Teach English in Xinchengzi Zhen - Beijing

Learning Modes: young learners vs. Adults (16)Teaching another language, particularly English, in another country involves considering several aspects and how to work with them. One of which are the students. As a teacher, he or she needs to learn about their interests, personalities, general age range, and their experience with the language, if any. Two kinds of students in particular are young learners and adult learners. Teaching and interacting with one or the other consists of different tactics that accommodate the two of them. When teaching the English language to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, there are distinctive learning methods between young learners and adult learners. To create and apply appropriate teaching tactics to a specific group of students, the teacher has to establish a relationship with them. Initially when a teacher works overseas, they may have a general idea about the country's culture and beliefs. Asking about the students' favorite things or interests help the teacher determine how to apply them to future in-class activities and projects while keeping in mind of their cultural understanding. But with young learners, they have less of an awareness of culture and have short attention spans. Getting and maintaining the young learners' attention plays a significant role, and it is always challenged by them. For instance, the teacher may start with the basics, asking about each young learner's favorite things (e.g. food, toys, animals) through whole-class activities (e.g. games, singing, drawing). When asking adult learners, however, the teacher has to remember that they have more of an awareness of their current language skills through past experiences, bad and/or good. They're more focused, have different lives outside of school, and may have more exposure to the English language in contrast to the young learners. Yet the teacher cannot treat the adult learners the same way as children. Although the teacher can discuss and exchange some conversation with the adult learners about their interests and goals gained from the class, he or she must apply them in future activities and subjects that appeal more to the adults, such as reading and discussing about current events, or having debates between two groups in class. Adults prefer having their minds challenged yet are concerned about making mistakes, which the latter is not a major issue when learning the language. It is the teacher's job to guide the adult learners, alleviating their worries of failure by praising their efforts and encouraging them to constantly practice using the language. With figuring out the students' interests comes encouraging their motivation to want to learn. Knowing their interests can help the teacher correlate them to future lessons, but another thing to consider are ways to utilize the students' interests that will keep them motivated to want to learn the English language. As mentioned, younger learners have short attention spans that will challenge the teacher many times. But they have an open curiosity that allows them to be more receptive and experimental when learning another language. Achieving this obstacle can be done, but the teacher needs to match his or her energy with the young learners such as playing games dealing with memorizing vocabulary, or singing basic sentence structures in tune of English nursery rhymes. The teacher needs to create a learning environment that is fun yet allows young learners to explore and practice using the language at their pace. For adult learners, the approach for them is similar, that the teacher must apply their interests to future lessons. But their life experiences, including self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, may hinder them from learning and using the language openly to their full potential. Combating the adult learners' nervousness is synonymous to the young learners' situation; the teacher must consider their strengths and areas needing improvement while determining what kind of activities will help the adult learners overcome their nervousness to participate in class. Activities where speaking the English language is mandatory, such as role playing and reading short stories aloud will enable them to participate with the class among their classmates. The goal for all students, no matter what age range is, is for them to actively use the English language as much as possible because they enjoy learning and speaking it.