A group of beginner course students sat for IELTS test last month. No matter what the result is, I believe that it would be quite a life experience to them.

In their 5-month course the period of my interference was about 1.5 months, mainly on speaking classes. There had been some interesting observations. I think that will help me in the language learning and teaching practice in the future.

One of the observations: In the 4th month, these adult students seemed to form a pattern of language usage in their own personal styles each, both in writing and speaking. What did they do in the first 3 months? It’s almost the same every day: read the textbook and recite new words; learn some grammar rules. That was regarded as very dry, dull, sometimes simply a torture in students’ life. However, thanks to all this dull work, the capability of using a 2nd language is actually built up basing on this! Sometimes we just have to wait for the habit to slowly form up, especially for adult learners.

It’s not true that adult learners are slow learners. The strategic thinking works well among these learners, sometimes even better than youth learners.

Learning a 2nd language is like opening a new window to the world. I like the process of learning very much and hope that I could share with all my friends.

And good luck to the adult learners!