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English is known to be a universal language.Nowadays, schools place more emphasis on not only reading and writing but oral communication. As an English teacher our role is to encourage students learning English as L2 to communicate in English to improve their oral skills. This can be both an exciting and rewarding experience for us and the students. We will find that our students are very bright, keen, and inquisitive.As a teacher ,the importance of teaching quality should be highly appreciated . Introduction All classes are mixed ability to one extent or another. Extreme cases, when you have near native level speakers with beginners, can be very challenging for the teacher. In these cases it’s important to remember that all students will get something out of the class, but not necessarily the same things, and not necessarily what you aim to teach them! For example, the beginners may begin to get a grasp of your classroom language whilst the stronger students may begin to be able to put a new tense into use. Adapting materials for mixed ability classes can take different forms. One way to adapt materials is to rewrite reading texts and grade the language accordingly for different levels. In an ideal world where a teacher has all the time in the world to prepare their classes this may be the perfect solution. However, the reality is that this sort of adaptation is extremely time consuming and not many teachers can actually go to this length to adapt materials for mixed level groups. Another problem that can arise with this sort of adaptation is that it can be awkward to give out different texts to different students. There’s a danger that they will instantly realize that they have been labelled as a weak or strong student and, in the case of the weaker students, this will no doubt effect their motivation. I would like to offer some ideas of how you can support your weaker students and offer extension activities for your stronger students whilst using the same materials as the starting point for the class. This way the preparation time involved for the teacher isn’t drastically higher, and the group can still work together for most of the class. I have tried these ideas and they worked perfectly depending on the class structure . Support for weaker students First Reading Pre-teach difficult vocabulary and leave it written on the board for students to refer to. Use visuals if possible. If there are gaps, give students the answers in a jumbled order, with a few extras. Draw attention to the title, pictures etc and set the scene beforehand so their mind is on track for the topic.Break the text into chunks and give the option of only reading some of the text. Second listening Pre-teach vocabulary, use visual prompts when appropriate. Give students time to discuss answers before feeding back to the class.Give students the tape script on second listening. If it’s a gap fill, supply the words with a few extras. Third writing -Correct the draft together before students copy up in neat. - Give students time to rehearse and gather their ideas before a role play or discussion. - Pair weak and strong together. Let students make notes before the speaking activity begins. Allow for ‘thinking time’. Grade students on the effort they make rather than their ability. With a whole class mingle like a class survey or a ‘find somebody who...’ practice the questions as a group beforehand. Give weaker students more listening and thinking time before calling on them to answer questions. Forth speaking Give students time to rehearse and gather their ideas before a role play or discussion.Pair weak and strong together.Let students make notes before the speaking activity begins. Allow for ‘thinking time’. Grade students on the effort they make rather than their ability. With a whole class mingle like a class survey or a ‘find somebody who...’ practice the questions as a group beforehand.Give weaker students more listening and thinking time before calling on them to answer questions. Extension activities for stronger students First reading Ask early finishers to write new vocab up on the board with definitions. Rewrite a part of the text in a different tense / person.Write their personal opinion / a short summary of the text. Write questions about the text. Second Listening Give out the tape script and nominate a ‘vocabulary master’ to look up tricky words or expressions in a dictionary to then explain to the group. Focus on the accents or intonation of the speakers and get students to copy chunks.If it’s a true/false activity, follow on by asking ‘why/why not?)Give creative tasks that students can do at their own level. Third writing Give creative tasks that students can do at their own level.Indicate mistakes using correction code to give students a chance to self-correct. (Sp = spelling, Gr = grammar etc.) Increase the word limit.Indicate where they could use more interesting ways of saying something. Forth speaking Ask students to justify / defend their opinions. Ban easy words like ‘nice’ to push their vocabulary to a higher level. Get students to record themselves and self-correct.Pair students of higher level together so they really go for it.
