Teach English in Liuyu Zhen - Linyi Shi

During all teaching careers there can be no doubt that at some stage teachers will need to deal with classes of mixed ability. This is an understandable sacrifice on the part of the schools, often related to a lack of children at the same level, the demands of the parents who wish to have a set of classmates take a class together even though some have had prior English study or due to any number of other reasons. This undoubtedly poses a challenge to a teacher at any level and often more so when teaching children. With these two points in mind this essay attempts to answer the question – how does a teacher best deal with this issue. While there maybe a number of reasons for this situation, however we here will only deal with that which has a direct bearing on the technique’s and methods that can be brought to bear to help teachers deal with this issue in a productive and effective way. This is often of great concern because unlike adult learners’ children are largely dependent on their parents to organise them to review, do homework and other similar important tasks which make a lot of difference to learners. This means they may continue to drop behind their classmates overtime as they and the teacher have less influence on their progress than their parents. This is particularly noticeable when time within the class is limited. Having classes multiple times, a week for hours can even out the differences between students with regard to their home life. Few ESL classes have such a schedule however. This can mean that some children while very hard working and focused in class can fall behind or fail to catch up due to the home environment. The first thing one can do in this situation is talk to the parents, an often-unacknowledged truth is that, dealing with parents in an open supportive and mentoring way is a key skill for teachers of children particularly young children. Nonetheless teachers in truth are unable to truly influence the situation of students outside of the classroom thus for the remainder we will be looking at in class solutions to this issue. The first step (after assessing the students and finding that they are a group with mixed abilities) is to accurately assess their skills and make sure that the seating arrangement is beneficial for the students with none of the lower level students sitting together where they might feel discouraged and left out. Also having them sit nest to eager and helpful classmates can give them a positive example every class all class which in itself can work wonders. Added to this is the benefit for having the lower students paired quickly and easily with higher level students who can help them when the class is involved in pair work. When teaching children, it becomes clear that children who are learning successfully are often quite outgoing with the lower level students the opposite. That being the case a good technique is simply to maximizes the time the lower level students are using and practicing English. This can be done effectively through pair work with the afore mentioned higher level partner. As always with children TTT needs to be kept to a minimum. A high level of activity in class will keep the kids focused and if the activity changes regularly while still using the same material it can give the lower level kids a change to practice more. Things to note, in order to balance out the games and activities to the benefit of the lower level student are to make sure that the losers of each game or round repeat – that they have another chance to practice and learn. However, in order avoid feelings of frustration the students should be divided in groups where they can assist each other in understanding the material. It is a heart-warming sight to see a team of 6- or 7-year old’s intensely coaching their teammates in pursuit of a few more points or stickers. Such methods cannot simply be dropped into a class but, with a little practice, students will understand the overarching rules that apply to all the individual activities and they will enjoy them. With fear of failure often looming over children just as it does with most students it is best to reward behavior and be careful in creating teams that are as close as possible to equal. There is also much to be said about managing the points of each team creatively. By including points for behavior like shouting and leaving their seat when not taking part discipline can be maintained and often a teacher can tilt the game toward a losing team so as to not let them become too discouraged. Praise is to be piled on the lower level students so that through such encouragement over time they may work their way up to the same level as those with a higher start point or more structured home environment. Thus, with the use of strong well-organized pair work and team activities where students have the opportunity to cooperatively teach their classmates even young children will respond to such positive influence and structured play. Enabling the teacher to both assist the lower level students to maintain their place in the class and keep with the pace of the higher-level classmates. With some diligent effort on the part of the teacher over sufficient time the students will come together at the same level and the class will have less differences in ability.