I’ve just been planting bulbs in the garden with my husband. We do this every year in October and November. Last year we planted a lot, almost 2,000 - daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, iris – so many different varieties.
We planned where they would go, we even tried to coordinate the colours, flowering time and their heights so they would all make a brilliant display. We drafted in some help (my sister and brother-in-law) so we could get everything done in a weekend. When we were finished, all we could see was bare earth and the little white plastic tags with the names of the varieties.
There were no flowers, no green leaves, no indication of what they might look like. It was, in a way, a labour of trust. Trust that they would grow and flourish and trust that they would deliver the result we had in our minds. It could all go wrong. The bulbs might be blind and produce nothing. It might have been a big waste of money, or a big waste of time and effort. However, one could say that about everything and then nobody would try anything!
After the planting we would have to wait for 4 or 5 months (and some take 6 months), to see if we were successful!
I think our trust was rewarded, in spades! (this expression means lots). I’ve posted a photo here and you can judge for yourselves.
The Teaching Point
I hope as you read the story of the bulbs, you got the message I was trying to convey. I am sure that you feel like this about IELTS sometimes. You are doing all this work but you don’t know if it will result in the IELTS Band that you want. It seems that nothing is happening (like the bulbs underground), you are working hard but your scores don’t change. Are you wasting time? Are you wasting money?
Let’s go back to the ‘trust’ thing.
Learning a language is not a linear thing.
It doesn’t shoot up in a straight trajectory, there are small increases followed by seemingly long periods when things plateau, but like the unseen bulbs in the ground, things are actually happening, you just don’t realise it! Sometimes my students tell me I have given them a ‘easy’ reading passage or an easy listening test. It’s not true, they are all of similar level – actually what has happened is they have made a little breakthrough and suddenly things have started to make more sense and the scores go up.
Just like the small green shoots of the tulips in early spring, their language and skills have started to shift. Just like those green shoots this is exciting – it’s proof that the hard work is starting to pay off! Now the thing is to keep going and wait for the next little breakthrough.
Back in November we had no idea how it would all look but now it’s visible it was truly worth all the great work and the thing about the bulbs is that they keeping coming up in waves for 3 months so two days hard work was definitely worth it.
Remember last week I mentioned 3 key words for your IELTS practice?
Patience, Time, Practice
I now want to add one more – Trust 