English Class

So usually (This class is pretty advanced) I just let my Friday class talk if I feel the conversation is engaging or that everyone (Or most everyone) is interested in the topic. They enjoy just chatting about daily things and such, but because of this one of the previous lessons that I have done is unfinished. And one of the students is unhappy about that. He asked two weeks ago if we could get back to the unfinished lesson and I said (since it was the end of class when he asked) that we'd get to it next week. This week rolls around and he also didn't mention it until the end of class again.

These people, mind you, are not young students. The youngest is probably 35-40 and the oldest is maybe 60-75. And they all understand that they are free to speak their mind and voice any questions/concerns that they have.

So while I did say that we'd get to finish the lesson this week, the conversation took off and so I didn't want to stop it in order to get back to the lesson. (Which was just reading and discussing a short story written by and for native English speakers) And, like I mentioned above, the student didn't ask about the lesson until the end, which really is just bad timing on his part. It's not like I can say "Oh yeah sure. Everyone has an extra hour or two to discuss the lesson?"

When I answered him he did a silent fit. It reminded me of when any muppet would get angry and the lips/mouth area would curl inward. It made me feel a little bit bad, but in the end he was the only one who was concerned with the lesson while everyone else enjoyed what we had been discussing.

Actually the week before he also participated in the discussion. (He likes talking about political and educational things, not every day things like we had been discussing this week) And he enjoyed himself and seemingly only asked the question out of curiosity while this time it was out of growing concern or possibly anger.

After class I was invited out to a coffee shop with some of the other students. We talked about many things but one of them was the student above. Everyone believes that he seems more concerned about the grammar of English and the side of it that is more academic based. (Writing, much dictionary use, the correct way to use x and the many meanings of x) Which is fine, however I would say that when learning a language nothing should be put above another. No area should be given more attention because when you build it up and turn around to look at the other areas you'll fall into one or both of these categories:

The annoying one, where you'll be constantly asking why everything is what it is and refuse the answer of You'll just have to remember it like this for now.

The deaf ears, where even though we have studied or talked about it, you'll refuse to acknowledge it until much later and by that time we will have moved onto a new topic and having to go back and discuss it again causes everyone to become bored as they all understand and have learned the subject matter.

I stressed my concern about this to the other students and they agreed that it was a problem. So my solution was to give everyone a weekly email. A preview of what will be going on in the class and a review of what happened for those who did not show that week.

That was my best, and to be honest only, idea I had. Hopefully it'll work out.