[teachingenglishmadeeasy]

Quote LeenaBuenosAires

Hi again,

At this point I have about 13 private students. 11 of them fully understand what I teach them and how I explain things. I have 2 students, however, that just don't get it no matter how hard I try. These 2 happen to be the ones with the most limited English. It's possible that I'm not so good at explaining things to lower level students.

I am racking my brain trying to figure out if I'm just explaining things poorly, not putting things in context, or just doing something wrong! Sometimes though I think, "well some people just aren't naturally inclined to pick up a foreign language." But that feels like I'm taking the easy way out.

For example, I have a student in her 40's that cannot see the difference between the present simple and the present continuous. I've drawn timelines, given her all the reasons for why they're different, we've gone through examples, etc. But when it comes to actually practicing with a grammar book or producing the language, she's lost. With another student, we spent an ENTIRE class on do/does and he still just doesn't apply them correctly.

Any suggestions, advice, help would be seriously appreciated!!!

hi OP,

While every person can be reached should they want to be reached, well, that's it. They may not want to be reached. They may be going through the motions because of some external factor (e.g. her friends do it so now she does it...etc.).