- One of the most critical factors in determining students’ abilities is their age. Even when teaching the same material, there are major differences between teaching children and adults. Do we expect children to happily go along with whatever activity we have planned as long as they are having fun?
Personally, I feel that age is a generic factor. These days there are many learners who are much more accomplished than older learners at their age. The material for young learners is rich and diverse, which allows teachers to design original lessons with authentic activities that cater for the needs of all learning styles. Now, regarding adult learners things are different. We are not so spoilt for choice as there are good coursebooks but there is less variety. Even if educators choose to teach the same CB with teenagers (who officially count as YLS) and adults, they have to make some strategic choices to diversify the material and adjust it to the age of the Learners. This year I am using Close Up A1+ by Cengage Learning with an adult learner and it’s working like a charm. Then again, I do plan every lesson and I do think of the age of my student when choosing activities
- Are children good at motivating themselves?
We are all good at motivating ourselves, as long as we all remember that intrinsic motivation cannot exist in the absence of intrinsic motivation. We can all motivate ourselves up to a point, provided there is some external validation. Having said that, I believe we need to make an exception for children. They get wildly excited and then they lose all hope with the first problem they come up against. Therefore, educators need to do all they can to sustain this authentic excitement.
- Do motivation levels in adults vary depending on their mood and stress levels?
In general, motivation levels vary even in the most committed and passionate. This happens to all of us! We are dependent on what happens around us. We are more motivated when we feel in control of a situation, and we are in control when we feel positive and relaxed. This is the same for our learners. They need to sustain their motivation while working and managing their family, payments, and work. It can’t be easy!
- Children do not complain verbally if the lesson is boring. They either daydream or make noise or disrupt the lesson. Adults, however, are capable of complaining if they are not interested. How do you deal with these situations?
Adults vote with their feet. I think I wrote that in one of my ELT News Articles on Adult Education. They expect sound educational programmes, professionalism, and results. If the lesson seems too focused on one area (e.g., speaking or vocabulary), they will make a point of complaining. Still, they do come convinced regarding what makes a good course. For example, most adults are convinced that grammar should be the focal point of every course. As educators, we need to convince them to try learning in a more top-down way and to help them to understand that listening and reading are great ways to absorb language and acquire structures and lexis. Regarding complaining though, my opinion as a consultant and educator we are more likely to accomplish more and greater work by being proactive to avoid these complaints by ensuring that our work is methodologically sound and rigorous.
- You teach both children and adults. Is it easy to modify your teaching style to accommodate both age groups?
It is a matter of experience, mainly. Personally, I see learners and try to diagnose needs. I do not see their ages. Sometimes a brainy 12-year-old might be faster in picking up language or in using chunks of language recently acquired than a 40-year-old. When I get into a classroom, I want to diagnose needs and see the people I am working with. This enables me to understand their passions, their weaknesses, and their strengths. When I plan my classes, I try to visualise each of these learners and the way in which they will contribute. I read the readings, listen to the listening tasks, and try to focus on what will cause glitches. This allows me to design my pre-listening / pre-reading stage by deciding what I want to pre-teach or the scaffolding I’d like to provide. Now, the type of task, the type of pre-teaching and the type of scaffolding will depend on the age of the learners. Other than that, I stay a facilitator, guide, mentor and friend (if they want me) for both age groups.
- Is CLIL, STEAM etc. a method or a trend?
I don’t think we can put CLIL and STEAM in the same basket. CLIL or content language integrated learning is an approach to language learning which is far from being a fad. It is a solid methodological statement that sees language as a vivid entity that is taught best when attention is driven to its content and in this way, language becomes a vehicle for all of us to find out more about our planet or about social issues. I believe the influence of CLIL on learning and on teaching is still ahead of us. Regarding STEM, it is clear that our civilization is becoming more and more focused on science, less on humanities. This will also affect the way we teach and examine languages. For example, in my time Cambridge featured a separate literature exam entitled the ‘Optional Additional in Literature’ (an equivalent was available for translation). These days, no exam board uses any sort of literature even as an optional paper/exam material and Cambridge have resorted to asking for the book or the film. These show that our attention to science, engineering (robotics) and computers is going to grow. We cannot affect this but we cannot undermine its significance. We need to ensure that both CLIL and STEM are used to the benefit of learners and ensure that we set purely language teaching aims and learning outcomes to achieve through these when we employ them.
- How has Covid-19 changed you as a person and a teacher?
I don’t think it has changed me but it has instilled fear in me regarding when and how this pandemic will end. I have become a more competent online educator and I truly believe that online education has a lot to deliver as long as the learners are mature enough to work independently and self-organise up to a point. That’s why it works better with adults.
- What is the main point you’d like readers to go away with?
No matter who we are or how much we know, there is still a lot more to learn and still a lot more to discover. This is why it is best not to make blind judgements about how other people are teaching. What we can do is see each school year as our first and best to keep our enthusiasm fresh.
