problem students over the head with some intimidating tome on cross-cultural pragmatics, or normal (polite) patterns of spoken English discourse or something. But of course, in their own eyes they are stars, because the teacher doesn't contradict them (they're too dumb to work out that the teacher is paid to be polite and bend over backwards and "take it" to a fault), and foreigners who teach English (and appear to be steadfastly monolingual, or rather, aren't really allowed to speak the local lingo in class) can't be taken seriously.
Probably the best test of one's ability in a language would be if a teacher would actually want (again, assuming they were allowed) to see you outside of class; unfortunately, the somewhat unethical teachers who start tongue-waggling with and then dating their more attractive students rather puts the uglier students (generally the less pleasant) into an even fouler mood (which leads back into my opening paragraph).
(Yes, I have taught quite a few Japanese spinsters with nothing better to do than work out their frustrations in English. (Sorry if that sounds sexist or something, but there do seem to be more female students than male students generally)).
Probably the best test of one's ability in a language would be if a teacher would actually want (again, assuming they were allowed) to see you outside of class; unfortunately, the somewhat unethical teachers who start tongue-waggling with and then dating their more attractive students rather puts the uglier students (generally the less pleasant) into an even fouler mood (which leads back into my opening paragraph).
(Yes, I have taught quite a few Japanese spinsters with nothing better to do than work out their frustrations in English. (Sorry if that sounds sexist or something, but there do seem to be more female students than male students generally)).
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woodcutter
- Posts: 1303
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Do you accept that this triangle of talent tends to take shape in any class though?
I think that it is important to see this in order to understand why all methods, without exception, are viewed as a failure by many people. The most motivating aspects, the positive comparison with other students, are beyond the teachers control, and the success stories are naturally limited.
Cultural and language aspects are also important, and also beyond your control. Dutch students take to English, Koreans don't too much. However if the language studied was compulsory Arabic, I bet those fabulous bilingual Hollanders would be much the same as the archetypical unresponsive East Asian class.
Banging on in each textbook unit about "good student Nubar" and the way he writes down vocab in his little book and listens to the radio every day isn't going to help. (I mean you Rob Jenkins and Staci Johnson!). It just depresses people. (In fairness to Rob and Staci, my 3 yr old seems to love playing about with their books. I think I finally see who the colourful plastic people in the ESL stories and the garish pictures are aimed at)
I think that it is important to see this in order to understand why all methods, without exception, are viewed as a failure by many people. The most motivating aspects, the positive comparison with other students, are beyond the teachers control, and the success stories are naturally limited.
Cultural and language aspects are also important, and also beyond your control. Dutch students take to English, Koreans don't too much. However if the language studied was compulsory Arabic, I bet those fabulous bilingual Hollanders would be much the same as the archetypical unresponsive East Asian class.
Banging on in each textbook unit about "good student Nubar" and the way he writes down vocab in his little book and listens to the radio every day isn't going to help. (I mean you Rob Jenkins and Staci Johnson!). It just depresses people. (In fairness to Rob and Staci, my 3 yr old seems to love playing about with their books. I think I finally see who the colourful plastic people in the ESL stories and the garish pictures are aimed at)