Video timeline
00:00 Introduction
01:10 People Forget
01:45 Multiple Meanings
02:39 Language is a System
03:19 An Analogy for Language Teaching
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Video transcript
If you look in any coursebook, you’ll see the same things in the syllabus for grammar- present simple, present continuous, present perfect etc etc.
HOW MANY TIMES DO THEY NEED TO LEARN THE PRESENT PERFECT for crikey’s sake?!
If you want to know why this kind of repetition IS important, keep watching!
I’m Jo Gakonga, I’ve been in the English language teaching game since 1989, I’m a CELTA tutor and assessor, an MA TESOL tutor and I’ve got a website at ELT-Training.com where I make helpful (I hope!) materials for teachers are all stages of their careers. Check it out and don’t forget to give me a like and subscribe- I make a new video every week.
So, why is repetition important in language teaching? Can’t we assume that we’ve ‘done’ the past continuous and we can move on to other things? Well, no, and there are three good reasons for this:
The first one is the obvious one- people forget. There’s no way around this- we ALL need to hear the message more than once, in different ways.
The second one is, particularly when we’re talking about grammatical structures, they all have more than one meaning and it’s NOT a great idea to introduce all of them at the same time. Let’s think about the present continuous, for example, we might start with actions around now (I’m making a video) in the very early stages of learning the language, move on to future arrangements (I’m having dinner with some friends tonight) at pre-int level and only at look at expressing irritation (he’s always leaving socks around) quite a bit later. So, we’ll be revisiting the uses, comparing, contrasting and adding extra information each time we go around the cycle.
Finally, it’s important to remember that language is a SYSTEM, so as someone learns more, it’s useful to reflect it back on what they’ve already learnt and how the NEW fits into the KNOWN. If you’re teaching the future continuous, then it’s helpful to see how that relates to other continuous forms they already know – See you there! I’ll be waiting for you outside the station compared with I’m waiting outside the station and I was waiting outside the station.
Has that convinced you? Repetition, revision, recycling and building on the known will really help your learners to make progress. It’s NOT a waste of time.
Language learning isn’t like building a wall, where you put each brick in place and it stays there. It’s much more like growing a garden. You plant a few seeds here and then go and plant a few more over there – but then you look back and the first lot are dying so you have to look after them and nurture them, and then you realise that there are weeds over here that you need to deal with, and then you see that some of your seeds are growing and some aren’t … you get the picture.
I hope this was a helpful bit of food for thought. There’s lots more at ELT-Training.com so I’ll see you there!
