I can only learn in class
I need someone to teach me
Language is grammar
These are some more generic general false beliefs I
have encountered:
‘I need someone to teach me’. This is very common in adults from Asian and
African countries in particular. They have completely lost confidence in their
own ability to initiate and sustain learning. Many students have been
overtaught and overschooled so much so that
they have completely internalised the false
belief that they can learn nothing themselves–everything worthwhile has to be
taught by a teacher. (Naturally, politicians are very happy with this. The role
of the school as a political weapon to inculcate such messages is well
recognized in the literature)
This type of student has to be told what to do by the
teacher in great detail.
Again there is not much a teacher can do about this. It
takes a lot of time for such a student to gain self –confidence to drive the
car himself! However, again it is well worth discussing this with teacher
trainees and their trainers.
This type of student often shares another false belief which
is “I can only learn in class”. Although the student may comply with homework requirements
they will only do the minimum required. Because they don’t really take it
seriously. More importantly he doesn’t take recommendations that the teacher
makes seriously to engage with the language outside the class. So..they mix
with their own nationality outside class, don’t watch TV or listen to radio and
don’t actively seek conversations with native speakers because they believe,
falsely that this is not ‘real’ learning. Ral learning happens in class.
Another generic false belief
is the belief that language is basically grammar –and little else. This type of student
believes that Reading , Writing, Listening, Speaking, Pronunciation etc are not
discreet skills of the language worth syudying. Really all that matters to this
type of learner is grammar. They can become quite agitated if the teacher does
not actually teach what he considers to be ‘enough’ grammar. What is happening
here is that this type of student believes this because he can measure his progress
–and his progress against others by testing himself or being tested on grammar
by the teacher. This gives him a sense of achievement –whether or not his
productive and receptive macroskills are
improving or not!
In one language college I used to try and pre-empt these
grammar kings in the very first lesson
by requesting that they not interrupt the flow of the lesson by asking
obscure grammar questions to me when I was in full flow. I encouraged them to
see me afterwards. Those who didn’t just want to show off to their classmates
sometimes did make the effort to see me. These were the ‘Grammar kings’ who
wanted to impress me! Once they had shown me how much grammar they knew–they
usually seemed satisfied!
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