2014-01-09 — Teaching & Education · Teaching philosophy — Tags: students, teaching, classroom
In my class I try to make the lessons interesting , dynamic and relevant, perhaps the students will make their own comment on if I succeed or not.
However I've noticed a few things that worry me generally:
- Students are addicted to their mobile phones or to the internet. 20 years ago, when I started teaching, bored pupils would look out of the window. Today, bored or not, they look at their phone. Engaging pupils and making them react has become more and more difficult. OK, its impossible for a student to concentrate for 2 hours in my lessons, but they cant concentrate or don't know how to concentrate for the ten minutes of listening task I give. And changing between tasks becomes a grinding gear shift, as students fidget in their bag for their phone to kill the seconds between the tasks with phone time. Pupils chat to their neighbor or chat when another presents; there is no respect unless I insist.
- Students imagine that they will progress in English by speaking their native language and not the target language of English. They don't spend enough time in English and their level isn't good enough for the workplace. They don't understand that to progress you need 4 hrs minimum per week exposure in English.
- Students don't come to question knowledge, but to worship it.
- They imagine because they (or their) parents pay for the study, they deserve a pass grade.
They lack a basic general understanding of how English works and their level is shockingly bad, lacking syntax, vocab and so on.
Don't misunderstand me, the majority of students are nice and pleasant, but they have no idea about work.