It’s so true.

The best classroom learners generally really annoy and frustrate traditional teachers.

After all, the teacher has prepared their (possibly irrelevant) material to try to put into their students’ heads, planned the class with what they’ll say and when they’ll say it, when suddenly their student starts taking control of their own learning.

It completely throws them! It was the last thing they expected.

Personally, I love it when this happens, as I know the student will learn far more, and the process will be much more enjoyable.

It is highly unorthodox behaviour, though.

We’re taught at school that the teacher leads the learning process, that we should follow their instructions, and we should not interrupt.

When an adult is learning a second language, I teach them to do the exact opposite: the student should lead the learning process, the student should question the teacher, and should interrupt whenever anything isn’t perfectly clear.

So let’s imagine you’ve joined an English class. How can you maximise learning?[thrive_leads id=’1049′]

We’ve covered what I consider the three biggest problems with classroom learning: the irrelevance of teaching material, the roles of teachers and students, and time.

If we break each problem down, then we can start to improve the learning process in a classroom by using some simple techniques, simple tricks, and simple habits.

You can then apply them to your own learning if you do attend English classes or have a private teacher, and that way, get the most out of your classes.

First off, let’s look at the first two problems: the irrelevance of teaching material, and the roles of the teacher and the student.

We can tackle these two problems at the same time; two birds with one stone.

One problem causes the other. The role of the teacher and the dependence that the learner has on them is the very thing that causes the material to become irrelevant.

If the learner doesn’t decide exactly what they are going to learn then the teacher will decide for them, but the only person that really knows what they need is the learner, not the teacher.

If you don’t make your own decisions about things that affect you directly, then someone else will make those decisions for you. This could be a teacher, a boss, or the head of training.

When it comes to your learning, only YOU matter.

Whoever it is, the decisions they make concerning your learning will never be as good as the decisions YOU make about your learning.

A big mistake people make when they attend classes is that they think that the class is where all the learning happens, and that they leave the class with new knowledge.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In reality, it’s what the learner does after the class that dictates whether they learn anything or not.

We perceive it this way because a class is where all the “action” happens. However, it’s not where we get all the lasting results.

In fact, the learning process is actually more similar to bodybuilding. All bodybuilders know that it’s not what you do in the gym that gives lasting results, but rather what you do when you’re not in the gym.

It’s the same with language learning.

What to do before the class

As soon as one class finishes, you should begin planning your next class. Think about what you would like to learn, what you would like to ask your teacher, be attentive to all English that you have contact with and look for any language that you don’t fully understand. This could be related to grammar, vocabulary, prepositions, expressions, or something you read in a book or heard in a film.

The time before the class is the time where you should be on the lookout for new classroom material to take to class and ask your teacher about. Every time you see or hear something new that you didn’t completely understand, that you don’t know how to use, or that you have doubts about, write that thing down and take it to class.

Here’s a great exercise to find new stuff to learn: have a conversation with yourself, preferably talking out loud (although if you’re in a public place and you don’t want people to think you’re crazy, have the conversation in your head). Talk about anything, it doesn’t matter, a chat with a friend, a meeting at work, booking a table at a restaurant, any kind of typical situation you often find yourself in. Start the conversation and every time you want to say something but you aren’t 100% sure of the correct word or grammatical structure, write it down then continue the conversation. When you have a list of ten things, stop.

I do this very same exercise. It’s so easy, takes no more than five minutes, and at the end you have a list of great learning material. You then learn that list, by asking a teacher or with our good friend Google.

The reason it’s so good is that the things on your list are totally relevant. Why? Because they are things that you actually wanted to say but didn’t know how.

Plus you get to do some speaking practice, which is never a bad thing.

Read a book, preferably fiction, and find ten new things to ask your teacher about. Why fiction? Because it contains dialogue (spoken English), and in dialogue you will find the most relevant language.

Do this exercise to make another list.

Find five things from this post.

These are just four simple ideas that will give you some amazing things to go and learn, and will provide you with 100% relevant learning material.

If you look carefully enough, in fifteen minutes you should be able to find enough material to fill a two-hour class. It may take you longer in the beginning as you won’t be used to analysing a language in this way, but you’ll get better very quickly.

Do these things every day. It will keep you thinking in English and keep the cogs moving, and we don’t want the cogs to get rusty.

During the class

Remember, absolutely everything you need to learn in English exists right now in your teacher’s head (or on the Internet if you don’t have a teacher). It’s your responsibility to ask the right questions in order to extract all the knowledge that you need from their head.

My favourite classes without a doubt are my questions and doubts classes, which consist exclusively of questions and doubts that my students bring to class.

These are by far the best classes. There’s a great energy in the class, and everybody learns really useful, simple stuff that you won’t find in any typical teaching book.

Ask your teacher questions!

Lots of questions. Even if it seems like a silly question, it isn’t.

If it’s a group class, don’t worry about changing the direction of the class if something pops into mind. Your classmates will thank you for it.

Make more mistakes.

The classroom is the perfect environment for mistakes. It’s a place where you should experiment with new language and different ways of expressing things. Don’t always stick to saying things the “safe” way. Safe may feel good but you won’t learn as much as when you experiment.

When you make a mistake, you get corrected. As a result, you learn something new and (hopefully!) won’t make the mistake again.

Any good teacher will correct your mistakes. If you think you may have a teacher that is a little lenient with corrections, simply tell them that you want to be corrected every single time you make a mistake.

You deserve nothing less.

After the class

Remember that your priority in any class should be to learn something new. Don’t treat it as a place to have a nice chat. You can have a nice chat in English anywhere. You should learn lots of new things in every single class.

I often compare the classroom door to that gadget they use in Men in Black. You remember? The gadget they wave in front of people’s eyes that completely erases their memory?

Something similar happens the moment you walk out of the classroom door. Approximately 50% of everything you learnt in the class disappears instantly.

Unless you do something about it.

When you leave the class, the first thing you should do as quickly as possible is find ten minutes to yourself to think about the class. Ask yourself what you learnt in that day’s class. Do this without looking at your notes, and write down a list of things you learnt.

Then go through your notes. You only need to have a quick read of them. Don’t try to memorise the things you learnt, just read them.

The next day, read them again. This will take no more than five minutes but it will absolutely prevent you from forgetting it all.

Get on the Internet and look for other explanations and examples of the things on your list. The purpose is to solidify and consolidate this new knowledge.

You must remember, the most normal thing is that you will forget eeeeeeverything you learnt in a class if you don’t look at your notes again, think about what you learnt, and practise those things a little.

It requires almost no effort so it won’t be difficult.

Don’t study; practise.

It’s essential that you do something every day. Just start with a little practice every day. Not much, just a little.

Consistency is the key.

If you can master consistency, you’ll master learning a language.

The learning brain only responds to habit. Every day is a habit; once a week is not.

Don’t forget this. If you only remember one thing from this post, let it be that.

So what’s my answer to Leticia’s question?

Well, from the advice I’ve given, you can see that whether you attend classes or self-study, daily practice is a must.

Imagine you attend a course to improve your level. The moment you finish, your language skills will start to get rusty. I don’t say this to make you feel bad. It’s just the way it works.

You will need to practise every day with or without classes if you want to make real improvement, so self-study and practice will need to be part of your learning process anyway.

Are classes essential?

Definitely not, and I really believe that everything you get from English classes with a B1 level or above, you can do on your own and with better results, for the reasons I’ve explained.

Are classes bad?

Absolutely not. And with the tips and tricks I’ve shown you, you’ll make massive amounts of progress if you make them a habit.

If you don’t attend classes nor have any desire to join an English class, and want to learn how to be the perfect self-study learner, then all you need to do is keep reading my posts.

Every week, I include something that you can apply to practising English without the need for classes.

And don’t forget, you can contact me with any questions or doubts about anything at all.

I’m here to help.

And this is why I started this blog.

I have only one priority when I write these posts every week, and that is to help as many people as possible who are frustrated with their progress in English, and feel that there is a better way of improving their level than the traditional route.

And there is a better way.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]