Why do my students question me?

Almost all teachers come across a student, student personality type or even whole nationality or age group that meet their grammatical explanations, suggestions for self-study or ideas on how much error correction they need with a sceptical look or even a "That's not right". With other types of people the fact that they do just as they are told or agree with everything you say could just as easily be hiding the same attitude. By looking at some of the reasons why these feelings of doubt can exist and/ or be expressed, I hope also to show how teachers can cope with this issue through changing their approach, showing the students what they want to see, or simply getting a sense of perspective. In terms of getting a sense of perspective, I should also point out that teachers usually get the benefit of the doubt rather than doubt every time they step to the front of the class, and this article is strictly about dealing with the few problem students or few problem situations that can come up. Another general point worth making is that the teacher does not have to be the source of all the solutions to these problems, and with things like showing students how much experience you have got the school can easily play their part in sending your CV to the HR department of in company classes or advertising the general minimum standards of all their teachers.



Reasons why students might doubt their English teacher
1. They've caught you out before
2. They trust their previous teacher, who taught them something wrong
3. They think you are too young
4. They only trust qualifications/ they don't think you are well enough qualified
5. They only trust experience/ they don't think you've been teaching long enough
6. They only trust native speakers
7. They have a bad impression of native speaker teachers
8. They have problems with your gender
9. They only trust books or other media
10. They can't accept alternatives
11. They can't accept "It depends"
12. They can't accept that there is no explanation/ that it is just coincidence
13. Their own language is more prescripti
13. Their own language is more prescriptive
14. They've taken your self-depreciating jokes seriously
15. It's due to a different tension
16. They are used to being deferred to/ listened to
17. They just like arguing
18. It's a wind up
19. They want to catch you out because you are never wrong
20. It's revenge21. They really do know more than you