Don’t work hard work smart!

Выступление в рамках научно-методического семинара “Инновационные технологии в обучении иностранным языкам: взгляд в будущее”, Нижневартовский государственный университет, 19 декабря 2015.

Dear colleagues, have you ever wondered what makes a student a good learner? Well, I am not tired of telling my students: “A good learner is an independent learner.” How to make our students motivated enough to study on their own and to meet their own needs?  I have been experiencing deep emotional dissatisfaction since one of my students asked me, “Will I ever get better grades? What am I to do to know the language better? Will I ever be able to be excellent?” To be fair, the reason for my concern is that inwardly I’ve been categorizing students into week and strong, capable and incapable of learning to speak English well. And there has always been some excuse for it, such as “I did my best. There is nothing I can do about it. It is our education system.”