Teach Unsuccessful Students

霍鑫紅

（大連商務(wù)職業(yè)學院，遼寧 大連116039）

Do we know how to teach unsuccessful students? Successful achievers are those who can actually get good results even with the old grammar-translation method and tattered books. It is the unsuccessful students who really need teachers to turn their effort on to them.

1 Analysis of unsuccessful students

A popular judgment by teachers is that 'They can learn, but do not want to study'. The evidence is that they desperately want to be successful, yet are overwhelmed by a load of constraints.

Nearly all unsuccessful students have an unknown history of subtle learning disabilities that remain hidden-sometimes through all their lifetime.The problem of learning disabilities and inappropriate behaviour is much more serious than mere academic achievements.Most unsuccessful students are painful sufferers,doomed to bear the brunt of humiliation,excessive demands, unbearable stress, and the role of being 'losers'. Challenging behaviour is often the only mask they know that will help them to save face.

2 Methods to help unsuccessful students

2.1 One suggested way to find the solution is to study the strategies of'good students', and direct the attention of unsuccessful students to how the successful students arrive at their results.Yet,not much attention has been given to the unsuccessful students who are making efforts to stop being failures.

2.2 Student-prompted strategies can develop in three steps. The first step is creation in unsuccessful leaners an awareness of their cognitive strengths. Some students admit that they 'are slow to get the point but after they have got it they remember it forever'. Others acknowledge that they 'can't speak from memory but can answer any question successfully'.Still others say that 'if they were given more time they would have no problems'. The second step is to develop in students a performance monitor mechanism to look critically at cognitive activities in the lesson.

2.3 The third step is to develop in learners an active approach mechanism. They can then start building up their own road towards success.

3 Here a re some language-learning strategies teacher may use to teach unsuccessful students as well as successful students

3.1 Grammar translation

The structure-based grammar translation method, as its name suggests, relied heavily on teaching grammar and practicing translation as its main teaching and learning activities.The major focus of this method tended to be on trading and writing, with relatively little attention paid to speaking and listening.Vocabulary was typically taught in lists,and a high priority given to accuracy,and the ability to construct correct sentences.

3.2 Audiolingualism

The audiolingual method depended heavily on drills, repetition, and substitution exercises. These were justified according to behaviorist theories, whereby language was seen as a system of habits which can be taught and learnt on a stimulus/response/ reinforcement basis.

3.3 Communicative teaching method

Students should be exposed to appropriate samples of language and given relevant and motivating activities to help them learn. It has directed our attention to the importance of other aspects of language besides propositional meaning.and helped us to analyse and teach the language of interaction. This is what communicative teaching does.

3.4 Eclecticism

In addition to grammar-translation,audiolingualism,and communicative language teaching,there have been,and continue to be,many other less widely adopted methods and approaches to the teaching and learning of language,such as the natural method, the direct method, the total physical response method,the silent way,and suggestopoedia.All of these various methods and approaches have,in varying degrees,had some influence on contemporary language teaching and learning In recent years the field has tended to move away from dogmatic positions of 'right' or 'wrong', 'better' or 'worse', becoming much more eclectic in its attitudes,and more willing to recognize the potential merits of a wide variety of possible methods and approaches.This contemporary tendency to eclecticism has resurrected the interest in the contribution made by the students themselves in teaching/learning dichotomy,and in the learning strategies which learners employ in the process of learning language.

4 Implementation

The implementation of the 'learner-prompted' approach to teaching can only be effective if the classroom context is appropriate. A classroom context can be success-building or student-failing. A 'student-failing'context is created by excessive constraints imposed upon the class: correct pronunciation, grammar accuracy, language fluency, quick grasp and high productivity rate, equally well-developed declarative knowledge and communicative skills, plus prompt and correct reaction. Only successful learners with a good ability for adaptation can cope with such constraints.Unsuccessful students are doomed to failure. On the other hand, a 'success-building' context removes the excessive constraints, emphasizing teacher-student co-operation. Such classroom context is much more open to considering the congruence of the teacher-student cognitive styles, individualizing the task, teaching in the zone of proximal development, motivating the students. And keeping them involved.

5 A 'success-building context' can be created for teaching the whole class if mixed-ability individuals

My observations show that in cases of accommodating high and low achievers, successful students can attain an equal share of success, while unsuccessful students display an indisputable gain. All of the teaching can be done within the result/process-oriented paradigm. The process is facilitated by the teacher, while the results belong to the students.

6 Conclusion

With the intention to know more about unsuccessful students and the willingness to help of the language-learning strategies, teachers may better let students benefit from class in their aspect of English study and life.

［1］Carol Griffiths and Judy M. Parr, 'Language-learning strategies: theory and perception' Jour, ELT[J].2001.

［2］Radislav Millrood. 'Unsuccessful Learners: in search of a neglected cornerstone'，2001[Z].

［3］Oxford, R 1990. Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher should know[Z]. New York.