Speaking improves English, study only helps

Sometimes as an English teacher I might encounter a student whose grammar skills are excellent, but they lack the confidence to speak English, and consequently think their English is worse than it really is.

In situations like these the student has often had many years of learning English, but almost exclusively paper based with very little practical component. Of course the student thinks that lessons with me should continue in the same way.

My approach doesn't appeal to all students, but I generally advise the student to let me give them a few lessons of unstructured conversation; true it is based on their needs, but it is still unstructured. I explain that I believe their memory will quickly kick in, and within 3-4 one hour lessons they will really see an improvement.

Of course I also supplement the practical lessons by emailing them exercises to complete. This means that the hour they pay for actually equates to 2-3 hours per week of their own time and effort, and I believe this is more effective than spending an hour on grammar lessons, with very little time for conversational practice.

Experience has told me that students need to be motivated, and it's my job to see that they stay motivated. The obvious reason is that a motivated student learns better, however a motivated student also continues as a student, and that affects my pocket.

In my opinion, a motivated student is the student who really notices an improvement in their ability to communicate, and 90% of the time this is because they feel happy to speak, and engage in a conversation.