Flex Your English Muscles

While it does not present a problem to get students to participate in class, it can be somewhat difficult to get them to use English on a more consistent basis. We don’t always have the longest class periods to teach our lessons, and with schedules changing due to school activities, the time in class can be really short.

Most people wish to be able to speak other languages, but few people are willing to put in the time and hard work to actually speak another language well. I like to begin by asking the students if they speak Gujarati well- it is always a resounding YES!! I then ask if they can understand Gujarati well- again, an emphatic YES!! I ask them to indulge me again, and I ask them if they can read and write Gujarati well…..The response is a laughing- Of Course YES!! I then ask them …..why? They are quick to respond that it is their mother tongue, so naturally, they can speak, understand, read and write it well. I ask them what a typical day involves, and I ask them to think about all of the situations throughout a day that they encounter that language. We really never think about it, as we just take it for granted that our newspaper will be in our native language, our TV news will be in our native language, at the store, the clerk will speak our native language- the list can be almost indefinite. It takes time to learn a language, and it takes submersion in a language to really become proficient at it. Yes, there are some exceptional people that can learn by themselves, but I think time and being submerged can really speed up the process.

I then ask the students to think about their own experience in learning English. Most of them have come up in a system where they try to learn a language only in the classroom during small time intervals. Some of that time, they have spent talking in Gujarati, so the actual time of English submersion is less than the time spent in class. I then ask them to Flex Their English Muscles. You may be asking- What? I ask them to strike a flexing pose, which is followed by giggling. Some of the boys really take it seriously. I then ask them to tell me what goes into making a muscle big and strong. They respond with exercise, weight lifting, proper nutrition, and time dedicated to these practices. I respond- exactly, and I go on to point out that their language abilities are very similar to muscles. We have to push ourselves beyond normal comfort levels. You can not practice the same words over and over and expect your vocabulary to improve. You have to try new and possibly more difficult words to expand your vocabulary. This is very similar to lifting heavier weights in order to push your muscles further and getting them to grow bigger and stronger. Just like actual exercise, this pushing to build vocabulary is not always comfortable or easy- possibly even exhausting at times. It does help to build language abilities though. It also takes time- people want to wave a magic wand and learn a new language.


It takes time and dedication to learn a language, and the commitment never stops. I ask the students what happens to muscles that may have been big at one time, but then are not used and go without exercise for a long time. They respond that they get weaker and smaller. That is true about language too- if students take a long break, a holiday vacation for instance, and they do not practice English, they tend to regress a bit in their language abilities. Without that constant stimulation of a second language, our mind tends to settle back into the daily routine of our native language.

The students tend to enjoy the little talk- especially the flexing part. I hope they continue to flex their English muscles on a daily basis, and I really do think it will help to build up their English abilities.