This week one of my students who has been a little bit too relaxed about his TOEFL study has become extremely motivated and started undertaking listening practice of his own accord and systematically logging the vocabulary he is learning, emailing me to tell me his progress. What caused this? Me telling him I’d check up on him and give him more work if he didn’t do it.
Yesterday one of my teenage students promised me he’d actually try in class, instead of giving up before starting, after leaving his listening paper blank. He doesn’t cope with change well and has all new classmates and a new textbook for this year. For him, this is a significant promise and one that I told him I’d watch to make sure he’d keep to.
Sometimes you don’t need a teacher, you need someone to look over your shoulder, check you’re on task and give you a push when you need it.
If you’re one of my students, you get that nudge as part of the service. A lesson doesn’t last for just the lesson; it needs to last for as long as you need it. Without somebody to coach you (and sometimes that coach can be yourself) you can get lazy. Without a cheerleader (and that can be you, too), you can think that you’re doing badly and lose motivation.
If you need a push, ask me.
If you want to tell me how you’re going to study English, leave a comment.