Chapter.

6
LEARNER VARIABLES
TEACHING ACROSS AGE LEVELS

OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
Appreciate the importance of age as a factor in
designing lessons and courses .
Understand the characteristics of children's learning
that must be incorporated into lessons and courses .
Distinguish differences between adults and children
and how to accommodate such differences in your
methodology .
Recognize
the characteristics of students "in
between" childhood and adulthood, and provide tasks
and activities that are appealing and challenging to
teenagers.

TEACHING CHIDREN

Childrens success in acquiring SL belies a

subconscious effort.
Adults are not necessarily less successful in
their efforts.
The popular claim fails to differentiate very young
children from pre-pubescent children.
Number of complex personal, social, and political
factors

TEACHING CHIDREN
1.

Intellectual Development
Aint nobody got no pencils?
Centered on here and now, on the
functional purpose of language
Little appreciation for our adult notions of
correctness
Cannot grasp the meta-language we use to
describe & explain linguistic concepts

TEACHING CHIDREN

Rules of thumb
Dont explain grammar using terms.
Rules in abstract terms should be avoided.
Some grammatical concepts can be called to
learners attention by showing them certain
patterns and examples.
Children must understand the meaning &
relevance of repetitions.

TEACHING CHIDREN
2. Attention Span
Make them interesting, lively, & fun
Activities should be designed to capture their
immediate interest.
Variety of activities
Animated, lively, & enthusiastic about the
subject matter
Sense of humor, put your self in their shoes
curiosity

TEACHING CHILDREN
3. Sensory Input
Physical activity
Hands-on activities
Sensory aids
Your own nonverbal language

TEACHING CHIDREN
4. Affective Factors
Children are innovative in language forms
Extremely sensitive, especially to peers.
Help your students to laugh at mistakes.
Be patient & supportive to build self-esteem.
Elicit as much oral participation as possible
from students.

TEACHING CHIDREN
5. Authentic & Meaningful Language
Canned or stilted language will likely be
rejected.
Language needs to be firmly contextembedded.
A whole language approach is essential.

TEACHING ADULTS

More able to handle abstract rules and

concepts
Too much abstract generation about usage &
not enough real life language use can be
deadly for adults
The rule of keeping your activities short &
sweet also to adult-age teaching
Appeal to multiple senses

TEACHING ADULTS

A modicum of general self-confidence

The fragility of egos may not be quite as
critical as those of children.
Better able to understand a context-reduced
segment of language
Temporary digressions to dissect & examine
isolated linguistic properties
as long as students are returned to the
original context

TEACHING ADULTS
Dos and dont
Intelligent adults with mature cognition &
adult emotions
Show respect for the deeper thoughts &
feelings that may be trapped for the
moment by a low proficiency level.
Dont treat adults in your class like children.:
calling them kids, using caretaker talk,
talking down to them

TEACHING ADULTS

Do give your students too many choices in

engaging in cooperative learning!
Dont discipline adults in the same way as
children!

TEACHING TEENS

The terrible teens are an age of transition,

confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and
changing bodies and minds.
The success of any intellectual endeavor will
be a factor of attention a learner places on
the task
Teens attention span shortened &
intellectual task at hand may suffer due to
many diversions present in life.

TEACHING TEENS

Varieties of sensory input are important.

Ego, self-image, and self-esteem are at their
pinnacle. Teens are ultra-sensitive.
Occasional diversions from the here & now
nature of immediate communicative contexts
to teach some grammar or voca.
Not to insult them with stilted language or to
bore them with over-analysis.

HOMEWORK
In group of three, make a series of observations:
one person observe an elementary class, another a
secondary school class, and a third to a class for adults.
Each observer should take careful notes of the
Following:
Topic or subject matter of the lesson
Teacher talk qnd students talk
Variety and type of techniques
Discipline or behavior problems
Physical activity and sensory input
Apparent motivation and interest.

https://youtu.be/xzLk2pSz5ac Elementary
Class.