Teach English in LianfuZhen - Jinzhong Shi

When teaching students English in a class room, the most important thing to do is to assess the language level of each student. Students may vary in ages, but if they have the same level of English, there will be a lot of exercises that you can do as a group, regardless of their ages. Usually issues arise with differences in age due to people’s cultural experience of what ‘proper’ or ‘appropriate’ behaviour in a class room is. For example, if you had a class containing 10 students ages between 10 - 40, some of the older students may feel like the children should be quiet, or sit still or not talk. However, that can be due to the older students experience of formal education, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the younger students capacity to learn English. If I was faced with this situation I would do the following; Firstly, identify the students level of English and desire to learn English. I would do this by asking simple questions in the first class to see if they can answer in English, and what their level of understanding is. I would also provide some written questions both with multiple choice and long answer options so that I can identify if they need more practise in speaking, listening, reading or writing. I would then find out what the interests and hobbies are of the students as a whole, and see where the similarities arise. When planning future classes, I would try to incorporate exercises, games and activities that include some of the students interested as well as work to a language level plan appropriate for that group. I thinks as a teacher in this situation, you would need to be very prepared with many activities and games, because some students may be quicker at the tasks than others. As with all language classes, if there continued to be a big divide in the learning capabilities of the students, I would suggest trying to split into two smaller classes or pairing the weaker and stronger students together. I think the advantage of working with younger students in a classroom is that they usually know how to play and enjoy playing. If you introduce language concepts via a game, or via an activity that involves play, then the older students will remember what it’s like to be a child and also learn to play. There is research to suggest that we retain information better if the experience of learning is linked to emotions, and obviously if you have a positive emotional experience such as fun or happiness, then this will increase your chances of retaining the information (Cassady & Eissa, 2008). For this reason play is important in the classroom. I also think that younger learners can learn from the older learners by learning how to maintain focus on one task for longer. Often when people work with children they think everything has to be short, small blocks of time (10-15 minutes), however, other evidence (Quas; Fivush, 2009) shows children can learn how to focus on tasks for longer periods of time as their brain experiences ‘cognitive disequilibrium’ and that this is an important state of mind to retain information and develop memory skills. Teaching a variety of ages in a classroom can be an exciting opportunity for you as a teacher as well, as you need to adjust your methods of explanation and games to the cognitive level of your students. My experience of teaching a variety of ages has been in teaching theatre and circus, I find that the best advice is to not assume someone can or cannot do or learn something until they actually have the task in front of them. I feel with teaching English this will be specifically true when using newer technological teaching aids, don’t assume older people can’t use interactive programs on a computer, and don’t assume younger learners can’t use a pen and paper! In conclusion, look forward to teaching groups with mixed ages, and I think that in a smaller community setting, a mixed-age English class can also be a great source of community connectedness and this is often a byproduct of and activity such as a an English class when you are teaching to foreigners in a predominantly English speaking country. Cassady, J.C., & Eissa, M.A. (2008) Emotional intelligence: Perspectives from educations and positive psychology. New York: P.Lang. Quas, J.A., : Fivush, R. (2009). Emotion and memory in development; Biological, Cognitive and social considerations. Oxford. Oxford University Press.