How to make students remember what they study

I bet you had learners who complained “Oh, no. I can’t learn English. I’ll never learn it. My memory is poor!” I had such. But 90% of all such students didn’t have the problem with the memory itself. It was something else: lack of motivation, inappropriate approach, unappealing materials, lack of individual approach, teacher’s attitude, etc. Moreover, we all learned the first language somehow, right? 

No doubt, memory, the intellect are crucial in language learning. However, there are other significant things that influence learning:

• being engaged
• being focused and concentrated 

I remember studying in the USA and the director of the language courses said, “We want you to dive into English”. I really loved this metaphor. It demonstrates so clear how the languages are learnt the best way. When you learnt your first language, you didn’t speak it only twice a week for one hour, did you? You listened to music, watched cartoons and movies, read books, talked to your parents. You were totally immersed in the language. You didn’t complain about your memory. Being engaged is the key to a good memory! The same way, when a student is fully involved in a subject, in language learning, when they dive in it, they will succeed. But how can we engage the students? How can we make our lessons appealing?

I would start with the materials.

If most of the materials consist of grammar exercises, reading comprehensions activities, vocabulary drills, translations, “Listen and repeat” tasks, etc.; then the lessons are extremely boring, they do not involve them, they do not make them create something. When students focus only on the tasks themselves, it doesn’t make them passionate about language learning; it doesn’t attract them or increase their retention; they won’t love English, as a result, they won’t be attentive and concentrated, especially at low levels. 

As a teacher, you need to find out materials according to:

• students’ interests; 
• their level (if it’s too easy or difficult, it’ll turn them off)

I would say these are two main pillars to support you, to bring more of your students in the lesson.

What activities can turn learners on? The activities that are more student-centred, that make them naturally participate in a lesson. Here are some tips: 

1. Don’t just ask them to answer the questions, but organise a discussion around the topic (what’s been said). 
2. Instead of translating words for them, make them guess the meaning from the context or ask someone else. 
3. Don’t explain the rules directly and explicitly, guide them, make them reflect on what they already know and work out the new rule based on the knowledge they have; 
4. Set clear contexts to make them understand the meaning of new structures better.
5. Reduce your teacher talking time and make them communicate more between each other.
6. Don’t correct them, but give hints, decide on signals you use when they make a mistake, so make them think and correct mistakes themselves.
7. Use natural, not “made up”, uncommon situations. It’ll help students apply new knowledge right away, it’ll make the language more clear for them; they’ll understand which situations are appropriate for different kinds of structures and what language fits various contexts.
8. Avoid cliches. Try to make them say what they really want, need, what they’ll use in their life.

So, when we do what like, it gets stuck in our memory, we remember it in a natural way. When students communicate in a natural way, they learn the “meaning” of the language, get the skills.