"Your homework this week is to do last week's homework."

I sit on the fence when it comes to homework. hash 

For school teachers, setting their pupils homework (and marking it) can be an opportunity to see whether or not their students have understood the topics they have been covering in the classroom. With language subjects in particular, homework takes on a vital role as it provides another ‘repeat cycle’ that is essential to retaining and being able to recover knowledge. I don’t set my school-aged learners homework. In my mind, they already have enough, and spending an hour with me per week is a form of homework in itself.

It’s a different story for my adult students, however. I encourage them to practise French regularly, with weekly homework derived from many different resources: online exercises, past exam papers, apps, exercise books, watching French films on Netflix, downloading French music, reading French newspapers and magazines, podcasts for language learners, even talking to yourself.

I have noticed, however, that some less favourable homework habits still linger from their school-days, namely that of not doing your homework! You would be surprised at the excuses I have heard (and giggled at) from adult learners over the years:
“I didn’t do my homework because it snowed and I had to take my children sledging”
“I didn’t do my homework because I couldn’t find the email”
“I didn’t do my homework because I didn’t want to”. 

A lot of the time, their week had simply been too full with work and family commitments. Life happens. I get it, and I make allowances.

No one has tried the dog-ate-my-homework excuse, though.

Yet.