The Language Teacher

Why Are We Failing?

David Paul
David English House

Why is it that so many students study English at school for so many years but have so little to show for it? Even many of the students who are "good" at English are unable to communicate spontaneously. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but there will be success stories whatever the methods used. There will always be students who are naturally good at languages, are motivated by a favorite teacher, have a lot of family support, have a chance to travel, or have an approach to learning which is compatible with the way they have been taught. But the success rate is far too low, and this must seriously bring into question some of the most basic assumptions we, as teachers, make in an English class.

One of the main reasons for this failure must be that English is taught by teachers. As teachers, we probably succeeded at school, so it can be quite difficult for us really to understand the feeling of students who fail. We have a tendency to assume that methods which worked for us must be good. The fact that they didn't work for many other students is often attributed to some failing or weakness in the other students, rather than to the inappropriateness of the methods. As teachers, we also probably studied to a reasonably high academic level, and this comes across in the kinds of activities we choose, the topics we are interested in, the jokes we find funny . . . in fact, it permeates every aspect of our conversation and values. The world of students who fail, and even of many students at Japanese universities, is totally different from this.

So, what can we do?

I would suggest that the first thing we can do is enter the world of our students and understand what they like, what gets them excited, what makes them smile . . . . If students like to be noisy, we should be noisy too. If they are quiet and shy, we should be quiet and gentle too. It is important for us never to have a conception of what our students should be or should do. We need to work backwards from what they are, and what they feel comfortable with. In smaller classes at language schools, we don't need to play the role of the teacher. It is not necessary to sit in the teacher's chair or be the fountain of knowledge, except with the "successful" students who are part of that small percentage of students for whom the teacher-student approach works. In larger classes, we may also have to keep order and struggle harder to keep the focus on learning English, but we are likely to be much more successful at this if the students are self-motivated, and very often the more we play the role of the teacher the less self-motivated our students become.

Self-Motivation is the Key

How do we increase the motivation of our students? Some say the answer is to play games. Some say the answer is to personalize language as much as possible, and make our classes student-centered. Some say the answer is to ensure that our students are always successful, by presenting language in a clear and achievable sequence. Almost certainly, these approaches are all correct, and a successful course needs to combine all of these elements, but is this enough?

I would argue that it is the psychological and emotional side of learning that is often missing. If we play a game but it feels like a classroom activity, or if we personalize language, do an information exchange or other student-centered activity, but it feels like an academic exercise, there will still be a lot of students who will never become self-motivated learners. It is not whether an activity is student-centered which is important, it is whether it is student-initiated. If the students feel they are following what the teacher wants to teach, rather than what they want to learn, to many students it doesn't really matter what kind of fun or student-centered activities they are doing. At best, the improvement will only be marginal.

Puzzle-solving

The beginning of a lesson is often the most crucial time. This is when the students need to feel that what they are going to learn today is genuinely important for them. One of the best ways of generating this feeling is to start a lesson with a puzzle, a game, or another appealing activity which the students get really involved in. The answer to the puzzle is today's language target, and to succeed in the game requires today's language target. As they work through the activity, they see the answer to the puzzle but don't know how to express themselves or they come across something they don't know how to say in the middle of an enjoyable game. When they ask the teacher, and discover the new language target, they feel they have learned something important for them. It was something they genuinely wanted to learn. The teacher's main role is as a puzzle and game designer. Students of different ages and ability will be interested in different kinds of activities. It is up to us to find out what kinds of activities most effectively draw our students into the lessons.

We then have to maintain the students' emotional involvement throughout the rest of the lesson by setting up activities which are fun, where the students have a lot of initiative and choice, and which remain focused on achievable language targets. In this way, the students can learn grammar, functional patterns and vocabulary in a clear step-by-step sequence, where they are always successful and where the learning experience always feels central to them. If the students start this process early enough, there is no reason why any of them should drop out or lose motivation. For many students who have been learning for some time in a student-teacher environment, it may be too late. Many of them will already have lost confidence and interest. But I think we should at least try. To continue neglecting the psychology of the failed student, is to admit defeat.

The particular techniques required depend on the age and level of the students, and the skills we are aiming at. There are obvious differences between the techniques we must use for preparing a student for a university entrance exam and when teaching reading and writing to a junior high school 1st grade student, but the learning principles are often the same. I hope that during my various presentations at the 1996 JALT Conference I will be able both to suggest appropriate techniques for many of the typical teaching situations we find ourselves in as language teachers in Japan, and that teachers at these presentations will come up with other techniques which build upon the approach I am suggesting.

Developing International Minds

This emphasis on the psychology of Japanese learners also provides an opportunity for us to consider the kind of attitudes we want our students to have when they finish our courses, and this is the aspect of teaching I will focus on in the presentation "Developing International Attitudes." The basic argument in the presentation is that the English class provides a unique opportunity for our students to develop a wide and unprejudiced view of the world, but very often this opportunity is sadly wasted, particularly because of the emphasis on teaching linguistic and cultural knowledge, rather than building attitudes.

It is not difficult to educate children and junior high school students through techniques which encourage them to explore the international world with an open and flexible mind. So why is this aspect of learning so often ignored? Why do we stifle young students' curiosity and fill their heads with short-term knowledge?

It becomes more difficult to change our students' basic attitudes as they grow older, but we shouldn't give up trying. There is always a chance that even the most narrow-minded of students can learn to look at the world with an international mind. But this seldom happens unless we question the psychological effects of what we are doing in our classes, and treat the development of our students' attitudes alongside the development of their self-motivation as the highest priorities in lesson and course planning.

David Paul's workshop is sponsored by Heinemann ELT.