TEFL Yuhang

Learning a new language can be a difficult task for anyone. teachers must find ways to adapt lesson plans to best suit their students’ needs. There are general differences between adult and young learners that are often universally apparent. teachers can use these differences as a basic template in terms of determining how to structure their lesson plans. Adult students are more apt to take classes because they have a self-driven desire to do so. Young students usually take classes due to school requisites, so they may lack in motivation. Adult students tend to “seek educational solutions [based on] where they are compared to where they want to be in life.” This motivation helps make the learning process a more collaborative one. teachers may also encounter disciplinary challenges more with younger students since these students “seek education that prepares them for an often unclear future.” It may be hard for them to comprehend why they have to put forth effort to learn the material. Without a set reward, the young students may slack off during class. It is important for teachers to “have clear, fair and consistent rules” in place, and they must follow through with these disciplinary measures while building a good rapport with the young students. Although adult students bring a wealth of knowledge into the classroom that can be applied to lessons in positive ways, sometimes this can cause problems. Adult students can “often [be] skeptical about new information [and] prefer to try it out before accepting it.” This can make it difficult for teachers who many encounter adult students who refuse to be corrected. Young students, however, are “likely to accept new information without trying it out or seriously questioning it.” Often adult students “will have paid for the class themselves and will have certain expectations of what they will learn and how fast they will progress.” If they do not feel like they are progressing in an expected manner, they may blame the teacher. Thus students must keep an open line of communication with their students. Adult classes also tend to be smaller in size. This can be an advantage since smaller groups can mean “easier classroom management [and] more time to spend with [students] to get to know their learning style and problems they are having.” However, some activities are easier to conduct with groups, so having a larger class size for younger students may be more advantageous in terms of organizing games that encourage teamwork/group work. Games such as “Simon Says” are more entertaining when there are larger groups of people. These games are more attune with needs of younger students, so that too should be taken into consideration in terms of structuring class sizes. In terms of lessons, “adults in particular always look for real-life application.” Young students tend to learn more through repetition so simple games can be used to reinforce lessons that would not be appropriate for adult students (i.e. sing-a-long games using nursery rhymes). teachers need to find creative ways to implement lesson plans that are more age-appropriate since some activities may only suit certain age-levels. With each class, there will always be differences apparent that the teachers must deal with in order to create the best learning environment as possible. All of these differences cannot be predicted, so the teachers must be ready to adjust and adapt teaching styles and techniques, etc. in order to fit the students’ needs, no matter the age of the students. Having general knowledge on what is typical in different classroom structures can be very helpful in terms of initial lesson planning. Thus, knowing the general differences between adult versus young students is important in order to ensure that lesson plans are created that can fully appreciate the learning capabilities and styles that are generally apparent within each group.