Do you remember the first time you went abroad?

How about the first time you drove a car?

Your first kiss?

The first time you do anything that has an impact on your life, you remember it forever.

Not only do you remember it forever, but you also have very complete memories of these things. As well as the action itself, you also remember things around you like the weather that day, the sounds, the smells…

Exactly the same thing happens with learning.

The first time someone teaches you something or explains something to you, you remember that first explanation forever. We rarely question those first explanations.

That’s great, but what if they teach you incorrectly, or they don’t give you the complete story?

Well, that’s when problems arise.

Grammar points in English are typically taught in stages. A teacher will teach a basic version of a grammar point, and then the student practises it.

The student moves up a level, and the teacher teaches a more advanced version of the same grammar point. This process is repeated through all the levels.

What’s the problem with this?

Well, whatever a teacher first teaches you, that is the lasting memory you will have of it.

Then, when you move up a level, the teacher will say something like, “Do you remember what I taught you about the difference between make and do? Yeah, well I didn’t actually tell you the whole truth.”

Then they will teach you a couple of exceptions to what they taught you before. Obviously, the student becomes confused and cannot forget what the teacher originally taught them.

That first explanation still dominates the mind of the student.

And then the student continues to use it in the same way as when they first learnt it.

You’re probably thinking, “Then why on Earth do teachers teach in this way?!”

And that’s a very good question.

Well, teachers typically teach in this way for two reasons.

First of all, they don’t want to bombard you with too much information at the lower levels, so they teach you the basic version of a grammar point.

Secondly, they want you to be able to use it as soon as possible, so they teach you the basic version of a grammar point.

It’s just like putting you in the swimming pool at the shallow end, and then slowly moving you towards the deeper water.

Personally, I prefer to teach all of one grammar point, all at once, even at the lower levels. It may take longer to learn in the beginning, but you only have to learn it once. And just like your first memories, you remember the full version forever, and you will be able to use it more effectively.

I throw you in the swimming pool at the deep end, and you make a huge splash and sink deeply, but you eventually get your head out of the water and start breathing again.

(Disclaimer: I’m not suggesting this is how you should teach people how to swim… )

One of the best examples of this is the classic teaching method of make and do.

We teach this in stages too, and the first stage is usually one of the first classes of English you ever have.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]

The way teachers typically teach it is by first explaining some common collocations with make, and then same with do.

But because they teach it in stages, they teach the simple definition of make. And this is where the seed is planted that will forever cause problems for those English learners.

What does make mean?

Well, it means…no, hang on. I want you to give a definition of make. Imagine you’re trying to explain the meaning of make to another English learner. How would you explain it?

I can guarantee you’re explaining it by the memory you have of the first class you had on it.

You’re probably saying something like, “make is for building, fabricating. You make a cake, and make a sandcastle. That’s what make means”.

While you explain this, you’re probably moving your hands, suggesting that make is with your hands, like building and fabricating.

And that’s where the huge mistake is with how make and do are typically taught.

Most English learners associate make with physical things, because that’s how it’s first taught. Something you can ‘build’ with your hands.

You learn make with physical objects and then you forever have that association in your head.

Massive mistake.

Yes, make is used for those things. But it’s also used for many other things that are not physical, and not built with your hands.

What’s the title of this blog post?

Exactly.

You see, you make a mistake, you make noise, and you make friends.

None are physical.

How should teachers really teach this verb?

Well, let’s have a think.

What do make a mistake and make a cake have in common?

It’s not physical. Remove that association from your head right now. Both are created. What does create mean? It means that something doesn’t exist, you create it, and then it exists.

Create is to bring things into existence.

You can create physical things, and non-physical things.

Forget fabricate and build.

Make = create, generate, produce.

There is no noise, you make a noise, so you create, produce, generate a noise.

There is no friend, you make a friend, a new friend is created.

Make money, make a meal, and so on.

When you think about make in this way, it suddenly has real meaning and you understand it much better.

Do is about completing a task, activity, or action. You are not creating the thing you are doing.

Some people do yoga. They are not creating yoga. Yoga already exists.

English learners do homework. The English learner is not creating the homework. The teacher creates the homework and the student completes it, so the student does the homework.

You do the cooking.

“But Adam, when I do the cooking, I make a meal.”

That’s true, you create a meal but you don’t create cooking. And meal is a different noun. You complete the task of cooking, so you do the cooking. You create a meal, so you make a meal.

Easy!

Of course, there are exceptions. But as I always say, learn and practise the exceptions, not the rule.

Get on the Internet (if you’re reading this, that means you’re on the Internet) and find a list of collocations with make and do, and apply this logic to them.

When you find a collocation that doesn’t make sense to you, write it down in the exceptions list. When you finish, you should have a list of exceptions which you can then learn and practise.

So forget that first memory you have of make and do start thinking about them in this way.

Do lots of practice drills, make an effort, do your best, and you will make progress.

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