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Teaching classes with a wide variety of ages has its advantages and disadvantages to both the students and the teacher. It is a situation which is not commonly found in traditional schools except to some degree in higher education. A mix of ages, however, is more likely to exist in a TEFL setting. The first advantage to teaching in a mixed age class would be, in my opinion, the fact that it is a more naturally occurring environment. For instance, in a normal everyday public place, you would find a mix of ages among most groups of people. Segregating people is an artificial creation which changes the dynamic of interaction between the people in the group. In years past, there were one-room schoolhouses in which older students were educated along with the younger.Older students helped the younger to learn, not only school work, but correct behavior. It was a form of socialization which benefited all. Next, I believe a mixed age classroom would be more interesting for the teacher as well as the students. Teachers can at times tire of one particular age group after a few months or years. Students would benefit from the perspectives of those older or younger.It would be a chance to mingle with those they might not otherwise spend time with. A teacher could pair older students with younger students for activities such as talking about themselves, or explaining something that the other would not know about, such as what an "old school" telephone was like or a younger student explaining Instagram.Also, like a one-room schoolhouse, the older could assist the younger. In spite of these advantages, there are some drawbacks to teaching a class with a wide variety of ages. First of all, it means the teacher's lesson plans will be more challenging.Though the students may be at the same level linguistically, they have had varying age related life experiences. A TEFL instructor must create interesting and relatable lesson plans. Finding materials in which all students can relate to may be difficult. For instance, a lesson plan on Elvis Presley would be relevant to people over the age of fifty but not to the younger students, and likewise, a lesson on Rap music may be boring to the older students. The methods a teacher chooses may not be to everyone's taste based on age. Another possible disadvantage might be, that today's schools rely heavily on group work.In many schools, the students do not sit in rows of desks but at tables. They are used to doing most of their school work as part of a group. Many older students perhaps would prefer the method of learning they were raised on, which relied mainly on individual learning. Furthermore,there could be those students who do not see the advantages, such as the ones mentioned, and would prefer to learn in a group of their peers. In conclusion, I feel it is a matter of choice on the part of the instructor to decide the environment in which they prefer to teach, as it is the choice of the student which environment they feel they can best learn a new language.
