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Unread Nov 23rd, 2011, 10:13 pm
arielhud arielhud is offline
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Default Re: Adult weaker student

Hi Sweet Cherry,

I totally sympathize with your situation. I have two adult classes that have students like this at my school. There are two factors that go into how I want to answer you, but since I don't know the answer to either, I'll just give you a broad recommendation.

The first thing to consider is her age. I teach mostly senior citizens, who come to our school simply to be active- I don't give them homework. I offer to correct diaries if they write them (some students use this to write me a question about grammar) but beyond that, they expect to only learn within the classroom. So I have to drill things for several weeks in a row and also give them a chance to use it conversationally in the classroom or I will have someone who is upset. So, I would ask her why she is learning English- BUT, don't single her out. Ask everyone. I work in Japan, and singling out a student is really bad- they simply won't answer, or will pretend they know something to not lose face in front of their peers. Japanese people are raised to never offer an answer unless they are certain it is 100% correct.

The second thing to consider is her learning style. Maybe written homework and exercises simply aren't working for her. If she needs hands on practice, suggest she come to more than one class, or take a longer class. If she is an auditory learner, recommend movies or TV shows for her to watch to hear more English. If she rents her own countries version of the movie, it will often come with subtitles, so she can get comprehension practice as well.

Those are a few suggestions, but if you can give me more info on her demographic, that'd be great. Thanks, and hope this helps!
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