Stop Copying Me!

As a teacher here, one of the greatest challenges thus far has surprised me: I am struggling to prevent my students from merely copying everything I write on the board and actually internalize some of the material. This has proven far more difficult than I expected.

That´s because from a very early age in the Nicaraguan educational system, students are taught merely to copy down what´s on the board or in the book. They don´t take the time to think about the material, ask creative questions, or encourage originality. The elementary school students´ homework often involves copying the same letter or sentence over and over again. If there is an illustration in their workbook, they frequently trace the picture for their homework.

As a result, when we are in English class, their natural tendency is simply to copy the sentence and its translation without pausing to figure out its meaning. This is a very hard habit to break. While repetition can be a valuable tool for committing new material to memory, it is also important to cultivate creative processes as well. Somewhat radically, I realize my charge is not only to teach them English but also how to think.

Oddly enough, this proves to be much more of a problem for my adult students. They have all attended college, but remain fixed in a mindset that demands that they copy every example. I´m trying now to get them away from the monotonous repetition of words and toward a place where they can start to play with language and discover it on their own. I don´t want them merely to memorize things: I want them to feel empowered to create.

But because they are adults and have had this method of learning ingrained in them for their whole lives, they are surprisingly more obstinatet than the kids. So right now it´s a work in progress.