Survive teenagers



•Teenagers may like English.
•
•
•But they certainly hate studying it!

•Teenagers are more right-brained.



Right hemisphere
•= emotions!


Teenagers
•Are less logical, rational, analytical, less objective
•Operate on a „here and now“ basis
•Are more intuitive, subjective
•Have low concentration span
•Are easily distracted
•

They need
•Kinaesthetic,
•visual
•sensory stimuli

They live
•in a different world than that of ours


Be interested in
•Their lives
•What they like listening to
•Their hobbies
•TV programmes they watch
•Webpages they use, games
•Celebrities they worship

Complaints from teachers:
•They are always sleepy
•Teaching grammar is a nightmare
•They show no interest in the lesson

Sleepeness
•Internal clock delays
•They start feeling sleepy often untill 11p.m. or later
•
•
•= they don´t sleep required number of hours!
•Fight sleepeness rather than the sleepy teens!

Grammar
•Should always be contextualized
•    (meaningful and relevant situations for teena
•    gers)
•Art and music are typical for right hemisphere activities
•    (pictures, cards, scenes of a film, music …)
•
•

Interest
•Discovery activities work best
•Short
•Direct connection to their real lives
•
•= humour, music, jigsaw, drama
•= different sitting arrangements

•
•„Attention is a pre-requisite for understanding.“
•
•                  Thornbury, S.: Uncovering grammar, Macmillan 2001, p.59