Why most of us cannot learn English at a secondary school

07.05.2016

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Why most of us cannot learn English at a secondary school

We all studied a second language at school, but only a few can claim that they experience no difficulties in communicating with people from other countries, or watching films and TV programmes and listening to songs in that language. What is the reason why we still can’t speak a second language after 7-10 years of studying it at school?
In our opinion, the main problem is our educational system, which haven’t changed much in the last 50 years. The secondary school English course is made by educationists who, as often happens, have never taught at a secondary school. Our school course does not use communicative approach and focuses mainly on reading and writing. As it was in the times of Cold War, when people had to be able to read the enemy’s newspapers or books but there was no need in real communication as very few people could meet a foreigner in their life. Another main focus of the school course is on grammar. But grammar is also a challenge for the students, because they do not have enough practise.
Why the situation with foreign languages does not really change nowadays, when they start to learn a second language in their first year at school?
The problem is still in the school course. The main goal of secondary language lessons at primary school is to encourage interest to the subject, start to develop listening and speaking skills and basic vocabulary by using songs and videos in class. On the contrary, the main focus of our school course is on reading, phonetic script and grammar, which becomes rather difficult by the fifth year of studying, because pupils were supposed to learn the basics of grammar in the primary school. Although it would be ideal to start intensive grammar studying and practise in the 5th year when abstract thinking begins to develop.
One of the main challenges for our school leavers is listening comprehension and speaking. Why can’t they develop those skills at school?
First of all, in a usual school they hardly ever use audio and video materials, and just listening to a teacher isn’t enough for developing listening skills.
Secondly, many schools do not have sufficient technical equipment for using audio and video in lessons.
And of course, the main problem of our school is the lack of highly experienced teachers with a good command of a foreign language. Teaching profession is difficult and not well paid. A professional with a good command of a language can always find work in a foreign company, a language school or a private school or lyceum, where the conditions of work are better than in a state school. As a result, an average school teacher does not often have a good command of a foreign language. They learnt a secondary language by reading texts and translating them, and they use the same methods now teaching their students. The most part of the lesson is often in Russian, except of reading some texts and doing exercises. Such teachers usually have strong accent, and the only foreign speech their students hear during the lessons is the one from their teachers. That cannot help them develop good listening skills.
As for the speaking, the mentioned above school programmes and a big number of students in classes make practising speaking almost impossible. Even if a class is divided into groups, the number of students is still too big to teach effectively. Moreover, the classes are not divided on the basis of the students’ language level. As the result, one group can have beginners in it and those who take extra lessons. To listen to everyone in such groups is very difficult, so a lesson often comes to doing some writing activities.
How is it then that Europeans, especially in western and northern Europe, are able to learn English having fewer hours and years of English at school?
The answer is in the language environment they have in Europe, which is the most important part of learning a foreign language. Europeans do a lot of travelling, but even when in their home country they watch TV programmes and films in the original language with subtitles. Not many Russian citizens travel to English speaking countries and going to the main holiday destinations often comes to staying in a hotel with a Russian speaking stuff. Therefore, many children do not have sufficient motivation - they just don’t understand why they need to study a language nobody speaks in our country. And when they hear an argument that they will need English in their future life, they just argue that they will learn it in the future… if they really need it. As a result, we have a great number of adults who know some foreign words and can read a text with a dictionary but cannot understand foreign speech or produce anything themselves.
All of the above does not apply to all secondary schools. Sometimes in a usual school there is an excellent teacher, who can compensate the drawbacks of the traditional school course by using modern methods of teaching languages.
If you have experienced such problems yourself and do not want your child to have it too, we would like to give you some advice:

If you want your children to speak good English or you are a student yourself, choose a specialized school or a class with advanced study of English.

Find out if the school textbooks have audio and video materials and use them for practising listening at home.

We think it is a good idea to start learning a language at preschool using language games. That way a child will not consider a foreign language as another boring subject but as a part of real life. It will also be a good motivator.

Always motivate your child by showing the importance of foreign languages. When on holiday abroad, go out of the hotel and talk to locals that do not speak Russian. Encourage your child’s communication with children from other countries.

If you have already missed a lot at school and it is impossible to catch up with the school programme, find your child a good tutor or a language school, where they can start learning a language at their level. Do not try to catch up with the school course or get a teacher for helping with the school homework. It will help to improve the school marks but will not help you gain deep knowledge. It is a usual thing for children nowadays to have a lot of after school activities and English on Skype can be a good alternative.

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Why most of us cannot learn English at a secondary school

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