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Topic: Classes of mixed ability Question: How to deal with classes of mixed English ability? It is inevitable. No matter how many placement tests or age requirements, there will always be a mixed level of english ability in any and every classroom. You can take the most careful care and planning, evenly distribute all the teaching materials and skills, such as writing, reading, listing and speaking, but there will still be certain students that are better than others in certain aspects. Is this a bad thing? No, not necessarily. So what can we as teachers do about this? The general principals and rules still apply. If you’re teaching in certain countries, sensitive and private information or topics should be avoided. The teacher still needs to emphasize patience and give clear, concise instructions, perhaps even demonstrating for the class. If the teacher sees certain students struggling much more than others, he or she can stay after the class and talk with that student about what is going on. And if there is a student excelling, and the class is moving too slowly for him or her, it may also be someone you need to talk to. Either giving them some additional work to further their English skills or even being placed in a different class if available. Teachers must be attentive and monitor their classes without making students feel uncomfortable to see what needs to be worked on more or worked on less. If you have one student always answering questions, you the teacher could instead call on one of the other students who isn’t quite as quick to speak up, in a gentle and loving manner, as to not spook or stress the less skilled student. We must remember it’s not the students fault to be in a class of varying English abilities and it is on the teacher to make the classroom a happy and relaxing place of learning. This is especially true when you are considering that English is not the only subject and engagement these students will be dealing with. They will have other subjects and activities that take up their time, so if one student falls behind and the teacher doesn’t notice, that student may become disinterested in the class. There are many ways in which teachers can handle classes with varying degrees of skill level. One of them is pair work. After getting to know your students, you have the ability to match up a more skilled student with a lesser skilled one. In this they can help each other and ideally form a friendship and make learning English more enjoyable and fun! There will never be a classroom with every single student at the same level, and that is perfectly normal. We as teachers however have to be extremely cognizant of any major differences in skill level. We cannot default to only letting the more knowledgeable students to answer all our questions and leave the others behind thinking that this makes the class run more smoothly or quickly. The “uhms” and “ahhs” are typical in any language learning course let alone any classroom. Exercise patience with the less skilled students. So, how do we combat varying degrees of skill level? Simply, teachers must be mindful and aware of his or her students. The teacher has to be patient and care for their students. It is easy to let the class run as it may and let certain students fall behind, but a professional and caring teacher will notice the different levels and be able to act accordingly. The right balance is different for every class. But an attentive and caring teacher is mandatory for every class, and with that it can combat classes with different skill levels.
