Sue Olive, United Kingdom
I think you've had a great response - & lots of great ideas - already. One thing that struck me when I read it in a Diploma textbook was that unsuccessful learners can improve their performance by copying what good learners do (study techniques, etc.). Providing motivation by making learning fun - but also by setting goals, encouraging students to set their own goals & achieve them, etc. - those are also good. Tell us which ideas you tried & how they worked, please! Have fun!

Azhar Hussain, Pakistan
Hi,
I'd like to draw your attention towards Jeremy Harmer's book "The Practice of English Language Teaching".
Furthermore, I'd like to introduce to you two terms, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
If your students don't have motivation to learn either English or other things, you can motivate them. There are a lot of books but, I'd like to suggest the book "Creative Ways" from this same site.Or! Do any ELT course. Happy teaching.

Mostafa, Iran
This might seem funny to some teachers, but if you want to teach students make them fall in love with what you want to teach...

Quocdan, Vietnam
Hi. I never think my students have poor learning skills so I always have to find out the way to help them to learn better. There are some ways I did this in my teaching below:

First, I myself never think my students are lazy, so that I can be happy to help them more.
Second, I always observe my students' understanding when they learn. If they don't understand, I can speak slowly and explain more about the problem I am saying.
Third, I have to find the easiest way to teach for the weak students.
And there are many many ways we can think to help our students in their learning; in limited time, I only say some of my ideas. I wish they would help you.

Jason Blean, Spain
I dont think there's much the teacher can do directly to improve their students learning skills. You're lucky if you teach at a university - I know some of them run learning skills courses (mine did). The major problem I encounter is a motivational one. If the students have internal motivation then they are much more likely to take such a course. Besides that, I can always spot those with better learning skills : they arrive at class prepared with a separate note book for new vocabulary and ask me to get them extra books to supplement the classwork. I often suggest students take notes of things they obviously dont know and refer to them later but this often falls on deaf ears.

Lucía, Argentina
I think that the most important thing you can do now is to learn about your students' skills. They surely have one or two and from there you can build a plan according to their specific needs.

Suzanna, Austria
Someideas that usually work: a) Vocabulary: they should always write their verbs in the infinitive with to, nouns in the singular (+irregular plural), and make example sentences for words they find difficult to remember; this will help them to acquire some sort of system they can rely on; try to use images/pictures or titles of songs to remember words/structures better. b) Tell them to find out when they are best prepared to learn new things: not right after a meal, but in the early morning/late afternoon... c) They should proof-read all their texts, have them read/corrected by a classmate d) Practice how to use a dictionary etc.

Patricia Taboada, Peru
Why don't you keep (or you may give your students) learning/assessment logs for you and your students to be aware of how well they are doing, what their weak and strong points are, how they learned, and so forth. It's just a little idea of mine!

Chris Whitley, Germany
I think the only thing you can do is try to make it interesting (find out what interests them), and get them to relax. In the end they must want to learn.

Neelofar, Pakistan
You need to specify what you mean by poor learning skills. Are they poor only in learning English? If it is so, then you need to change your teaching style, develop interesting lessons, teach language in context, relate it to their personal experience. Only then will you be able to develop interest. Language is not taught by telling a person something. They learn by experiencing.

Masoume, Iran
I think your question is too general. It is better to clarify which skills they have more problems with and which skills the course concentrates on. However, It may be effective to ask students to think and write about their learning strategies and to discuss them in class.The teacher can also offer a set of strategies to be used by the students. Each skill should be discussed separately.

Dirceu, Brazil
Hard work ahead, my friend, but do not quit. One of the pieces of advice you can offer them is the more contact they have with the language through news, reading, listening,exercises,talks etc., the more accurate will be their skills.

George Steed, Polska
Your task may well be impossible. Humans resist change of any kind. Teachers do not usually possess the tools necessary to effect change. One practical solution is to employ class or student effective learning approaches. Example: I had students who simply would not do any homework. I instituted daily quizzes. Questions were derived from the text. The quiz was open book. Time was allotted for the quiz, reviewing the answers and a short lecture.

Zhanna, Russia
You might try to spend some time during the lesson actually "teaching them to learn", for example, teaching them to use dictionaries. You could have a "homework in class" lesson, showing them some good ways of working with vocabulary, or how to prepare a piece of writing. The important thing is to speak about learning skills explicitly, not just assume they can all do it if they managed to get into a university.

Kenneth Chionh, Taiwan.
I suggest you teach them popular songs and if possible, try to change the lyrics, perhaps poetry(your own) would help.

Abiola O.K. Ufeli. Nigeria.
I'm a speech trainer and I find that taking students (whether young or old) through the rigours of learning, especially one that requires change, is difficult. I'd like to tell Mr Meng to try teaching his students through story telling, anecdotes and through practical imitation and to be very lively when teaching. It has to be fun for them to want to learn.

Sheryl, Portugal
I try to help my students improve their learning skills by encouraging them to be more independent of the teacher and more involved in decision making about their learning. In practise, I have used the following strategies • introducing learner diaries – a small exercise book will do, which can include regular personal objectives (identified by the student and teacher/institute) as well as lesson feedback and ideas for future lessons (e.g. a song they want to study in class). • encouraging them to seek help from their classmates (or check a dictionary) before automatically calling out ‘teacher!’. • allowing the students to offer corrections for each others’ work – on group level or by simply swapping work. • allowing them the freedom to explore a theme on a personal level – so that they can build up language which they want or need (e.g. writing about or labelling their invention/alien). • lots of groupwork – which allows them to make positive contributions based on their own particular skills/strengths/interests.

Philip, China
I think the fault is not with the students, but the education system they have to endure to get all the way to University. In a nutshell, most if not all imagination is stifled because Chinese teachers are given such rigid deadlines to follow. One way out of it might to be to encourage students to actually think for themselves. One exercise I've found which often works is to ask for 5 English words from students - any words. Write them on the board, and then weave a short story round them. After this demonstration, ask for 5 more random words, and then ask the students to come up with a short story. It can be written or spoken, and tell them it can be as silly as they want, as long as they include all the words. In a good class, you will almost be able to see the neurons firing as students realise that minds are for thinking, not just repeating by rote. It's really satisfying how a simple exercise like this can begin to wash away the cobwebs, and hopefully you will see the learning skills improve considerably. Hope that helps.

Anna
In fact, there's no rule about how to teach your students how to learn but you should try to use variety in your teaching. For example, to change their seating places, to make a questionaire and to motivate them with who is the best today and to let those people teach the class.

Claire, China
It's really hard to say there is useful advice on the English learning skiils. The teacher can just tell his students some experience.