Yesterday I saw and spoke with students from the Philippines, Mexico, Bangladesh, Macedonia, the Congo….
And I never left my desk!
Isn’t technology amazing?
They were members of my online school, The Society, and we were learning how to stop the translation habit.
At the end of the training I answered some very good questions.
I’ll share one with you now.
A new member asked me, “Will we learn about grammar?”
My short answer was, “No.”
Below is my long answer.
Over-Teaching
A teacher who teaches the past continuous, or the zero conditional, or 25 phrasal verbs with the verb “get” is making a mistake.
He or she is “over-teaching.”
Over-teaching is bad because it leads to over-thinking
And over-thinking leads to a fear of mistakes.
A fear of mistakes leads to embarrassment and shyness.
Embarrassment and shyness leads to not speaking.
Not speaking leads to zero progress.
And zero progress leads to opportunities, people, and new adventures silently passing you by as you sit with your nose buried in Murphy’s English Grammar In Use.
That’s why I don’t teach grammar rules.
Have a great weekend!
Very nice. I am interestedin it.