Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Shimen Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Chongqing? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Learning ModesIn this article I?d like to give a brief explanation about the main differences between young learners and adult learners. Before explaining the differences between these two categories though, we need to give a general explanation of what we could classify as adult/ young learners. An adult learner is a person (Age 18 to 100) who has spontaneously decided to attend a class to improve his/her knowledge of a specific subject. On the other hand, a young learner is a person (Age 5 to 17) who, in the majority of cases, has been ?forced? (by parents/school etc.) to attend a specific course. Since there?s an opposite reason why these two categories ?choose? to follow a course there will be also a different kind of motivation during the lessons. An adult learner is often very much motivated and eager to improve his skills(especially about grammar and vocabulary) while a young learner often lacks motivation; in this last case a good teacher knows how to motivate a young student (For example: Visual aids, entertaining role ?plays, interesting topics, good warmers etc). On the opposite, an adult learner is more concentrated on the grammatical structure of a sentence or on the improvement of his speaking skills. It is very important to remember that young learners have short attention and concentration span( while grammar, for example, requires a good dose of concentration) but they are much more curious than adults. young learners are attracted by entertaining and involving activities, while adults seek seriousness and efficiency.(A teacher must always remember that seriousness does not mean boring though) Another main difference is : while young learners are supposed to be in touch with education(for sure they are attending other classes), many adults may be re-entering education after a prolonged absence and may need appropriate support. young learners are completely dependent on the instructor and often seek the teacher approval and therefore a good teacher should show signs of appreciation; adult learners, instead, are more autonomous and self- directed. young learners have less life experience but learn quickly while adults are more experienced but learn slowly and well. There are many differences also when it comes to behaviour. Caused by external factors, young learners may present several problems of discipline. In this case , as already seen in one Unit of the tefl course, the attitude and personality of the teacher can have a major effect on controlling this kind of problem. Adult learners, on the other hand , have a number of characteristics which can make learning and teaching problematic: adults can be critical of teaching methods, anxious and under confident because of previous failures and worry about diminishing learning power with age(in many situations adult students are older than the teacher). In conclusion, we might say that teach a class of young students may considerably differ than teaching a class of adults; they both deserve the same respect and on both situations a good teacher must create a relaxing and productive atmosphere, but to do so he/she has to follow different paths.
