Quoted Teacher

Rarely do I see authors comment on what they had intended when they summarize their thoughts in a few words, especially regarding a quote on the practice of teaching. I always find that ones approach has to be modified according to the situation at hand. This is especially true in a language school where conversation is a priority and the method is "organic". I won't get into the methodology, that may come another time, as the point is to discuss the motivation on learning from the student in order to better teach them. The object is always quality over quantity, although that may be questioned at some locations where the employer encourages his employee to learn during a certain length of time, but the student's time is compromised by other obligations or he is not as motivated as he once was because language learning usually takes a great deal of effort. So the quality may become secondary to the fact that the student feels obliged to learn in order to remain in his employment. It is as if he would be more motivated had he had a freer choice.

One isn't necessarily teaching what the student does not already know. Most often the student is a storehouse of grammatical information and idiomatic expressions waiting to be putting into practice. Often the task is just putting them at ease to be able to verbally express their knowledge in public. They need to communicate orally. The teacher's task should then be helping them put their thoughts in order so that clearer sentences come out and they follow a particular pattern leading to a conversation. Often enough it is the task of the teacher to learn whether the student is comfortable with newly acquired expressions and if not getting them to speak plainly is quite enough. In other words, the teacher doesn't have to complicate the life of the student because of the latest book on idiomatic expressions that has come out on the market.

These thoughts and others are my own when thinking "teaching is useless unless you learn from your students."