IWTYAL 219: How to help students with fossilisation

Matthias asks: “How can I help my students deal with fossilisation?”

Episode Summary:

• Fossilisation is when a mistake becomes deeply embedded in a learner's language after years of “doing it wrong”
• It can occur in grammar, pronunciation, incorrect word choice (e.g. “it's mean”, “why you have…?”)
• In my teaching experience, fixing fossilisation is tricky because it amounts to reprogramming someone who usually doesn't want to change
• Fixing fossilisation has to begin with awareness
• If a student has come to you, it's because they're looking for an external solution, whereas it's the student who has learnt the mistake in the first place – only they can unlearn it
• As a teacher, you can go hard or soft, it depends on how best the student will react to it
• I would set the student tasks to do at home, as it relieves pressure on the student
• Set awareness-raising activities, followed up with regular highlighting of mistakes in lessons

Today's Quote:

People like to change their mind in private.

– Sam Harris

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Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.