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Unread Oct 2nd, 2008, 02:44 am
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Clive Hawkins
 
Join Date: Aug 1st, 2006
Location: Italy
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Default Re: Fear of learning?

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Quote crisholm View Post
I also think it's because they feel better. But I wouldn't be so sure about criticizing them because of that. If you feel good, you learn better.
And also because if you are in an easier level, it allows you to pay attention to the little things in the language that you wouldn't perceive if you were just struggling to keep face, about to drown in the load of new language. The issue is a delicate oneerhaps they should really choose an easier level if they want to; obviously they feel the need to have the feeling they have accomplished something, which the new course does not give them. Eventually they will see that they have to leave that stage behind: people do not want to be babies all their lives, they want to grow. But they also need some security. And really, teaching is all about security and challenge, isn't it?
Again, I take your point in a context where someone has dropped down 1 level, say from intermediate to pre intermediate. But here we're talking about going from future perfect continuous, mixed conditionals, inversions for emphasis, authentic texts from the BBC, Newsweek, etc to do \ does, be with jobs, 3rd person s, adjectives, countability, irregular verbs in the past simple etc. The difference is SO great, that the argument for feeling secure, not wanting to drown in new language, feeling accomplishment etc just goes over my head - it can't accept it. I fail to see this course for them as anything other than utterly pointless, not to mention the difficulties it creates for the teacher and other students in the class.
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