Sunday, May 13, 2012

When Students Resist Change

A colleague has decided to switch from traditional, grammar oriented teaching methods to Comprehensible Input and TPRS.  His students are uncomfortable with the change and are resisting his efforts.  He now realizes that building a personal relationship with the students at the beginning of the year is vital to the method and regrets that he didn't take the time to do it then and now he is paying for it. This is my reply. 

Trust begets trust. If you want your students to trust you, you need to be able to trust them, to show them that you trust them. And you do that by being honest with them. I would talk to them, tell them that you are relearning how to teach because you want to be more than a good teacher, you want to be an excellent teacher.

I read a story about Tiger Woods years ago that impressed me. He was recognized as one of the best golfers in the world, he had won several major tournaments, when he decided that the only way he could progress and improve his game was to change his swing. This meant unlearning things that had become completely spontaneous and re-learning how to swing a golf club. It took him two years of hard practice and during those two years he didn’t win a single tournament.

It took a lot of courage and determination, just as it takes a lot of courage and determination for a teacher to decide to re-learn how to teach. But unlike Tiger Woods, you have the satisfaction of seeing that even with “bad CI” your students are making progress and are better than they would have been if you had not changed. Tell them so. Tell them that you now understand that the charts and drills and worksheets that you used to be proud of were not effective because using a language must be as automatic and spontaneous as a well practiced golf swing.

You are actually asking them to re-learn how to learn a language, so it’s normal for them to be a bit upset. Explain to them why, ask them to be patient while you work out the kinks and reassure them that they will be the true winners. I’ve always found that when I was frank and honest with my students about my difficulties, they made honest efforts to meet me half-way. Then the hard part was living up to my ambitions and not slipping back to old habits.