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Wed 14 Mar, 2007 02:42 pm
A student asked me if it was okay if she brought a book ( a novel in English) and read it in my lessons. I asked her why. She said: I already know most of the grammar and the excercises are useless for me.
Oh, well. So let me first explain how good her English is. This is upper intermediate level. The first time she spoke to me it was really a funny situation. Imagine I am teaching this group of students for the first time, they know nothing about me and I want to make a good impression, of course. So I introduce myself and tell them something about my experience etc. Then I ask these students to tell me briefly about their interests, experience, goals etc. WHen it is her turn, I don't understant a word she says. She mumbles, speaks extremely fast and sounds ver y American, which is normally really okay with me. So it occurs to me, hey, you are supposed to TEACH this kids and now you don't understand what they say? Quite embarrasing, right? I didn't think so. I knew it was okay to not be able to understand a mumbling student. So I told her sarcastically> You know, I am an English teacher, but I don't understand English. Funny, isn't it? And I smiled and stayed calm.
Later I asked my fellow teacher, who is native American, if she had problems understanding this particular student and she said yes, sometimes she mumbles or stutters. Even later, I read her essay and felt really relieved. Now you guys know how bad my English is but I think it is good enough for teaching EFL. AT least it was good enough for my TEFL teachers. So I read her essay and felt relieved because it was full of mistakes.
So I thought - okay, now you have no argument that my English is not
good enough for you, I can teach you a lot.
So I was surprised she came a couple of months later and asked to be allowed to read a book instead of working with other students. I told her she still made a lot of mistakes but she doesnt' seem to be willing to admit it. When I ask them to practice simple past, she does something else, smiling and acting cool, and when I criticize her, she acts like her English is too good for practicing something so easy. then I ask her a couple of basic questions in simple past and she can't answer correctly, saying things like I was reading a book. So I tell her, listen, you can't even use simple past and you want to skip my lessons? ANd she makes a face like she knows better .
I asked her main teacher and she thought
it is okay to allow students to skip activities or grammar practice that they are familiar with. I don't know. I think some excercises are really easy for her, but my lessons are more than just strings of boring excercises, plus she should cooperate with her partner and help him with the excercises she finds easy. I checked her test today. It was vocabulary and grammar. She got 28 points out of 30. But when she speaks, she is hardly fluent, she makes mistakes and when she writes a letter or an essay, it if full of mistakes.
I sometimes wonder, what if a student comes from the US where they studied for a year and their English is better than mine? And then I think: Even a native speaker would be busy in my lessons. I know the grammar I am teaching would be difficult for me even if it was in my native language. So I don't think the level of someone's English is the point.
That's a tough question!
My senior year of high school found me an english credit short of graduating. I had taken several advanced english courses over the past years and they really had nothing to offer me but still insisted that I take a course for the required credit.
The only thing that fit with my schedule was a course on paragraph writing -- a very low level english class.
My teacher allowed me to read books in class instead of following the lesson but insisted that I turn in an in-depth review of the book upon completing it.
That essay was judged for my grade using an exacting standard.
As now, my grammar was imperfect then. I ended up making a B in a class that I could have received an easy A in if I'd just followed the program but at least I learned something.
I loved that teacher!
On the other hand your job is to teach this girl grammar and you don't think she understands or uses it properly......
Why not give her some different exercises to do, like writing an essay on a chosen topic, or writing a summary of the book she wants to read and her opinion of it? Different students learn at different paces, and some training media (grammar exercises, for example) may not be an effective way for her to learn better English expression and written communication.
A student may be able to better absorb grammar rules by reading a book or a newspaper, to see how they are applied in everyday writing or conversation.
I think you're a better judge of her abilities than she is. If you think that her skills and knowledge are not good, I don't think it would be right to let her do something else because she thinks you're wrong.
I think she should be expected to do the same work as everyone else in the class. If her grades are not exceptional, why should she be entitled to create her own curriculum?
Roberta, cello, thank you both. You both are right, which is interesting because you seem to disagree with each other. So I will do what I feel will be the best
Hmm, you don't say what country you are in, what your first language is, what her first language is, what age she is. I am guessing you are not in the U.S. / neither of you are U.S. born, but she spent some time in the U.S. and so has an American accent?
Anyway, from the sound of it, either her English is not as good as she'd like to think it is (and she needs to buckle down and participate in your class), or she really doesn't care to learn and is lazy/fine with her grammar/vocabulary being mediocre (then what is she doing in your class at all?)
If she wants to read a book, she can stay home and read it. If she wants to be in your class, she needs to participate in the lesson.
I say if a student is as advanced as she claims to be and the normal lesson plan for the others is boring to her or she already knows all this stuff then she should still participate in some fashion - perhaps in the helping of the other students to understand? If she needs a more advanced lesson plan, is that something you have the time/facilities to do and let her work on her own during the class-time?
If she has to come to class to get credits, sitting there reading a book of her own choosing and not actively learning from you just doesn't cut it.
If you find her abilities lacking, then be assertive and tell her that she needs to participate, end of story. YOU are the teacher, SHE is the student. If she doesn't want to take direction from you and wants to do her own thing, especially when you find that she definitely could use the instruction to better her English, then she needs to do so elsewhere.
Heeven, thanks. I agree. THe country we are from is the Czech Republic. THere is a lot of Americans living here so many of us Czechs have lots of opportunities to make friends with Americans. So I have always had lots of Americans friends and the student practices some kind of Christianity where she has a very close American friend at the community so I guess that's where her accent comes from. She is reluctant to do grammar exercises and discuss topics that she finds boring, that is all. She knows most of the grammar, but you are right that she should help her partner sitting next to her etc and definitely she should try to discuss even things she doesnt' like to discuss. Her attitude to English class has prevented me and the other English teacher from giving her an A on her report card - we both teach the same group, but separately, not in one classroom, but we decide on the final grade and we both agreed that the student would not get an A because of her approach. There were no complaints, neither from her parents nor from her. By the way, the other teacher is American and she often complains that the students are not willing to discuss things seriously, especially this one student.
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