More about effort in learning English

"Mistakes are easy; mistakes are inevitable. But there is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on." This was written in 1876 by Jex Blake, and I assure you it hasn't lost its value in our time. In Spain, my country, experts say that children today have more than ever before, but lack in receiving affecion and also lack in discipline and effort: everything is at hand just in a blinking of the eyes. Notwithstanding, as I proposed in previous posts, effort is crucial. That is, the firm resolution to do it, to learn English. That person, with that quality, wins the battle always, and the war as well. What is worth to gain, it implies effort. Best students enroll themselves in a program of a school or an academy, precisely to be exacted by a teacher. In my doctorate research I also used other terms that round up the concept of effort---think of them, because they constitute a nice program of education for the learner: willingness, energy, self-control, desires to communicate in the target language, self-involvement, initiative, responsibility, self-planning (Oxford 1990), studying, creativity, constancy, to intervene and participate in the class, autonomy, capability of intuition (Stevick 1989), discerning, perseverance, the more you dedicate to this process the better. Put in other words, Thomas A. Edison said:

"The three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are; first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and third, commonsense."

OXFORD, Rebecca (1990) Language Learning Strategies. What Every Teacher Should Know. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

STEVICK, Earl W. (1989) Success with Foreign Languages. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International.