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Date Posted: 05:33:15 05/07/07 Mon
Author: Eliel
Subject: Task 2 Eliel


Universidade Federal de Minas gerais
Text Production
Adriana Tenuta
Eliel Soares de Jesus

Good students, three important characteristics according to English teachers


as crenças tem uma função importante porque servem como nossos princípios orientadores. Elas são generalizações sobre causa e efeito, e influenciam nossas representações internas do mundo que nos cerca. Nos ajudam a dar sentido ao mundo e determinam como pensamos e como agimos.
Puchta apud Fontana (65, year)

Among a wide variety of beliefs leading the work of teachers there is one that could sound as prejudice, the standard of a good student. This belief has some influence on the teaching work, as this kind of student usually presents better results than others. Studies made to list and analyze the work of English teachers in public schools have shown beliefs leading teachers’ attitude towards students’ behavior. The importance here is given to the three aspects of the “good students” learning a foreign language: Interest, autonomy, and quest for opportunity to communicate in the new language.
Teachers in general, and English teachers specifically, work based on theories. Sometimes they just follow their intuition, this procedure may explain the differences between the professionals in the area. It is true that theory is important. If there is a scientific method leading your work, and this method is proved to be efficient during the tests, it is probable that your work will succeed. Indeed, according to some research, there is one predominant belief that there is a standard of “good student” and for teachers it is an important element to the teaching process.
There are many reasons to learn a foreign language. Different types of interest motivate people to start a language course. But it is proved that teachers attribute a great importance in the first aspect of a standard good student: interest in the new language. In my own experience as an English teacher, I have heard students saying they definitely do not like English. If I do not convince this student of the advantages or the importance of learning the language, it will be a frustrating work at the end. That student can have much more difficulties during the course than he would if there were previous interest in learning English, or even if this interest was not raised during the process. It is possible to conclude that Interest can appear before or during the learning process. This aspect is closely related to motivation, an important element to reach success in any activity. But motivation is not an intrinsic aspect of good student; it is caused by external elements of the process, for example, methodologies and didactics.
According to Araújo (2004), the second aspect a Good student must have is autonomy. This aspect is important mainly because it enables learners to criticize his own development, once it makes him responsible in the process. Autonomy is a good characteristic to learning process of any subject. Furthermore, autonomy reinforces knowledge by experience. If one works to acquire some knowledge, the results are well experienced by that person. Henrique (an English teacher in a public school), one of the interviewed people, in the research contained in the work cited above, said it is important that a foreign language learner searches other resources to learn the new language. “I believe he (the student) will do it better if he has a teacher to help his work, and to find the resources.”, Henrique also added. Here the interviewed teacher calls the attention to the importance of a guided work, Araújo (2004).
The third aspect of a good learner is the initiative to have opportunity to communicate in the new language. The theories of language acquisition (Chomskian theory of Linguistics created and widely discussed in the academy) treat on language exposure, without which an individual cannot “learn” communication. Although the focus here is on learners (people who has already a mother language), this principle of exposure to the language has been proved as an efficient factor contributing to the learning process. One can certainly notice that by the great number of English courses using methods developed from that approach. When the target language is used consciously, that learner will probably be aware of his own mistakes, trying to correct them, and also he will receive reinforcement by the exactness of his speech from his interlocutor.
To sum up, interviewed teachers classified these three aspects as the essential qualities of a “good student”. Indeed, It is important to remark that the origin of that classification to students. Teachers, in their experience developed that opinion based on observation along the process. It is possible that it can be scientific proved if some deeper studies are made.



Belo Horizonte - May 5, 2007.

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