2016 Student false beliefs K Generic Reading

Every word must be understood in order to comprehend a text

Reading for pleasure is a waste of time

I can learn to speak and listen by reading

There are several myths related to reading. The first is that there is only one type of reading-and that is intensive reading in which every word must be understood in order for the message to be comprehended. Teachers know this is not true but it is very difficult to persuade recent arrivals that they must skim and scan academic articles and that readers can comprehend gist without knowing the meaning of every single word.

SA second myth is that reading is always painful, hard work and can never be pleasurable. The idea of reading for pleasure is rare in second language speakers. This is because reading is associated with boredom and pain in my second language learning contexts overseas. Naturally, the last thing people want is more pain!

One of the few exceptions is my wife who reads biographies and novels for pleasure. She is a Spanish speaker who learned English as an adult. She can read quickly too and recently read an Australian fictional writer who topped the New York Best sellers list in two or three days. (Liane Moriarity). It took me two weeks.  My wife is a good reader but she does not have any exceptional reading skills. What is exceptional is that she understands that reading can be for pleasure

A third myth is that all the other skills have to be learned through reading! This includes speaking. Many learners have an overreliance on reading and writing as learning tools. This is a result of poor teacher-centred pedagogy and methodology in their home countries. Teacher-centred pedagogies and methodologies rely on reading and writing and writing because it is easier for the for the teacher to mark and the institution assess written products. The validity of such assessments is often not high–but the convenience outweighs the lack of validity.

Such is the dominance of reading and writing that even esoteric topics like Pronunciation are believed to be learnable my ‘studying’ them mainly through reading and writing! Of course all the macro skills are involved in learning pronunciation-but only intensive and extensive listening and speaking practice will produce lasting results

Student false beliefs DVDs

Movies and documentary DVD’s should be watched only once

All videos are entertainment

This can be a frustrating one for teachers.

The movie or DVD is a great motivator in language learning. Many teachers will use movies or documentaries to provide context for topics. But they can be used in so many other ways.

I have used them to focus on vocabulary, idioms, slang, pronunciation, accent or intonation.

The main problem is that students can’t concentrate for long enough so what I do is use the movie with English subtitles. I use various strategies. With some DVDs I’ll show the entire program first so that the students get the context and the gist and some enjoyment (very important in itself).

Then I will replay the movie’s relevant parts focusing on the points we are studying.

I also will download the dialogue and get students to study the selected areas and then play the movie with the actual scene again. I find this to be a remarkably motivating activity.

However, students have to unlearn their internalized concept that a movie is only to be watched only once! This is remarkably deeply ingrained in the brains of many students on arrival to Australia. For some reason they resist watching a DVD for a second or third time. They need to be trained to unlearn this myth. I have watched some documentaries dozens of times and seen new things each time –and I am a native speaker!

I suppose the resistance comes from the fact that movies are seen as ‘entertainment’ (mostly due to Hollywood) Many students regard watching a movie not as work.

I am a strong believer in the use of electronic media as a teaching aid. In addition to the Hawthorn effect (change for change's sake) it adds the element of pleasure to learning which is often missing in the classroom.

Of course the scope for using segments of DVD‘s is unlimited–or limited only by the time the teacher has to prepare exercises and activities based on the DVD.

I have rarely found an environment which fully supports the use of DVD’s in the classroom. Many managers are against using them. Of course it depends on how they are used as they can be misused by the teacher.

Rules vocab and dictionaries

English can be learned like maths by the learning of rules and applying them

Vocabulary can be learned using a dictionary

The dictionary is to be trusted more than the teacher

This is one of my favourites: the false belief that learning a language is like learning Maths.

You just learn the rules and apply them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While it may be true for Maths it certainly is not true for learning English as a second language

Many adults don’t realise that much language is acquired not learned. A lot of language is learned at your mother’s knee: first it is received and then later produced as the child matures. This is an automatic process of acquisition–not a planned step by step process of learning the rules and applying them. Most adults fail to understand this. The acquisition continues in a total immersion environment of the child as it matures into an adult.

The reason for the perpetuation of the myth is because we have been indoctrinated by commercial and political interests to believe it! It is in the interests of Language Colleges, schools and universities to perpetuate the myth that they are indispensable for language learning! Necessary–perhaps? But not entirely indispensable. Let’s say that they exaggerate their own importance for obvious reasons!

This false belief means that many adults are reluctant to concede the importance of ‘acquiring’ language outside class by speaking to native speakers, reading newspapers and watching movies etc.

Although the teacher may be given an exaggerated importance by many learners, when it comes to vocabulary the dictionary is given even more importance. Many students quite erroneously believe that looking up the meaning of the word in the dictionary is the way to learn vocabulary.

Research shows that in order to retain the meaning of a word in your long term memory you have to ‘learn’ it 3 times with at least 24 hours in between each learning episode or activity. Looking the word up in a dictionary might be the first one of those activities. But the learner has to be exposed to the meaning of the word at least twice more in order to put it onto his long–term memory. Just looking the word up in the dictionary does not achieve this. Many students believe it does.

Talking of dictionaries, if there is a discrepancy between what a teacher says is the meaning of a word and the dictionary meaning -then the learner will often believe the dictionary-such is the power of the written word. If it is written down-it must be right!

Student False Beliefs Generic Speaking

Speaking is perfectible

I can speak my own language outside class

All native speakers speak perfect English

Native speakers understand the rules of their language

The first myth many adult learners have regarding speaking is that speaking is perfectible. I have never met a single adult learner who has perfected his or her speaking skills in English up to native speaker standard.

This doesn’t deter the new arrival that they will be able to master not just the productive and receptive skills of listening but all the prosodic features of language and even accent.

The only solution here is to let the learner down again gently. Being too blunt can result in demotivation. But ultimately the student has to realize that their expectations are usually unrealistic with regard to speaking.

Most adult learners believe that speaking their own language outside of class won’t affect their ability to improve their speaking inside class.  I don’t agree. The more they speak their own language the less their English speaking will improve. A small number of students have the self-discipline to speak English outside class –but they are few in number. Most simply relapse in to their native tongue the moment they leave the classroom. The result is their speaking is the skill which improves least during the course. There is little the teacher can do except exhort and be an example.

I always describe my own experience in Mexico when I arrived there as an adult with minimal Spanish. I was living in a Spanish speaking household where no-one spoke a word of English. In fact t in the pueblo where I lived not a single person spoke English. This was ideal for me because I was effectively in a total immersion environment. I know that if there had been one single person who spoke English I would have sought them out and made myself their friend –such was the urge to relax and speak in my own language.

Learners believe that all native speakers speak ‘perfect’ English. ‘Perfect’ means they speak English like it is written in the text books they have used to learn. The teacher knows that this is not true and that native speakers speak with grammatical errors, incomplete sentences, repetitions, and ‘umms’ and  ‘ehs’ and other fillers. Teachers know that this is how the language is spoken. Learners don’t. They take a long time to accept this as ‘good language’ and even longer to appreciate this fact –most learners never appreciate it. Most native speakers aren’t even aware of it!

Finally, learners think that native speakers understand the rules of their language. Of course the teachers know that they don’t. Most native speakers are clueless with regard to understanding their own language.

 A formal course of training and instruction is needed for native speakers to understand how their own language works. Learners don’t understand this and neither do native speakers. I had been a science teacher for 15 years before I retrained as an English teacher. It was only doting this course that I realized how my language was constructed. Even after many years of teaching English I still get questions bout language to which I am unable to give an adequate answer.

This is why untrained language teachers are of limited use-even if they are native speakers. In my experience the trained teacher who is not a native speaker can be a very effective teacher–especially at the beginner and intermediate level.

2016 Charities

Yes.... the Ricky Ponting Foundation and the Glen McGrath Foundation are great ideas.

They are good men. I admire them for it.

But no.... I don't want their charity or anyone else's for that matter

I want a 'fair go'

Tutoring adults

Tutoring adults can be a pain in the neck.

Although there are exceptions the first question is usually  ‘Cuanto cobra?’(how much?)

Whatever you tell them they say it is too high

On the other hand, If you don’t charge them at all for classes they eventually start to abuse your charity  because they don’t  value the favor you are doing them.

You will find they postpone your class at the last moment for every conceivable reason under the sun from  bringing in the washing to scratching their balls .

 They lie routinely because they have no reason at all to cancel except their own idleness.

Tutoring adults can be a pain the neck

2016 Student false beliefs G groupwork

Group work in a classroom is not necessary for learning

Peer-editing is a waste of time

Only the teacher can mark work

Many students from overseas are not accustomed to working in groups. They are used to sitting and learning on their own and listening to the teacher.

It is not enough to simply exhort students to work together. Careful planning is necessary by the teacher so that each group contains students of a similar level and who are of different nationalities if possible. Doing this once and expecting the students to then form groups themselves is unrealistic. It may be time consuming but it is necessary for the teacher to form the groups again and again. In addition, sometimes students are simply shy-this has to be taken into to account.

Some students really do not believe that group work is important and will try and sabotage it. However, with practice, most students will embrace it and see it, at the very least to be an opportunity to socialize which they otherwise wouldn’t have. Other students see the value of it quickly and rapidly develop confidence in themselves as learners.

Peer editing of writing tasks is central to any academic English course and it is essential that students are familiar with group work before the peer editing sessions start.

One issue in connection with peer-editing is that students may not really believe in the validity of marking others work nor value the marking of peers. They always want the teacher to mark. The teacher knows that neither these assertions are not true. The student is quite capable of editing his partners work as long as clear and specific  guidelines are given for the task. Many students resist because marking is hard work –and explaining to their partner the reasons for the mark given is a complex language task.

Group work and peer editing are key activities in the program to produce the learner who is independent of the teacher. The teacher needs to be patent and persistent in the  promotion of group work.