Insight from the school picnic

During the past few weeks, I have been feeling really tired in motivating students. It is easy to explain. F.6 students at this school have started to feel at ease with each other, and the "judgement day" is still far away. They have a general feeling that it is not necessary to study. Then came the picnic day, I haven't actually been able to feel like one of them for a long time. The picnic actually gave me the experience. I think teachers actually have to immerse themselves in the students' social circles before they can fully understand their problems. There is still a long way to go yet.

EMI / CMI

I have just finished doing a research about the effect of medium of instruction on students' language use. The whole research is based on my sort of feeling from interacting with students. Students from CMI schools are a bit different from those of EMI ones. I think it's because of their exposure to English. They don't use much English in their daily conversations.
My current F.7 students give me a little more insight into the whole issue. One of them complained to me about his inability to comprehend an oral passage. I tried to help. But it is simply difficult. If a student doesn't have any sort of motivation to learn, what can he/she do? They will ask for advice. But after all, nothing will be done by them. It is somehow related to their limited exposure to English when they were still in junior forms. At the matriculation level, all I can do is to let them practise past exam papers, with a bit of help. Anyway, it's a difficult journey for those students.