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Although teaching English as a second language merits learning a number of widely accepted methods and techniques, it is essential to recognize that many nuances exist in how a teacher should approach English lessons. These nuances depend on a number of factors that include the level of the students and the goals behind wanting to learn English, but one absolutely vital factor worth considering is the age of the students. Young students learn differently than adults, and teachers should consider these differing learning modes when working with students of different ages. During my time as a Fulbright English teacher in Korea, I will be working primarily with elementary and middle school students. This requires a set of skills that needs to be expanded from my past experience working as an elementary and middle school tutor in America. I have substantial familiarity working in a TESOL environment. I’ve worked for two refugee resettlement agencies as an English instructor working mostly with adult students, and what I’ve found through teaching is that adult students respond better to certain methods. One factor that is frequently different between young learners and adults is the motivation behind learning the language. For example, when I taught for one refugee resettlement agency, the motivation of many of our learners were to develop basic language skills suited for employment and necessary tasks in everyday life. Because of this necessity for employment and pragmatic skills, we based our lesson plans around specific topics with clear goals in mind. Lessons were meant to introduce a skill that could be used outside of the classroom, and this increased student involvement and interest. Adult learners were more engaged when presented with a clear reason behind each language lesson. Similarly, drawing on past experiences of students around topics such as former work experience, family, and home country boosted student involvement and acquisition. Adult learners were less likely to respond to abstract topics or those that were purely creative, for example, they were less motivated to read a short story and discuss it. However, they were very motivated to take part in creative activities like roleplaying when it was directly related to acquiring a skill that was stated beforehand, such as learning how to buy groceries or fill out paperwork at the doctor’s office. Working with adults in a language learning setting requires attention to the motivation behind learning the language among other factors. Working with young learners of English, in particular with children, also calls for special attention to the varying ways in which people of different ages learn. While working for one refugee resettlement agency, I became comfortable teaching English to adults and was caught off guard when three younger learners joined my intermediate class with their parents. The three students, who ranged in ages from elementary to middle school, were disinterested in the lesson and did not seem to be able to follow the worksheet that we were working on. When talking with them, I quickly realized that their English skills were advanced, but that the worksheet which was geared towards adult concerns around sickness was not giving them the ability to expand on their knowledge or apply it. Although I did not have a word for it at the time, I created an Engage activity to get the students interested in the lesson, which was on doctor’s office visits. I asked them to think about a time that they were sick and what they did to feel better. One method that was helpful for the younger student was continued repetition of the words and instructions that we were going over. Once each student was interested in the lesson, it then became possible to teach them vocabulary and specific language around the topic. The pragmatic goal of the lesson that I stated early on was motivation for the adult learners, but for the younger learners, there was a need for interest and a creative space to begin to think about the lesson. This illustrated very clearly to me that young learners and adult learners both respond to common methods and activities, but their modes of taking in and acquiring language must also be recognized as highly varied so that teachers can account for these differences in order to be effective.
