How to make a 13-year-old boy interested in English?

[wenyanwendy]

Hi, my friends.
My nephew aged 13 has learned English for two years. At the beginning, he was very interested in it, but now, he doesn't like it. When I try my best to teach him, he won't cooperate with me and even won't listen to me. I don't know why.What can I do? Could you give me some suggestions in detail on how to make him interested in learning English again? Thank you very much!

[lady therese]

Try to be creative. Just let him read a lot of interesting English stories. I used to do that in high school and helped me improve my English.
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[cgage3]

Get movies in English that kids are crazy about. They'll watch them for fun and wont even know that they're learning. I mean movies like "Star Wars" and stuff like that. It works for me. It's not quite an academic approach but, hey, a lot of English isn't academic.

[Seagull]

I think you may try to find out why he does't like to learn English now quickly.Then you know how to chat with him on the proplem and how to make him become interested in English again.

[Sheila Collins]

Try something his parents would *barely* approve: some slightly off-colour limericks, a really bad joke, a generally-unacceptable body part. Perhaps you could even insult him (using terms he could repeat to you, of course). Once you have his attention, and give him a good reason to learn English, you might find him a little more inclined.

When teaching my children French, I would walk up to them and say, "Nice hair, child, but I think it would look better green", and walk away. I once sent them on a 48-hour mad search to translate "duck-billed platypus" because they wanted to make sure they weren't missing an important word. :)

[Tanuki]

LOL!

Sheila, that's too funny!

Nice ideas.

I also agree with the FIRST part of Seagull's response.

But I'm getting hung up on the use of "make" here.

Perhaps it's just a translation issue. I'm aware that there is often confusion between Asian and non-Asian languages with "make/ let so/o do s/t".

But if it's not a L1 interference problem, then my answer is this:

STOP TRYING TO ***MAKE*** HIM LEARN..

...and you might actually start making inroads.

Until then, 13-year-olds being as they are, you're just going to get more resistance.

Find out why he's no longer interested in learning English. Maybe his reasons are valid. Maybe they're just valid given his current circumstances.

But whatever the issue, trying to MAKE him study English is just going to make him HATE it (even more).

Maybe some clarification/update from the OP would be helpful here.

Tanuki

P.S. @cgage, blasphemy!

[seadreamer]

hi all.. 13 year is a really difficult term for children.Because they are not children and they are not teenagers at all. So everything is uncertain.They won't listen you,you should listen them.Why doesn't he like English? May be he has a good reason.
I were in your shoes, I would use football terms,or any other branch of sports that interests your nephew. Also music,songs...etc.. Reading story books do not motivate children if they don't get any mark as a student. In addition to these, you can use movies in English.

[blackmagicABC]

Can I guess that over the last two years he was not taught correctly (maybe too much unnecesary grammar exercises) and now he is either confused by all the rules or he is like any other 13 year old who doesn't want to learn anything.
Depending on how much he has actually learned over the past two years you could get him to read comics. They are easier to read than novels or short stories, there are pictures that help with context and they are usually entertaining.