WHAT DO STUDENTS WANT?
Find below some of the answers my own students have given me in recent months:
“A tough teacher”
“A demanding teacher”
“A patient teacher”
“A kind teacher”
“A teacher who teaches me English”
“I don’t like English so I want a teacher who’ll make me like English”
“My worst grade in High School was 7. The subject? English, of course”
“Never needed it.”
“Read for gist and presto”
“I can understand what I hear or read by Deduction and logic”
“I want to speak and understand in one year”
“I want perfection in my writing and speech”
“I want to speak proper English not the ‘patois’ my father uses”
“I don’t know exactly”.
And the list could go on and on.
Students’ wants can be endless but their needs – as far as language learning applies are simple:
They need a teacher who loves the language
who knows what he’s teaching
Who can motivate and create opportunities for students to grow
As regards to perfection, no one can expect it in a language that has regular and irregular verbs and tons of exceptions to any rule. Beauty yes, perfection just a pie in the sky. So be realistic, optimistic or even pessimistic but leave perfectionist in the closet.
The Americanoid Blog 