3711. No pain, no gain

 What does an English language teacher wish, really wish? That his or her students would learn English! One point for you, for you got it! 

Like a couple of days ago I wrote down some notes, in Spanish, whose translation would be, “In order for his students to actually learn English they need to read a lot, and write a lot, and speak a lot.” And that’s it. The article is over. 

Yet let me tell you more about that point, just in case it may help you out, if you’re a second or foreign language teacher, or otherwise a learner of that language. 

You know, it’s my experience, and a lot of people’s one. Since I’m a teacher, I’ve had to speak a lot in class, for my students to input a lot of English, plus from the CDs, plus from their class peers, plus from our assistant teacher. And by practicing a lot, I’ve learned a lot, I mean, to speak -- and much more I’ve still got to learn! 

And I’ve read massively and intensively, and I’ve written a lot of articles on this very blog – more than three thousand articles yet. Sometimes I think that my students should speak a lot and write a lot in the target tongue in class and out of class, and perhaps they ought to post on a blog like this one … maybe, yes, let me think of it. 

On purpose I repeat the statement: “If they wish to learn a lot of English, and gain some subsequent fluency, they definitely have to read books, and talk a lot in that language, and write a lot.” No practice, no progress. No pain, no gain. I can see a graffitti with that latter phrase every time I head for my job as a teacher, scribbled on some building wall. Marvelous. Have a nice day.

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