When does the teacher have to say „no”?

A businessman, a student and a housewife preoccupied with her child sign up for an individual Polish language course. The first few lessons will be similar for all of them, because everyone has to learn the basics (introducing yourself, numbers, buying and ordering food). Yet, afterwards, the teacher should ask each of the students why they are learning Polish. Therefore, the topics of the following lessons should be determined by the needs of the learners.

However, it isn't always a good idea to accept all of the students' suggestions and if they aren't helpful – the teacher has to modify them or simply say NO.

Which of the students' ideas do I reject?

1. “I don't want homework”. Some students say they don't have time to revise at home. Of course if they are dealing with a busy period at work, are preparing a project or studying for an important exam, they will not do their homework. Yet, once the student manages to survive their hard time at work, studies etc. and, thus, has more time for language lessons, homework (even a small one) is necessary. I am aware that not everyone can find time to do English exercises sitting at the desk. If this is the case, I prepare homework on the internet, making it possible for them to complete it everywhere.

When giving your students homework, it's good to explain to them that it has nothing but advantages:

a. the students practice and revise what they've learned during the lesson

b. sometimes, when doing homework, the students realize that they still have questions, which they haven't asked during the lesson. Homework reveals all the issues the students thought they understood but as it turned out- not completely.

c. to achieve subsequent levels of English, the students have to spend a certain amount of time learning e.g. to achieve A2 level, 200 hours are needed. This also includes the time spend on doing homework, therefore it allows the students to study faster.

2. “A new grammatical subject every lesson”. STOP Introducing a new grammatical subject without practicing the previous one is malpractice. The students may be happy because they are learning fast e.g. every lesson they learn about a new Polish case. Yet, this case (if not practiced correctly) will remain in the students' memory only until the next one is introduced. Once the course is over, they won't be able to remember any of them. Every grammatical issue should be taught in such a way that the students will be able to remember it even after learning 3 new issues of our complex language. If after learning about the accusative, the students learn about the instrumental case and get the endings mixed up, it is time to go back to the accusative.

3. “I don't want a test”. Fortunately, such ideas appear rarely J Students usually like to test their knowledge and see how much they already know. Thus, after finishing a module of lessons connected grammatically and thematically, it's good to conclude it with a constructed response test.