How NOT to Learn English
How NOT to Learn English
We had a lucky draw for the New Year with my students and we bought presents to one another to celebrate this new beginning. One of my students bought a book for his friend who was a very nice kid but he did not enjoy being in the class and learning English at all. The name of the book was “Nasil Ingilizce and Ogrenilmez”- How Not to Learn English. We cracked over the present laughing, and suddenly everyone was very interested about ways and approaches to learning English that proved to be inefficient for the students. We had talked about ways of learning English effectively previously, 
but never about “How not to Learn”!
This idea lingered in my mind, acting like a foil for all strategies that help learners to learn better. Then I shared this anecdote and a colleague of mine responded to the question. These are what she said (Thank you Caitlin!!):
How NOT to Learn English:
- Tell the teacher she is “selfish” because you can’t talk on the phone in class
- Use your jacket to make a Bed on the floor so teacher can’t see you- she then marks you absent and you don’t learn a thing at all.
- Do another student’s homework so you also are punished for cheating
- ” only listen, never speak …
- Only speak, never listen …
- Drink lots of water before lesson and go to bathroom for at least two or three times. So, you can spend at least ten minutes out of classroom and have a chance of missing some activities.
- Don’t bring your books to school and so you can have opportunity not to follow and do the activities in the book.
- Find a weak point of your teacher and open that subject and get teacher to tell her experiences or thoughts about this subject. So, for some time she will talk about it and don’t teach anything.”
I think that discussing the other side of the coin, things that may block learning, may bring about useful insights and I wanted to share the reflections of some of us-teachers.
Would you like to contribute to the list? 🙂
