NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN

By Ma Rong

Key point: Language teaching textbooks should be constantly updated. Adter all, we are teaching a living language—the language people use in everyday life.


Some years ago, I was doing my teaching practice ina secondary school. One day, I noticed a student enter the school looking quite upset. He went straight to the English Department office and asked his teacher, “Sir, what kind of English we are learning?” In reply, the teacher gave him a puzzled look.

“Yesterday”, the student continued, “I accidentally met a native speaker, but when I spoke with him, the foreigner couldn’t understand me at first. When he finally understood me, he commented that my English textbook was probably too old. I was surprised as I thought we were using a modern textbook. Returning home, I showed our textbook to my grandmother who told me that most of the reading passages and exercises in the book were the same as those that she studied when she was a schoolgirl.”

Together, the teacher and student opened the textbook and looked at the Table of Contents. For example, Lesson 5 was on A Red, Red Rose by 18th century poet Robert Burns and Lesson 6 focused on a selection from On Science by 16th century scientist and philosopher Francis Bacon. The teacher saw the student’s point. Putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder, he said, “My good boy, have you heard the English adage: ‘You can’t teach an old new tricks’? Well, I’ve got a better one: ‘You are never too old to learn’! And, I’m going to show you that I can learn too. I am going to recommend to the head of the department for a change of the text. And from now on, let’s have all of us --- teachers and students--- look for up-to-date materials we can use in our English classes.”