Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Feb 9 Question #1: Age levels
We are all aware that there are many differences between children and adult learners. These differences range from cognitive development, to maturity level, to motivation for learning, and on and on and on. Choose any two different age levels and discuss the differences and similarities between them in terms of teaching and learning. Imagine that you wanted to teach the same concept to these two different ages - how would the lessons differ?
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I am currently teaching a group of 18 adult Hispanic women with ages varying from early 20s to perhaps 50s. I’ve been thinking about teaching a group of Hispanic girls – teenagers. I think the differences would be mostly in terms of content/materials used, but also with some changes in overall task/activity format.
ReplyDeleteThe lesson plan would contain a variety of activities organized around reading and writing goals, listening and speaking goals and special focus on some particular grammar topic. A general theme for the class might be Television. For both groups, there could be video clips/downloads of scenes from a few popular television shows. The television shows selected would be different, each appealing to the age group of the learners. These would form the basis for listening and speaking exercises. Additionally, there would be several opportunities for associated reading material, reading tasks and a grammar task. However, the reading materials would be different for the two groups – a selection from a TV guide article for the older group and a selection from a popular periodical (or even the lyrics to a popular song associated with the show or the star) for the teens.
For the adults, there would be individual and group exercises and I would let the adults have more choice in materials and in tasks. Because our classrooms are very small, I would limit the amount of “kinetic” activity. For the teens, I would try to keep them engaged less through choice and more through subject matter and task construct.
While the ages are different, my observation from some of the classes I’ve attended and taught is that the proficiency levels between the older group and the teen group might not be very different due to the increase of educational opportunities in recent years.
I’d like to compare children and adults.
ReplyDeleteChildren have shorter attention span and focus mainly on “here and now,” while adults have longer attention span and can deal with abstract concepts. Thus, a teacher should be more vivid and animated and avoid abstract explanation with children. Unlike adults, who have established general self confidence, children are still developing egos and therefore, more fragile. So, one of the roles of teachers includes helping children build self-esteem. On the other hand, you should not treat grown up students like kids because they are intelligent and matured, even though they are not yet good at expressing their thought.
For both children and adults, it is important not to make the class boring. Therefore, it is helpful to use various sensory inputs such as visual aid and music. Plus, we should keep one activity short and then move to another activity before students get bored. In addition, emotional factors should be considered in both cases.
Suppose I want to teach directions to children. I’ll first explain new vocabulary including left, right, front, and back. Then, I would post several pictures of cartoon characters around the classroom. Then let them describe where they are. For example, I may ask them, “Where is Elmo?” and they would point at it with their fingers and say, “It’s on the right side.” Another activity could be Total Physical Response, giving them instructions like “Turn right,” “Go straight,” and “Turn left.” Moving their body, they will find it interesting and pick up those expressions more easily.
In adults’ class, I would adopt different activities. After giving them hand-outs of local map with road and main buildings, I’ll ask one student, “How can I get to the post office from here?” then he or she would answer using directions. We can play with it like doing puzzles. One student picks a destination in his or her mind, and other classmates follow his or her instruction to get there and see if they get it right. This activity would be relevant to them because many of them probably live in this area which is appeared on the map.
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ReplyDeleteI taught high school students before I started TESOL CT program. They have a very specific goal of getting the highest score in Korean SAT, especially in English section. The English section has listening and reading comprehension part. The goal is very specific, even though they do not want to study hard in order to achieve their goal. In the class they are not motivated at all except a few enthusiastic top students. Even though they sometimes show their interest when I introduce some games or songs in an English classroom, the introduction of various activities or tasks does not instigate to get them to the real motivation.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand adult students who are in ELI conversation club are much more motivated than my high school students. They know exactly why they are here and have more concrete goal than my high school students, for example, to apply UTA or other universities MA or PhD program this fall semester. Some of them are in the intermediate level or even lower than that. However they are eager to participate in a discussion or to present their ideas in front of the entire class.
The lesson plan for these two different age groups does not have to be different when I think about the adjustment for teaching these two groups. For example, the concept of valentine’s day can be taught with the same reading or listening and speaking materials for these two groups. The aspect to be considered is the proficiency level in my opinion. A few top high school students are very good at English than some of the students who are in ELI. According to the proficiency level, I would like to adjust the reading materials from easy, intermediate, and high level ones in the same class. Additionally I noticed that female students are interested in exploring the concept of Valentine’s day and males are not. I think I should remember the fact that sometimes gender plays a role in attracting students’ interest when I teach in a classroom than age factor.
I have taught EFL to young children and ESL to adults ranging from 18-50 year old. The difference between the two groups is obvious and noticeable to any ESL/EFL teacher. While small children sometimes have less motivation to learn a second language, they have lower affective filter than adults. This causes chances to learn a new language to considerably improve. Furthermore, adults have lots of worries and responsibilities on their mind that causes their thoughts to wonder in a hundred directions causing their concentration to be lower.
ReplyDeleteFor children I would mainly concentrate on teaching language through games. Whereas for adults I would not concentrate on games as much and would offer material that is highly functional and that serves their motivation to learn the language.
Since I used to teach Pre-K ESL and my classroom was made up of 4 and 5 year olds, the ages I would like to compare are 4-6 year old children to adults. The book discusses five ways in which children and adults differ in their capacities to learn, which include: intellectual development, attention span, sensory input, affective factors, and authentic meaningful language. I would agree with the ways in which the book compares and contrasts these five items with the exception of attention span. I feel that even adults do not have an attention span longer than that of a child for things that are not intrinsically interesting to them; adults are just better at faking it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as how a lesson would differ in terms of adults and 4-6 year old children, I personally feel that a lesson ought to begin in the same manner for both groups and then as the hour progresses the adult class could change into more of an analytical class. But I feel that is important to give adults activities similar to those that you would give a child at the start of class to promote self-discovery of the language. Often children are given concrete explanations, hands-on or kinesthetic activities and lots of music is incorporated. I feel that this too could benefit adults because a concrete explanation simplifies things, the activity would get them moving around and discovering patterns to the language (given that the activity was well planned of course), and learning a song is always easier than rote learning. Allowing the class to sing and dance and explore with their hands and bodies can look and feel goofy, but if the teacher is doing this with them and they are told that it is an option to join or sit back and watch until they are ready to join, then it could make the class feel more comfortable to perform orally in front of everyone later because they have already seen each other at their goofiest; it might make it less embarrassing later on.
Of course the adults would probably need a more modern song, not a children’s song, although depending on the class they may actually like the children’s songs especially if they have children at home that they could then go teach the song to as a way of practicing. Also, for kids the whole hour would be consumed activities whereas with adults an activity may not take as long because patterns are easier for adults to notice than very young children. So the rest of the hour for an adult could be used to further explain abstract ideas and grammatical things that kids probably would not even ask about.
My only experience so far is in teaching ESL to a group of adults who range in age from their 20s to 50s at a community center. Lessons are free and take place twice weekly. We use books that the community center provides for free and we use the space at the community center.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'd like to imagine what for me would be the challenge of a younger set of learners, say young adolescents (13 to 15).
Cognitive development - Here, as we're no longer dealing with very young children, I think the similarities are greater among these two groups than the differences. Still, it strikes me that the similarities within a given group of youngsters (at a particular school) might be greater than the similarities within a group of adults that come from different backgrounds. It might be easier for me, with less experience, to (more accurately) assess - with the proper tools - the achievement and language capabilities of the youngsters than that of the adults, and to use this assessment in designing a syllabus that is geared to this group.
Maturity - Here's the big difference between the youngsters and the adults. I've encountered a quite mature attitude and respectfulness from the adults that I teach who spend part of their evenings at a voluntary class with what seems like self-improvement goals. The young teens would exhibit far less maturity and discipline issues would be a concern for me.
Motivation - I see motivation among adults as far less of an issue than it would be among young teens who are, as our text points out, very distracted by other social and psychological factors. In the area of motivation, then, I see the two groups as quite different. As a teacher, I think I would spend a lot more time and effort in motivating the teens.
For both groups, keeping lessons interesting and fun is key. Although adult egos may be less fragile, a respectful, nonconfrontational stance with both groups is very important.
Two of the levels that I would choose to teach would be children and adults. In my children class I would use games, books, images and props to grab their attention when it comes to teaching them vocabulary or the alphabet. Children can become easily distracted and teaching them can be challenging. Also when it comes to making the lesson plan you have to be creative. When it comes to a more mature class like adults, your lesson plan has to change completely because adults have already develop basic knowledge of how to study and react to different situation, which in a class of children you would have two teach them how to behave, learn and react to different situations. In my adult class I would set up my lesson plan with goals, improvement and how overcoming obstacles.
ReplyDeleteA similar concept that I would teach children and adults would be vocabulary. In my children’s class my lesson plan would be more creative and I would use simple worlds that kids already know but don’t understand the concept. Also, I would make images and games, which can capture their attention. In my lesson plan for adult I would make it more direct and challenging and focus more on the grammatical structured, than I would with children. One similarity between children and adults would be the challenge of learning a new language and understanding the concept if it.
William Mastropieri
ReplyDeleteA typical ten year old would like to have fun in his educational efforts S/he has to be motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. S/he has a fragil ego. This student would like to be taught by a person whom they trust. Their teacher should be caring, funny and
intersting. The teacher should look like a "friendly guy". Students would like to see their
rewards constant and frequent.
Naturally, adults possess a higher ability to see long range benefits. i would be more demanding of adults. I would expect more.
To a great degree, children would have to be entertained.
I will be comparing children and adults.
ReplyDeleteChildren will obtain a fluency and naturalness in their speaking abilities at a greater ease than an adult learner, but adults have been proven to be superior in retaining a larger vocabulary. They use various deductive and abstract processes that help them to learn the grammar and other linguistic concepts faster. Most children have not reached an intellectual stage to be able to grasp the way we use language to explain concepts.
A lesson plan for children would contain many different activities in order to keep them engaged in the lesson and at the same time having fun so that they want to learn more. As a teacher I would try have a good sense of humor and be enthusiastic about the subject matter. Also, many children are afraid of making mistakes and being made fun of by their classmates, so I would explain that mistakes are all part of the learning process and that even I, the teacher, made many mistakes trying to learn another language. This might leave the children to feel more willing to participate orally and I could then prepare activities such as role play.
In a lesson plan for adults I would focus more on rules and concepts. I would try different things such as dialogues based on everyday situations. We might read and discuss newspaper articles or write about what we thought of the article we just read.
I think there is a fascinating difference between students of different age differences.
ReplyDeleteYou have adult learners who are seeking out the opportunity to learn language and, therefore, will most likely be more motivated to learn and study. They are making the choice to learn and possibly paying for their class so they will be more driven. However, they may also have the greatest challenge to overcome in learning a second language due to their age. They are far past their critical period of language acquisition and may struggle to learn.
With adults, you have the advantage of being able to use lesson plans in which they are expected to take their learning into their own hands and learn somewhat independently because of their desire to learn.
I have assisted in several high school language classrooms and the teenagers tend to be the most apathetic language learners. Typically they are being forced to take the class for a requirement and have very little desire to learn the language.
To teach teens, you will have to have lessons that catch their attention and get them learning in a way that feels fun or interesting to them. I think they respond well to "mixed media" learning so it is helpful to incorporate pictures, movies, music etc.
Then there's children. While they may have zero conscious desire to learn the language, they have an inherent ability to pick up language as though from the air around them.
Children, depending on their age, may not be capable of doing writing or reading assignments, but will respond fantastically to oral lessons and songs.
I have taught ESL to students of ages 1st grade to college and older. There are definitely differences in the teaching and learning styles depending on the age of the students. For the younger students, it does seem like some of them “naturally” get it. It’s amazing how young children learn to read, for example, I do not have to explicitly teach them the rules about the syllable structure and all these different things that I have to explain to adults, but at the end they still know how to read in English. They may not remember the rule, but they know how to read. Adults most of the times have to know the rules: the rules how to read, how to build a sentence and so on. With children I used games, songs, simple dialogues, stories, comic books and pictures. In the adult classroom all the same things can be appropriately used, but more can be built on their L1 knowledge, metalinguistic awareness and cognitive ability.
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