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Method to the student, and explain the oddities of the English
language. The Method is new to the student, and the language is
strange, and both need some explanation.
Use the Handbook to support your arguments
If, when discussing any particular point, the teacher can show the
student the relevant passage in the Student's Handbook, it helps
reinforce what the teacher is saying; it shows he is not making it up
or just putting across a personal opinion. Also, people tend to
believe the written word more than the spoken word; it seems to
carry more weight and authority.
Like a politician or a salesman, if the teacher wants to be impressive,
he should have a ready answer to any question he might be asked.
A new teacher has to be perfect - better than the old one
Students always compare their new teacher with their old one, and
the comparison is nearly always unfavourable - like a woman
comparing her present husband with her previous husband. A child
will always prefer the mother he was brought up with to any other
mother. He will cry if he has to change mothers, and so it is with the
students when they have to change teachers.
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The new teacher, therefore, has to work very hard to woo the
students away from the memory of their old teacher. The old
teacher could have been slightly defective in his teaching, but, as the
students were used to him and liked him, they would forgive him his
defects. Towards a new teacher, however, they might be merciless
and forgive nothing. The teacher, therefore, has to give a perfect
lesson, and if he is also an inexperienced teacher, he will have to be
careful not to overlook the tiniest detail of his instructions. He must
be well-dressed (as if going for a new job), punctual, and must
carefully correct the students' pronunciation. He should be very
pleasant and understanding, and not stare at his book as if he did not
know what he was doing. These are the sort of things the students
can easily judge, even though they might not be able to judge the
teacher's real ability.
The natural linguist teaching his mother-tongue
One of the most difficult things for a teacher to understand when
teaching his mother-tongue is that what is extremely easy for him is
extremely difficult for his students. The teacher was born and
brought up with the language he is teaching. It is so much a part of
him that he does not even remember having learnt it. For most
students, however, every little word is difficult to understand,
difficult to pronounce and difficult to remember. If, added to this,
the teacher is a natural linguist who finds it very easy to pick up a
foreign language, he will have even greater difficulty in
understanding his students' problems.
To overcome this the teacher should imagine he is teaching the
subject he found most difficult to understand when he himself was at
school - mathematics perhaps. He has to learn to get down on his
hands and knees to the level of the students and carefully build brick
on brick with them.
The Callan Method is not written for natural linguists, these only
constitute a tiny minority of the student population, it is written for
the vast majority of students who find learning a language no easy
matter.
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More than 20% absenteeism
At a private school, a very good Callan Method teacher will average
a 10% absenteeism among his students. Out of a class of 10 he will
have an average of 9 present per lesson. On the other hand a fairly
good teacher will average a 20% absenteeism. If a teacher has more
than this, then there is something wrong with his teaching, and he
should see the Director about being re-trained. There is probably
some small point he is overlooking which is ruining his
performance.
Absenteeism can be due to bad teaching
A teacher might argue that he cannot prevent absenteeism. From
experience, a private school knows he can. Only 10% of
absenteeism is justified, the other 90% is just excuses. The student
gives a very plausible reason for his absence, and often even
believes it himself.
When a student finds a lesson boring, because the teacher is making
it too difficult for him through insufficient revision or lack of speed,
he begins to find excuses for himself to miss lessons. If, for
example, it is raining, he says to himself "I'll go tomorrow". He will
also say this if he has a slight headache, or has been working late, or
meets a friend on his way to the school who invites him for a coffee.
All these he considers to be legitimate excuses for not going to
spend 50 minutes of boredom. And the more he is absent the more
he gets into difficulty in the lesson, and the more bored he becomes,
until eventually he stops attending the school altogether, and the
teacher loses a student.
On a winter's evening with a thunderstorm and torrential rain, it will
always be the students of good teachers who turn up for their
lessons, whilst the other teachers will be playing to half-empty
classrooms, rather like bad actors at the theatre.
Be pleasant
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The most successful teachers are those who are the most pleasant. It
is surprising what a smile can do and a few pleasant words of
encouragement. Little pleasantries such as "How are you ?" if the
teacher sees a student in the corridor before the lesson can go a long
way. Also a couple of words about this and that at the end of the
lesson helps to let the students know that the teacher is human and
not indifferent to them; particularly as the lesson is given in a
straightforward business-like manner. All this can make an
enormous difference. The teacher will seldom lose a student, and
the student will work all the harder for him. The teacher should use
a pleasant encouraging tone of voice when he is teaching, but should
not become too friendly with the students in the lesson, otherwise
problems of discipline will arise.
The teacher must try to cover his moods
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