A never ending attempt

This view out of my study room window often inspires me to write something early in the morning. 

A friend of mine blames teachers for being boring. In his opinion, students should be motivated to learn English with interest. A lot of reading is what they should be encouraged to do rather than endless drills. I agree with him fully as that was exactly how I learned English myself.

In my teenage years I was educated in an English medium school where there was no emphasis on grammar teaching. But we were exposed to a lot of English in and out of the classroom. Besides, being deprived of entertainment, I spent most of my leisre hours reading. I acquired grammar through observing how English was used. I did not need to be told where not to place the plural ending and where the infinitive should be without ‘to’ though the term ‘bare infinitive’ was not known to me then. In brief, English acquisition was to me a simple process of being in contact with the language. Later when it came to grammar teaching, I had to actually do a lot of research on grammar rules to find an explanation for the usage of structures I had already got so familiar with. This is perhaps the case of the native speaker. He can speak and write excellent English but when asked to explain its usage he may be at a loss. By no means, however, do I condemn grammar teaching. It is important to teach grammar in context. And only extensive reading and writing can enhance effective use of contextual grammar.

But today most of the students do not read. They will not even complete the reading assignments seriously let alone doing extra-curricular reading. Pleasure reading is something alien to a generation nurtured on electronic games. They will not bother to find out for themselves how the language is used. Neither will they try to commit to memory the structures taught. They will struggle to cram as much learning as they can into their minds only for exam preparation. That much they can thus manage is forgotten the minute they leave the exam hall. To them learning is drudgery. There is nothing to look forward to in an English lesson except a quick path to exam passes. Exam drills have thus become an essential element of a curriculum, without which the students may have lost the only trump card to exam success.

I understand my friend’s unhappiness about the phenomenon that students are not learning English despite their exam success. The regret I feel is no less than his when so many students with good exam grades cannot even manage a sentence in correct English. In fact, to encourage our students to read, write, listen and speak more rather than simply drilling them on structures and usage will remain our never ending attempt.