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I didn’t mean to write this book.

I actually set out with a colleague, Angi Malderez, to write a completely different book, on learner training. But before beginning, we decided to do a little fact-finding and try to discover a bit more about the problems involved in the learning process, as perceived by both teachers and learners. To this end, we sent out two questionnaires to language schools and state colleges all over Britain. The first, called ‘Moaning and Groaning in the Foreign Language Staffroom’, invited teachers to list their most common staffroom moans about problems involved in the teaching/learning process: the kind of preoccupation that fills your head when you have just finished a lesson you were not completely satisfied with. The second, called ‘The Old Lags’ Project’, asked teachers to invite their outgoing students at the end of a term to write a letter to an imaginary new student, explaining the difficulties they had found in learning English, and offering advice.

The replies to ‘Moaning and Groaning’ took us by surprise.

Teachers nationwide seem to be far less worried by such concerns as finding new and exciting ways to teach the present perfect or getting students to retain new vocabulary items, than by the atmosphere in the class and the chemistry of the group. By far the most common complaint was, as one teacher put it, ‘My group just doesn’t gel!’ There were many variations on this theme, for example:

– The same students always answer questions, quieter members can’t get a word in.

– No-one can understand what X says and the others laugh at him. Y is more serious then the others and is getting frustrated. Z has been here two terms and has seen it all. He’s bored.

– A refuses to work with anyone.

– Students are very bad at listening to each other.

– I have a ‘spirit-killing’ student who is bored with everything.

– I have a split-level class with language ghettos.

– Disappointing lack of interest in talking to each other and learning about other cultures.

– B wants to study grammar and the others don’t so he brings up grammar at the end of every lesson and then always doubts my explanations. The others get irritated by this.

– Student ‘passengers’ make no contribution to the group.

– C is only interested in hearing herself speak and seems jealous if the teacher’s attention is drawn to anyone else.

– They’re only concerned with what they want out of the lesson and show no feeling for their peers.

– They’re a really odd mixture.

– I can’t establish a co-operative feeling.

At a workshop for teachers following this survey, we asked teachers what it felt like to have a group that ‘did not gel’. They discussed their experiences and brainstormed a list of symptoms of ‘lack of gel’. They produced the following list:

– Students don’t listen to each other.

– They don’t laugh at each others’ jokes.

– They don’t make jokes.

– They can’t deal with problems: molehills become mountains.

– They stay in nationality groups.

– They are territorial; they don’t like regrouping.

– They are culturally intolerant.

– They don’t socialize outside the classroom.

– They are all sitting in silence when you go in.

– They make you dread teaching.

– They won’t work with each other.

– Nothing you do seems to work and the harder you try, the worse it gets.

– The more uncooperative they are, the worse you teach, the more uncooperative they are, and so on.

– There is often an ‘indigestible’ group member.

– They question everything you do and if you make a mistake they crucify you.

– They are teacher-dependent.

– They all want different things and won’t compromise.

– There is no trust.

This showed that all the teachers present recognized the problem and knew exactly what it felt like. The teachers at the workshop were all very experienced and included teacher-trainers, heads of departments, materials writers, and EFL experts of various kinds, which shows that the problem is not confined to inexperienced and trainee teachers.

The ‘Old Lags’ Project’ was, disappointingly, far less revealing, mostly, I think, because it was mistaken in concept: students at the end of their stay in Britain are not in a particularly analytical frame of mind. We should really have asked for comments from the sticky middle of a term. But many replies indicated that group dynamics were an important concern for students too, with such comments as:

‘In this term I found good friends and a kind teacher so I progressed a lot.’

‘Learning English is a love and heat (sic) relationship.’

‘I like the people and also the English language. It can make you suffer but it’s beautiful.’

‘I do prefer to work in groups, couples, but the classroom mates (sic) not everyone is friendly.’

The students are very young. I think you could feel quite strange in these groups.’

‘I am blessed with good teacher and good friends in class.’

‘The teacher is a friend more. He will help you. You will find several difficulties but you will never feel sad or angry.’

These comments showed that the affective side of language learning is very important to students.