If you were asked to list the most important things to remember when teaching adults, what would they be? Why?
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If I had to create a list of things to remember when teaching adults, they would be the following:
ReplyDelete1. Do not talk down to them, but be enthusiastic.
2. Choose activities that will be on an appropriate level from then AND relevant to their lives.
3. Allow them to choose/direct some of the class activities, so that they will invest in them.
4. Encourage them and be accessible.
5. And of course, know your students!
This list is based on the information from our text and discussion in class, and also my personal experiences with what environment helps me learn in my L2. When I first enter a classroom, my affective filter is very sensitive. If I come in to a classroom and feel like the teacher expects me to fail or already thinks that I do not really want to learn, then my filter goes up and learning goes down. However, if I come into a classroom to see a teacher who is enthusiastic about their subject and about sharing that subject with his/her students, I am encouraged to do my very best and enjoy it (this has been true for me even in classes when the subject material was of very little interest to me personally).
The number one thing that I have had to keep in mind while working with adults is that their amount of English knowledge does not account for their overall intelligence. I know that seems like a given, especially in a class of teachers who have taught to all kinds of people. But, that is something that I try to keep in mind. I haven’t formally taught a class, but I’ve worked with ELI students. In particular, I had two conversation partners who were lawyers. I was intimidated by that fact at first. How could I help lawyers? I realized quickly that their short answers were purely a reflection of their knowledge of English. I suppose that before them, I would backpedal into “foreigner’s talk;” I would almost speak to an adult as if they were a child. But after my conversation partners, I realized that that was wrong and I continuously try to work on that. We are going to be working with all kinds of people from all kinds of academic backgrounds. We must speak appropriately to each individual we encounter.
ReplyDeleteI would say:
ReplyDelete1. Focus on their purpose for learning
2. Be sure not to disrespect their intelligence or be condescending
3. Use age-appropriate dialogues, activities
4. Don't be afraid of teaching grammar explicitly for those students who understand their own L1's grammar
I think as I've learned language as an adult, I got frustrated when teachers would "treat me like a child". I wanted to them to "lay down the law" on certain grammatical aspects but some of them would rather have us hopping like 5 year olds to show the verb "to jump."
I think it's also very important for a teacher of adult learners to know each students' purpose for language learning. Is it for business? For a vacation? To learn the L1 of their spouse? It really changes the content of the subject matter and vocabulary that student will want to focus on learning.
1. Know your students!
ReplyDelete2. Give them the opportunity to be a 'partner' with you in their learning and choose what things they would like to focus on both in the classroom and at home. Their reason for learning the language may be very different from what you might think that it is.
3. Challenge them. While it is important to use activities that are meaningful for them in using the L2 outside the classroom, they are able to learn grammar rules and the like as well and some adult students may be interested in doing so.
4. Never condescend. Most of my students are more proficient in English than I am in Spanish, and I am very humble about my abilities compared to theirs. They show up at a language class every morning four days a week taught by a different volunteer each day (some good teachers, some bad teachers and not much consistency) and yet they persevere to learn English and that has my total respect.
5. Elizabeth and Caitlin both commented on age appropriate activities and I agree. I will say though that everyone likes to have fun and every now and then a 'silly' activity that has everyone laughing can go a long way.
Finally, I think that if you respect your students and gain their trust, you can have a much more positive effect on their language learning. Everyone likes to be treated as an equal, not be talked down to or made to feel inadequate in any way.
My list would be something like this:
ReplyDelete1. Do not treat adults like children, i.e, do not try to talk down to them or extra extra slow, etc.. because just thinking about it (if I were a student and a teacher did that to me), it would definitely make me angry and discouraged, so I think we should really be considerate, and try to think of it from their perspective. They are as capable as the teacher, but just because they don’t speak a language well doesn’t mean they should be treated like a child. Also, respect sort of flows into this- a good relationship must be between the teacher and students, or else the classroom environment might deter and then no learning would be done at all (or teaching).
2. Even though adults have a longer attention span, it would be best not to abuse this aspect. It could be an advantage, but there’s always a limit to things, so don’t bore the students with too much at once. Think of the long term- cramming too much at once does more harm than good, they probably would not be able to absorb everything if it’s too much. Moreover, don’t focus too much on the abstract, and don’t teach the language as discrete segments (try to link everything together- don’t teach something and then turn 180 degrees on a completely different topic).
3. Get to know your students (this doesn’t only apply to adults). A classroom has a teacher and students. This is most crucial in teaching a language, because for a student, learning another language needs a lot of motivation and effort, and the more you know your students, the more you can focus on their needs, and motivate them. You can pay attention to what they have trouble with, maybe give them challenges according to their level, etc, and just be able to adjust your teaching so that they can get the best out of classes. You want to make sure they have advanced (the overall goal- this is where they started, look where they are at at the end of the semester/year). Adults like to see long term results, they want to see their progress, so that they can know that what they’re doing has a reason (i.e, not just wasting their time).
There would probably be a lot more, but I’ve never taught adults, and so these are the ones that seem to be important from my view (for now).
The book discusses the differences between young learners and adults. Adults, unlike children, possess cognitive abilities that allow them to handle more abstract rules and concepts, also affording them longer attention spans. HOWEVER, I think it’s important when teaching adults not to entirely leave out the stimulating techniques used in teaching young learners such as appealing to multiple senses, relevancy to the here and now, and engaging, hands-on activities. I think too many college courses make it all too easy to sit back and fall asleep –literally! Reflecting on some of my college-level L2 courses, the few times when there was use of sensory aids, interactive games, and even physical activity in the classroom, how it livened things up! It woke us up. It made me wish we had more of that in all my courses. Sure, we’re adults, not children. But that doesn’t mean we don’t like learning to be fun!
ReplyDeleteI think the most important things to teach adults are:
ReplyDelete1) Show respect to them and teach them as your own friends. Adults have higher emotional level and they can understand your respect and patience.
2) Try to make full use of their superior cognitive abilities such as imagination and abstract understanding, but still need to consider their different proficiency.
3) Strengthen their self-confidence and autonomy to study in- and out-side classroom. They need to be highly motivated to have interests to learn.
4) Be respectful for their opinions and suggestions and argue with the reasonable and plausible way. They can learn faster if they know what is what.
5) Not always stick to the textbook and should provide more relative extra knowledge to help them learn better. They need to absorb more information and connect and analyze them by themselves.
All in all, we should not teach adults as little children.
I think avoiding treating them as children and taking advantage of their mature and well developed abstract thinking would be the main things to keep on mind when teaching adults. First of all, the way teachers deal with their students could be a deal breaker in some situations. Adults who are seeking learning a new language for specific reason such as work or study would not accept to be treated as a child just because of his or her low proficiency level. This would really offend them in a way that could take away their desire to learn the language itself. Second, adults’ maturity could save teachers’ valuable time that they would spend turning every rule into a colorful activity. Teachers of adults have more freedom to arrange their classes according to linguistic elements, and they would always be able to explain the rules explicitly if implicit activities did not work pretty well.
ReplyDeleteMost important things to remember when teaching ADULTS:
ReplyDelete1. Adults are intelligent grown-ups with mature cognition and fully developed emotions, but at times cannot express complex thinking in the new language. Just because they cannot explicitly express their thoughts clearly, don't assume they don't understand or don't know the answer to a question. Often times, they are aware of what is going on around them in the classroom but simply lack the skills to clearly demonstrate that. Show them respect by giving them enough time to organize their thoughts, being patient, and guiding them when necessary.
2. Adults are not children and should not be treated as such. As an adult, a level one english class should NOT be the equivalent to a level one english class for children. Use appropriate materials, topics, and activities. Do not talk down to them or use "caretaker" talk. Show enthusiasm in a genuine way, not an overly dramatic way as is often used with young children. Showing an actual interest in students is a great way to show enthusiasm without it seeming fake and over-the-top.
3. Adults are mature and like to be challenged. With children, you need to be more strategic when teaching a class. You almost have to sneak in what you're trying to teach them by disguising it as a game or a fun activity. Adults are not this way. In my experience, adults actually like to learn and like to challenge themselves. You do not need to waste time with pointless activities to keep their attention. Finding the balance of a lesson that's not too easy and not too hard is key. You want it to be hard enough to where the adult learners feel a sense of accomplishment when finished, but not too hard that they get overwhelmed and give up.
4. Adults will make a personal investment in their own learning process. Give them every opportunity you can, both inside and outside the classroom, to improve their language skills. In a sense, this gives an adult student control over his/her education. By giving them extra opportunities to practice and improve their english, they are able to make choices for themselves instead of simply relying on everything the teacher says and does.
When teachers teach adult students, they should consider these things:
ReplyDelete1. Teachers should respect adult learners’ individuality. Even though teachers have more knowledge in the target subjects than adult learners, it does not mean that teachers are superior people than adult learners. Teachers should treat adult learners as equals.
2. Teachers should prepare class activities that are appropriate to adult learners’ concerns. They do not need too many visual-focused materials like young childhood learners. Adult learners have sufficient ability to receive target knowledge explicitly without motivational activities.
3. Adults have strength in their cognitive ability than children. Of course, adult second or foreign language learners are more difficult to be fluent speakers in target language than young children. However, because their cognitive ability is better than young learners, they can surpass children in classroom environment. Therefore, teachers should make the utmost use of this ability.
4. Adult learners have more anxiety about their errors than children. Children do not much care about their errors in front of classmates, so the class is more active and noisy. On the contrary, because of anxiety of errors, adult learners do not utter their opinion easily. Therefore, teachers should make comfortable environment to bring out adult learners spontaneous participation.
1. As everyone before has said, respect is huge. You have to treat them as adults, not children. I've been teaching adults for more than a year now, and in all that time, I've only had one or two students younger than me. At first I thought it would be weird, but it hasn't been a problem, I think, because my students know I care for them and am personally invested in their success.
ReplyDelete2. Repetition, repetition, repetition! I heard someone say years ago that what is boring for you is helpful for them. Most adults need longer to pick up concepts (even with their superior cognitive skills). Some of them will learn quickly ... but many of them will be horribly, painfully slow, especially if you do any work with refugees. Be patient and celebrate the little successes! Review is crucial for adults, and it helps to find ways to weave old concepts into new lessons so that they're not forgotten.
3. I agree with Holly - treating adults like adults doesn't mean never playing games or having fun. My adult students get REALLY into games, especially the refugees. We've been studying money and shopping this month, and today we played a team game where they had to race to the "store" to buy a product, asking how much it was and paying with exact change. The first team back with the product I asked them to buy got the point. They were RUNNING! And they are not young! It still goes back to knowing your students, though. If they're really career-driven, probably they'll want to study more formally. Almost none of my students have been to school, and they totally glaze over when you try to get them to do handouts. They learn by doing.
4. They need to know your class is worth their while. Find out why they're there and help them to reach their goals. Sometimes they'll need reminding of what they're working for, and they need to know that there's a method to your madness.
5. As mentioned above, egos are fragile. They need constant encouragement and affirmation. Don't expect everyone to go at the same pace and have reasonable expectations for different individuals. Especially for low-level students, if they're given something too difficult, they'll shut down. The difference between adults and kids is that even if you hurt the kid's feelings, he'll be back because he doesn't have a choice in the matter. Adults can choose for themselves if they want to come. If they feel overwhelmed or very far behind compared to the rest of the class, they will exercise that right.
-Debby Adams
Everyone has such good comments; it is hard to add something different. My top three things to remember when teaching adults are as follows:
ReplyDelete1. Ask your students about their goals and tailor the class to meet their needs. Some students are seeking employment. Others may want to help children with homework and attend (and understand) parent-teacher conferences. Some want to understand more of the conversations around them at work. The more you know about your students and what they want to do with language, the more relevant you can make the material.
2. Project your passion and enthusiasm for teaching English. Humor makes the class more enjoyable. Have fun! Be positive when giving feedback to students about their progress in the language. In class, if you observe carefully, you can see when students get discouraged. Reminding students that learning a language is a long road and talking about how far they have come helps maintain their motivation.
3. Show respect for your students. Let them know you care about them. They are adults, so classroom practices should reflect the mature audience. Listen carefully and provide gentle corrective feedback. Manage the classroom environment to ensure other students don’t get too enthusiastic with negative feedback. A positive, respectful environment encourages risk-taking and enhances learning.
Lynn Vara
Stefani Goode
ReplyDelete1.) Be enthusiastic. In doing my volunteer teaching I have noticed that motivation is a fleeting thing. If I, as the teacher am excited to be there the students seem to be excited. It's infectious!
2.) Be respectful of your students. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is an old adage and I truly believe it. I respect my students as people and that goes hand in had with culture and just being a good person. I also find that when I show them that I respect them they respect me. In a way we are then able to be tolerant of each other as well as interested in each other. And with that you can have a cultural exchange.
3.) Know your students. I am learning that knowing who they are and what they are capable of is important. Not only can you tailor the lessons and activities that will be most effective for them, you also know what they can do as a student.
4.) Provide age appropriate activities and assignments that are relevant to the class. Along with knowing your students and respecting your students you know that giving an adult a grade-school activity may hurt their feelings. There are ways to make activities that are appropriate for adults even at the beginning levels!
5.) Don't be afraid to challenge your students. While teaching beginners, I have noticed that my class is far ahead in the material that they should be studying. So I make them create sentences, something that isn't even a topic/lesson in the text yet. I have them use all the vocabulary and make them create sentences. They tell me what to write and surprisingly they are up for the challenge and well as creative! I don't want to limit them to just what the text covers!
1) The book talks about how adults have acquired a self-confidence that is not typical of children, I disagree in that while adults may be less likely to feel embarrassed doing certain activities, they also come with a lot more baggage that can really hinder their language learning efforts. If an adults language ego has been bruised, it will take more coaxing to help them gain confidence.
ReplyDelete2) Under the umbrella of fostering confidence in your students, it is very important to keep in mind that they are not children, and their limited output in English is in no way indicative of their general intelligence. Treat all students as you would any other adult.
3) Take advantage of adult learners' advanced reasoning skills, preexisting generalizations about language, and attention spans. Blending activities that imitate real world situations pertinent to the learners' lives with more abstract concepts. Once you have gotten to know your students and uncovered their motivation, give them more autonomy over which direction the lessons go.
4) The instructor's energy will make or break any classroom experience, be it for adults or children. It seems to me that oftentimes instructors feel adults just want the facts, cut and dry, and make no time for engaging activities; or they talk in a way that makes students feel like falling asleep. Just because adults have longer attention spans and know why they are in class does not mean it has to be boring. If the instructor is energetic, they give off an optimism about learning that makes students want to keep trying.
My classmates have all made great points above, and I would second a lot of what was said. For myself, I think the priorities are as follows:
ReplyDelete1. As many people have mentioned, treating adults as if they are children in ESL classroom settings is just a death-knell to their personal engagement. I think it's vital to realize that these are people with high-level reasoning and abstract-thinking skills and to try to find innovative ways to engage those aspects in study.
2. I believe it's also extremely important to have respect for the culture that accompanies the L1. Knowing the cultural backgrounds of our students can help us better relate our own culture to them in a classroom context, help us to know when certain aspects of learning might be especially uncomfortable for them, and also facilitate the creation of healthy student to student and student to teacher relationships.
3. Teachers of adult learners should be quick to express enthusiasm and encouragement for even the smallest victories in language learning. Since adults learn on a slower curve than children, it's easy for them to become discouraged and to feel that they'll 'never get it'. As teachers we have got to remember to rejoice with them when they finally grasp a concept or when they're brave enough to attempt a new structure or vocabulary choice. Obviously, this can be taken to a ridiculous extreme, but I still feel that it's a very important aspect of adult language instruction (having been an adult language learner myself!).
4. The more real-life or communicative production that can be encouraged and used in the classroom, the better. Since every adult learning English comes to class with a goal in mind, as teachers we must recognize that those goals exist and work with the student to facilitate achievement. Making English practical and applicable to daily life will advance these goals more quickly for our students than would drilling them in vocabulary or verb endings or rote exchanges.
1. Respect your students as mature adults. Respect is the foundation of a profitable teaching relationship. We should treat our students in a way that if asked, "What does your teacher think of you?" they will say, "my teacher believes in me. He believes i can learn English and have great potential."
ReplyDelete2. Be interested in forming a relationship with your students. They have already experienced much in life, things we never will. The more we can get to know them and show an interest in their lives, the more they will be willing to share their lives and communicate their experiences with us. This will help them want to learn from you and use their English.
3. Be committed to helping them learn English to accomplish their goals. The first step in this process is knowing what their goals are. Start your ESL class by asking them why they want to learn English and what they want to learn to do in English. Push them to give you specific tasks and relationships that English will enhance. Then structure your class (or if the curriculum is set, tweak your class) so that it will be extremely practical and relevant for them. Commitment to helping them learn English will show in the way you run your classroom. While hopefully there is laughter and students are having fun, they are aware that the reason we are here is to learn English and drawing a cue for the their teacher, they are fiercely committed to this goal.
Currently I am teaching a class that has some aspects of a foreign language situation in that all the students are from a Spanish-speaking background. I think it is appropriate to ensure that students have a good understanding of basic English words and allow them to look them up word meaning in a Spanish-English dictionary and discuss the words among themselves. In fact I often provide a list of words we are studying for them to look up the meanings in the classroom. However if I see that they are too dependent upon their dictionaries, I encourage them to try and learn the meaning from the class discussion.
ReplyDelete“Negotiations” in their first language occur when
1) A student has a question and they choose to ask a fellow student in their first language rather than the teacher because they can better phrase the question.
2) One student is dependent upon another, more advanced student and they discuss the lesson.
3) A student gains insight into a lesson and wants to share their insight with a fellow student.
I know enough Spanish that I can usually confirm or correct the student’s discussion, and I always do so in English. I think the above are fine on a limited basis. What is not good is when the conversation spreads to others in the native language and the teacher loses control.