TEFL Chapter 4 Summary
Who are the learners?
Individuals and groups
Meeting a class is an important moment.
At first glance, we can discover some basic facts but beyond this, we can
gain a number of more intangible (ontastbare), intuitive impressions based
on our interpretation.
Teachers are often initially most concerned with their perception of what the
learners think of them. Students respond the way you respond to them.
Whatever you find when you enter class, remember that part of what you
see and understand is related to what you yourself bring into the room, i.e.
you often find what you expect to find.
Groups do have characters and moods. It’s tempting for a teacher (or a
school) to view a class as a fairly homogenous group with a single ‘level’
similar behavior, preferences, interests and ways of working. The individuals
in a class may have a number of things in common with each other, but the
one thing that everyone has in common is that they are in a language-
learning class.
Beyond any common features, there will be also significant differences
between people.
(For examples look at page 84).
There are two different motivations, namely:
- External motivation
- Internal motivation
You may see this reflected in things. A frequent cause of difficulties within
classes is when there is significant mismatch of motivation levels amongst
the course participants.
Howard Gardener has suggested that people could have seven
‘’intelligences’’:
1. linguistic
2. visual
3. musical
4. logical/mathematical
5. bodily/feeling
6. interpersonal (contact with other people)
7. intrapersonal (understanding oneself)
1
, We probably all have these seven intelligences but in different proportions.
Traditional education systems may have tended to focus on some
intelligences over other, especially on language and logical intelligences.
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have noted that humans tend to have
different sensory preferences. When you planning classes you have to
remember there is a range of working modes appealing to visual, authority
and kinaesthic learners.
Classes certainly seem to have their own character. Many teachers have
their own way of teaching and planning classes. Many teacher are not
concerned with any individual differences and feel their primary task is to
work with the class ‘as a whole’. This can be problematic, as there is a
danger in ‘teaching’ without close reference to the individuals that are doing
(or not doing) the learning.
Then you have teachers that do the opposite. They do an ‘’individual’’
approach in class because they might find this more valuable because there
are too many variety of people in class and the whole-class lessons won’t
generally work.
But last but not least there are teachers that may aim to teach the class by
pitching the lessons to what they perceive as the majority of the group, but
‘keeping in touch’’ with the others. This is one of the classic balancing acts of
teaching – to maximize working at every individual’s level, fulfilling as many
wishes and needs as possible while also keeping the entire group engaged.
How can we pull of this balancing act? : It involves a combination of
gathering useful feedback from learners and using your intuition.
What level are my students?
Many schools divide learners into classes at named language levels:
Beginner – Elementary – Pre-intermediate – Intermediate – Upper
intermediate – Advanced.
Each of these levels may be subdivided. Schools often plan progress on an
assumption that it will take the average learner a certain period of time to
move from one level to the next.
There are other level systems. For example the Council of Europe categorizes
learners as follows:
C2 Mastery (= Nearly native-speaker level)
C1 Operational proficiency (= Advanced)
B2 Vantage (= Upper intermediate/Post-intermediate)
B1 Threshold (= Intermediate)
A2 Way stage (= Pre-intermediate)
A1 Breakthrough (= Beginner/ Elementary)
2
Who are the learners?
Individuals and groups
Meeting a class is an important moment.
At first glance, we can discover some basic facts but beyond this, we can
gain a number of more intangible (ontastbare), intuitive impressions based
on our interpretation.
Teachers are often initially most concerned with their perception of what the
learners think of them. Students respond the way you respond to them.
Whatever you find when you enter class, remember that part of what you
see and understand is related to what you yourself bring into the room, i.e.
you often find what you expect to find.
Groups do have characters and moods. It’s tempting for a teacher (or a
school) to view a class as a fairly homogenous group with a single ‘level’
similar behavior, preferences, interests and ways of working. The individuals
in a class may have a number of things in common with each other, but the
one thing that everyone has in common is that they are in a language-
learning class.
Beyond any common features, there will be also significant differences
between people.
(For examples look at page 84).
There are two different motivations, namely:
- External motivation
- Internal motivation
You may see this reflected in things. A frequent cause of difficulties within
classes is when there is significant mismatch of motivation levels amongst
the course participants.
Howard Gardener has suggested that people could have seven
‘’intelligences’’:
1. linguistic
2. visual
3. musical
4. logical/mathematical
5. bodily/feeling
6. interpersonal (contact with other people)
7. intrapersonal (understanding oneself)
1
, We probably all have these seven intelligences but in different proportions.
Traditional education systems may have tended to focus on some
intelligences over other, especially on language and logical intelligences.
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have noted that humans tend to have
different sensory preferences. When you planning classes you have to
remember there is a range of working modes appealing to visual, authority
and kinaesthic learners.
Classes certainly seem to have their own character. Many teachers have
their own way of teaching and planning classes. Many teacher are not
concerned with any individual differences and feel their primary task is to
work with the class ‘as a whole’. This can be problematic, as there is a
danger in ‘teaching’ without close reference to the individuals that are doing
(or not doing) the learning.
Then you have teachers that do the opposite. They do an ‘’individual’’
approach in class because they might find this more valuable because there
are too many variety of people in class and the whole-class lessons won’t
generally work.
But last but not least there are teachers that may aim to teach the class by
pitching the lessons to what they perceive as the majority of the group, but
‘keeping in touch’’ with the others. This is one of the classic balancing acts of
teaching – to maximize working at every individual’s level, fulfilling as many
wishes and needs as possible while also keeping the entire group engaged.
How can we pull of this balancing act? : It involves a combination of
gathering useful feedback from learners and using your intuition.
What level are my students?
Many schools divide learners into classes at named language levels:
Beginner – Elementary – Pre-intermediate – Intermediate – Upper
intermediate – Advanced.
Each of these levels may be subdivided. Schools often plan progress on an
assumption that it will take the average learner a certain period of time to
move from one level to the next.
There are other level systems. For example the Council of Europe categorizes
learners as follows:
C2 Mastery (= Nearly native-speaker level)
C1 Operational proficiency (= Advanced)
B2 Vantage (= Upper intermediate/Post-intermediate)
B1 Threshold (= Intermediate)
A2 Way stage (= Pre-intermediate)
A1 Breakthrough (= Beginner/ Elementary)
2
