Have you done your homework yet?
Two things that happened last week inspired me to write this post. The first one was my colleague’s post about how one of her students bribed her with something akin to a granola bar because she hadn’t done her homework and thought the offering would make it all right (or better). The second story is my own. I assigned a piece of written homework to a student with whom I’d only just started cooperating. Later in the week he sent me an e-mail with the text, begging me to be lenient with him because the task was really hard for him. He also said that prior to the homework, he hadn’t written anything in English since primary school. All of this made me think about the concept of homework and all the myths and misconceptions attached to it.
First of all, let me address those who’re still sitting on the fence about whether or not homework is really necessary. Yes, I can see some of my students‘ eyes glowing with excitement and relief when I tentatively suggest I won’t assign any home preparation for our next lesson (the reasons vary but most often there is only a very short time between the two lessons or I’m aware that they have a really busy week ahead of them). Knowing how learning a foreign language works, you can’t help but be saddened by such a reaction. Following my personal mantra “the more you do, the better for your language“ I rarely miss the opportunity to give my students a reason to use the language as much as they can outside the classes. This means that unless the student uses English at work on a daily basis or extraordinary circumstances dictate otherwise, I do assign homework every week.
OK, even if you have a different opinion, let’s agree that homework is necessary, at least for the time being. There are still many things to consider on both sides. I decided to do a little Q & A to switch things up and have some fun 😉
Q: OK, so homework is necessary but does it have to be boring?
A: On the contrary! Very little things in language learning should be boring and doing homework is no exception. As a teacher, I keep in mind the fact that creating further obstacles to learning by asking the students to work on tasks they don’t enjoy is highly counterproductive. Even when the activity itself is difficult or not the student’s favourite, there should be something interesting and/or enjoyable about it. I keep looking for activities that are somehow different from the usual routine, such as shooting a video, writing a story or cooperating with other students while preparing for the next lesson.
Q: Is any homework better than no homework at all?
A: Well, maybe but I would still argue that homework should be relevant to what’s been happening in the classroom. I always try to assign either tasks that focus on the grammar/vocabulary/functional language we did in the lesson, or tasks that relate to what we’re going to deal with in the upcoming lesson to activate the students‘ knowledge.
Of course, anything else related to English that you opt to do outside the classes is good for your improvement. When there’s no particular piece of homework to work on this week, go ahead and watch some Netflix series (yes, I am a fan – or addict, if you will, and no, I’m not paid to promote them ;)), listen to a few song and work with the lyrics, or write a short story just for fun.
Q: Will my teacher be mad if I don’t do my homework?
A: I don’t know about your teacher but I know I won’t. One thing that I’m always trying to make clear to my students is that doing homework is good for them, not for me (for me it’s actually more workload I have to deal with but, of course, I don’t see it that way). The most frequent excuse is lack of time. As much as I can understand that sometimes things simply don’t work out the way we’d like them to, I still insist that finding time to do your homework is a matter of priority. You’ve comitted to working on your language so now you need to find the time to put words into action.
I won’t lie to you, though. Seeing a student opting out of doing their homework on a regular basis is disappointing for me as a teacher for several reasons. Firstly, it marks the aforementioned lack of commitment (which eventually results in their waste of money and waste of time/energy on my part). Secondly, it’s unpleasant when all the energy you put into preparation as a teacher is not matched (at least to some extent) by the same effort on the side of the student. And, ultimately, I know there’s a punishment far worse than the teacher’s disappointment or annoyance. Your lack of progress.
Q: I get stressed out by the fact that I make mistakes in my homework. What should I do?
A: This goes back to my student asking me not to be strict when correcting his homework. In my opinion, any teacher who’s harsh when it comes to error correction is not doing a good job. Two things come to my mind when thinking about this – first of all, I can’t stress enough the importance of making mistakes in the process of learning. I’ve repeated it many times (and I will probably repeat it a million more times in the future) – mistakes are good for you because they help you improve. Plus, anybody makes them. Proficient users, native speakers and teachers alike. The second thing concerns homework as a diagnostic tool. It’s yet another piece of the puzzle, or the whole picture of the student’s knowledge and skills. I do not assign homework so that I can beat my poor students down by pointing out what mistakes they made. It provides me with information on what we need to work on more in the future. That’s it 😉
Q: My teacher assigns homework that I don’t like, don’t find useful or they assign no homework at all. What can I do?
A: If you’re a student and you’re facing a similar problem, do not be afraid to ask your teacher for a change. You can ask for more homework or different types of activities. Any good teacher will be pleased if you come up with a few suggestions for activities you’d like to work on outside your lessons. I’d recommend working on the skills that are your weakest and using lots of authentic materials (videos, podcasts, newspapers and magazines).
Q: A got a piece of homework and I’m not sure what exactly I should do. What can I do instead of waiting for the next lesson?
A: Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help. I repeatedly remind my students that I’m willing to help them if they need more support. It’s useless to wait helplessly until we meet next time and you say something like “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do“. You can always ask for explanation. Also, it’s great to take a really proactive attitude to working with the task at hand. Is there unknown vocabulary? Look the words up and write them down into your vocab notebooks. Do you like a particular grammar structure? Try to memorize it and make it a part of your active language. Try to look for synonyms or antonyms of the words in the text. Listen repeatedly to the video/recording and shadow the pronunciation.
I guess I’ve made my point clear by now. I do think homework is beneficial, I advocate independent work outside the classroom and I try to encourage my students to be active because I believe it’s the only way to real improvement. I also think that we teachers should get rid of boring tasks and show our students more enjoyable ways to better learning.
And how about you and homework? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you have any interesting tips? Please let me know. Thanks a lot and see you next time!
The photo taken by myself.