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Prenumerata, książki metodyczne, promocje
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Świeże pomysły, inspirujące idee
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Doskonal swój warsztat metodyczny
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Metodyka nauczania języka angielskiego
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Z nami będziesz na bieżąco
Slogans promoted by the EU such as “lifelong learning” make a lot of educational places organize and advertise English courses for adult people. Recently the target group of a number of such courses have been people aged over fifty. Many of such courses are for free–the participants don’t pay for the classes, they get free materials, sometimes a lunch, which generally creates a very attractive atmosphere for learning.
As a result, more and more adults become genuinely excited with the possibility of learning a new language or revising and improving the language abilities they already have. Observing a number of courses in m y region (lubelskie) and the people’s interest in them (at the moment at least 30 courses of English for adults supported by ESF are taking place in my region, not to mention the commercial courses in more than 30 schools of English1 it is certain that there is a need for that, and as a result teachers of adult groups are wanted as well.
Despite the outward interest, keeping adult students motivated to learn (and attend classes!) throughout the whole course sometimes might appear extremely difficult. Some of them lose their willingness to learn very quickly and all they expect from the teacher is help at the finals tests (failing would be a real shame for them, and is often considered an unthinkable final of the course by the organizers). Some participants decide to resign from the course (the reasons they give are being tired after the course, or lack of time, and too many work and household duties), which may become a disaster for the teacher (the head of the company will ask what mistakes the teacher made that the person didn’t want to attend the course any more, which is never nice).
How to keep adults motivated throughout the whole process of learning? What to do to make them want to learn not only for one semester but for a whole year… or even longer? Here are a few tips to help teachers teach and encourage their adult students to learn. To be able to keep adults motivated during the process of learning, we, teachers, must understand what their motivators are. Why do adults decide to take up English courses? I asked that question to a number of my students; most often they enumerated work as a reason for starting a language course. This means that adults learn a language because it is necessary for their jobs, e.g. they often meet English-speaking clients, or want to work abroad. The second most often presented reason for learning was travel–adults earn enough to be able to travel abroad, and English might be their handy tool for basic communication. Among demotivators time and money were mentioned. Adults claim that they would love to learn a language if they had more time (here work seems to be an obstacle–8 hours in an office every day makes one less eager to spend a few more hours sitting in the classroom), and if they had more money (ironically, here staying out of work, thus not earning money, may be an obstacle to join a language course, unless it’s for free).
The best moment to start motivating your students and encouraging them to learn is at the very first meeting; it’s then you should find out about their motivators, reasons for learning, and make them realize you will do your best to emphasize all the elements they want to learn. It’s also then you should SELL THEM THE COURSE! And yourself. Of course, it has nothing to do with money. It’s about ensuring them they made the right choice. Tell them that it’s good to learn a language, enumerate all the good points of it (from treating learning new things as training the “brain muscle” against sclerosis to pointing the exciting opportunity to be able to talk to foreigners in the street in just a couple of months). Ensure them that the school they have chosen is good, the materials they are going to use are of best quality and published by most appreciated publishing houses. Show them you really like your job as a teacher. Show that you are a professional, and if they make some effort, working together can be fun and adventurous at the same time. BE CONTAGIOUS! Show your enthusiasm and make your students feel it too. It is not so easy but once you do it, you will be able to engage your students in learning all the outwardly boring things. I had classes with a teacher of English who was so passionate about his job that even learning the names of different kinds of snails and slugs with him became a fascinating experience.
Once you’ve congratulated your students on choosing the best course in the best place ESTABLISH THE GOALS of your students. Since they often have problems with actual verbalizing their reasons for learning you should help them with that (it seems difficult but if you do it well, you can show at the end of the course, that the goals have been achieved, and thus the course is successful – which will arouse the feeling of satisfaction in your students). Ask the students questions (you might even make it a questionnaire): Why do they want to learn English? What are their interests? Which language areas/skills will be especially useful for them? Which teaching materials: books, dictionaries, websites, newspapers will improve their learning process? Another way to find out about the student’s reasons for learning is simply asking the students to note down 5 subjects, things, vocabulary areas that they would like to learn or discuss in class. Youngsters who most often learn English for general purposes will rarely be able to answer such questions but with adults it really works. They like to feel they are in control. To be the demanding client who “buys” a course with all the updates and upgrades they can think of, like in a fancy shop–they pay, they get. But beware: once you get to know about their preferences you need to keep them in mind while preparing the classes; it is also useful to inform your class about the fact that you chose the particular subject because you expected them to find it really useful. If you teach using one course book, emphasize the elements of the book that are in accordance with their expressed needs, and bring additional materials in which they may practice the areas they mentioned as the most important for them. If you use your own materials, make sure you chose subjects relevant to your students. If you teach your students some specific vocabulary, always tell them it might be important for their work, revise the words with them, and show them how they can use the new words in real life. That is what motivates your adult students: showing them that what they attend is not a course of any kind, but a tailor-made course, especially for them. So INDIVIDUALIZE! Show your students that you recognize their needs, and try to satisfy them.
While it is common knowledge that youngsters learn foreign languages easier and faster, teachers very often prefer to teach adults, claiming that adults might learn slower and their progress is not so much visible but they are more attentive and well-behaved. Still, my experience shows that adults also can be “naughty”: showing the teacher a sort of false politeness mingled with ignorance e.g. coming late (of course, because of “work matters”), picking up a mobile whenever it calls (“urgent business matters, I’m very sorry”), staring thoughtlessly at a partner instead of performing a role play (“I’m so tired”), or yawning openly while the teacher is doing his or her best to explain e.g. the intricate rules of the passive voice. Of course, some of these problems cannot be overcome by a teacher. You will never get to know whether the urgent work matter is really urgent or just an excuse, still, there are a few things you, the teacher, can do to keep your adult student motivated enough to turn the mobile off.
A very important thing on the part of a teacher is creating a good atmosphere in the classroom. It should be relaxing and free from criticism. You can introduce it by a smile and sense of humour. But be careful: adults as well as any other age group will not tolerate being laughed at. If you make them feel ridiculed they will become your worst enemies. What they need is encouragement, understanding and patience. But never treat your adult student like children. Being treated like a child is something that even a lot of kids don’t like so avoid patronizing your adult students. BE THEIR PARTNER. You are there for them not the other way round. In case of problems you versus your group you should take on the role of an understanding and patient (very patient) negotiator and remember about the necessity of the win-win result of any successful negotiations; which means that at the end of such negotiations both parties must feel victorious. If the problem concerns only the people from your group become a mediator who is genuinely willing to solve not just go around the problem.
In order to keep your students interested in the lesson you should constantly ensure them they are making progress. One of the problems with adult students is speaking. It often happens that they understand quite complex texts but when it comes to speaking they feel embarrassed and avoid uttering even simple sentences. When you MAKE THEM SPEAK they will feel their language is improving. Language is communication! Speaking is natural! It is possible to practise speaking even on the elementary level - in New English File Elementary there are plenty of sections called SPEAKING where students can practise simple structured dialogues in pairs. A simple exercise with placing the right verbs connected with every day routines next to the right nouns, and then asking partner questions using the phrases and answering his/her ones is a perfect example of a structured dialogue that is not too difficult for the elementary students, makes them communicate and get to know each other. This ability can be very useful for your students and you should not avoid doing such exercises with them.2 Communication exercises from the same book which use the information gap such as the exercise in which one must talk to the partner to be able to fill the partner’s form are also extremely important in your student’s speaking practise.3 They teach and practise the skills important in everyday life. Once your students have practised these in the classroom, they will find it easier to act in real life.
It’s more and more fluent speaking that makes your students feel they ARE learning and motivates them to make more effort! A very useful tool that shows the improvement in speaking is recording students at one of the first meetings of the course–depending on the level of their advancement in the language it could be a simple dialogue they perform according to some clues, or even a few-minute-lasting speech. Then, in the middle of the course try recording a similar task again. If the students attended the course regularly, there should be an audible difference (or at least they will be more eager to speak, which should be reflected in their fluency). Comparing the recordings from the beginning of the course with the mid-course ones could be interesting, and will definitely show (to you and your students) what has improved (and what hasn’t). You could work on some methods to improve the imperfect parts or discuss with the students how to work on that. Definitely, it will SHOW THEM YOU CARE about them and their process of learning, which is very important.
A good way to show the progress of your students, and motivate them to learn at the same time are REGULAR REVISIONS. Students should know when they can expect a revision and what tasks and parts of material will be revised. New English File offers a thorough revision after every unit. Moreover, those revision sections have additional reading and listening tasks which prove that the vocabulary and grammar from the unit are useful. You can treat revisions as tests – checking how much your students remember–you can also make them look for the right answers in the book and their notes. The revisions from the New English File series are orderly and neat– your adult students will like them. Still, if you want to make revising a more exciting experience, you can treat it as a class competition: you could divide the class in groups and make them do the revision tasks within limited time (e.g. 15 minutes), and then check everything together giving points for good answers. It may sound like an exercise for teenagers, but I’ve seen a group of ladies aged over fifty competing really hard for the best score–the vocabulary we practised stayed in their minds for a long time (I know, I checked that). To my surprise the technique works also for me–I was taught in this way on a course I attended a few months ago, and I got really engaged in the activity. Choosing a course-book remember that the right teaching material for adults should be wellorganized. Making the most of the book’s structure always put emphasis on the most important parts of the material. And remember if you say that all the material is equally important, it will not encourage your students to learn the whole, they will rather not learn at all (“it’s too much, I would try to learn it if I had more TIME, and I see there is no way for me to cover the material the teacher wants me to learn so I give up”). The most serious mistake a teacher can make in the classroom is to introduce boredom. Choosing the right materials that your students will find attractive will help you avoid that. Attract your students with original materials used as warmups. You might try to introduce the subject of your lesson working with a group on a joke (actually, understanding sense of humour in a foreign language shows your students linguistic competence). It is also advisable to use fragments of TV programs e.g. adds or recipes, YouTube movies or presentations from TED4 (on more advanced levels). Look for materials recorded by a variety of speakers using not only RP but all kinds of English including children speaking the language (they might be cute but are often difficult to understand). A fragment of an article that was published in an English newspaper or a magazine, concerning some recent news, controversial discovery, or anything else that might be connected with the subject of your lesson could make your students interested. USE AUTHENTIC MATERIALS with your students to show them that they are already able to understand a real text written by a real Englishman (not prepared and simplified for them by an experienced ELT teacher/author). Success is a great motivator!
Making your students interested during the class means also DIVERSIFYING THE ACTIVITIES, and choosing the ones that STIMULATE THEM. “Involve me and I learn”5 says a famous quotation and it is in your hands to find out what kind of activities will involve your students. Try to look for new stimulating approaches to the old subjects. It’s worth reminding that adult students rarely learn English for the first time, so in most cases they already know a lot of the funny activities you are going to do with them, thus keep your mind fresh and constantly look for something new. If you have your favourite set of fun exercises, try to vary them changing some details or introducing new rules. Remember about the role-plays, which, being a simulation of real life, prepare students for situations that might happen to them (e.g. New English File offers a lot of ready useful role plays for your students in Communication section, also in the Teacher’s Book). Asking them to tell anecdotes is also a very good example of stimulating students–anecdotes give your students a chance to speak English for a longer time than they usually do in a lesson. Still, don’t let the other students stay passive during the time one of them speaks–activate them by making them ask a few questions connected with the speech, note down at least three mistakes or summarize the anecdote. If the students’ language is good enough, discussions are advised. Remember if you connect such discussions with changing places (e.g. if you are “for” sit here, “against” there, and changing your mind means changing the place) your adult students will be ashamed at the beginning but after some time they might grow to really like it so experiment with your group. And of course all kinds of games and language competitions that bring the spirit of rivalry into the classroom and at the same time revise vocabulary, grammar or encourage speaking are welcome. You must be careful though not to bring a game that your students will find childish (a very interesting example of a game for beginners can be found in New English File Elementary – it doesn’t need too much skill, it is a great revision of the knowledge the beginners should have and allows them to practice communication)6. If you use pair work, which is advisable, remember to give your students meaningful tasks that include information gap as it adds meaning to the exercise. Additionally, to make pair work more interesting, make your students change partners, otherwise, they will get to know each other well enough to predict partner’s answers even without talking.
Adult students appreciate additional “fun homework” (which doesn’t mean they will do it). If your adults have the right skills, use the Internet to find attractive resources practising the grammar or vocabulary they are learning. Oxford series are accompanied with exercises and some fun games in which different skills can be practised7. They might be for children, but still many adults have kids who learn English, so why not encourage them to do it together or even compete in English at home.
The set of tips given above is an effect of real life experiences and should be helpful for the people who decide to teach adult groups successfully. However, to be a really effective adult student’s teacher you need to have the gift. “The truth of the matter is, if you are a sincere and affable person, genuinely love teaching, and care about the students, you will most likely be able to engage their interest and trust. Have fun, and make sure all of your students are having fun.”8
Agata Gradzińska
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" a lunch" ???? omg!
Just a short note for the moderators/proofreaders: make sure the article is actually correct before putting it online.
A question for the teachers: what to do to make Students do their homework? And my question is about adults, not children or teenagers.
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