ATLAS Practice Method

What is Practice?

Practice (練習) is defined as the Absorption, Mastery and Maintenance of newly acquired skills.

Absorption (吸收) is a process. Absorption means learning how to use English and applying those new language skills. Absorption is the art of practicing; it is how to learn. (Memorization)

Mastery (掌握) is a result. Mastery means absorbing a new skill so well you have the ability to use it whenever you need it. Some skills can be mastered in an hour; other skills take years to master. If someone were to stop you on the street while you are on your way to at 7am and asked you a question in English and you could, you probably have it mastered. If you need to read, speak, write or listen to something two or three times before you can do it correctly, you haven’t mastered it yet. Mastery means being able to execute the skill at will. And this takes consistent practice or maintenance.(Implementation-ready)

Maintenance (保持) means to review those skills you have mastered. Many newly learned skills need to be used consistently if you want them when you need them. It’s very easy to forget these skills if you don’t use them. (Long-term Memorization)(Consistent Implementation)

Click here to read more about Memorization

Good practice should reinforce the skills that are learned by the student, both in and out of the classroom. Classroom reinforcement is quite easy to achieve because properly trained teachers can manage the group dynamics so that there is a good amount of motivation and reinforcement. For example: assessments, homework, and attendance records.

But real-life motivation and reinforcement is often more difficult. The student is often by themselves without any support or encouragement; thus making it hard to maintain consistent progress of one’s goals. So how does one do this? Effective and realistic scheduling.