Being very passionate about English myself, I am always head over heels when I meet a motivated student. You can imagine my excitement when my A1 level student shared her innovative way of revising the classes.
After every lesson, she goes through her notes, grabs her iPad and films herself while explaining what she had learned during the class. She tries to recreate the class and repeat the content in the way I explained it to her. Then, she sends the video to her friends and asks for feedback. This way she revises new vocabulary and structures while having so much fun making the videos and sharing it with people who can enjoy it with her.
When I heard this, my first thought was: what a great method, I am going to advise this to all my students!
But sharing advice and know-how is only half of the success. The rest is up to you.
I always tell my students to find ways of learning that make them feel excited – whether it’s books, games, movies or connecting with other English-speaking people. What was different about this student, was her willingness to get out of her comfort zone, to not take herself too seriously, to make mistakes and learn from them.
Making mistakes is such an important aspect of learning, there is no shame in it. In fact, it is a sign of bravery. It is brave to expose yourself to what makes you uncomfortable so that you can progress and become better. That’s how all personal development works in life, and it is the same with language acquisition.
For my students, I recommend you to think about what you love doing and connect it with English – if you are an origami enthusiast, try to learn the steps of making a paper swan in English, watch a tutorial on youtube and then explain the process, step by step to a friend, or your teacher. Re-watch your favorite English movie, but this time don’t watch it dubbed, find a version with subtitles and try to mimic the way the actors talk - you can even film yourself and compare your video with the speech in the movie.
This way there will be natural motivation and soon you'll be 'learning' by doing things you enjoy the most. And if you are struggling with anything, you can always ask me - your teacher to help you with new structures or expressions. That's how you develop accuracy hand in hand with fluency.
And for my fellow teacher colleagues, I recommend you to talk to the students about their hobbies and passions. Find out what they love and provide them extra material in form of podcasts, learning apps, games or simply a series/movies tips.
Show them English is fun and make sure they fall in love with it, the same way you once did.