Teaching English Language Across Age Levels; Teaching Adults

Peace be upon you my readers and hello.

Then again, we meet up! As promised, now, I come up with another entry as the continuation of the previous one. Still discussing about the practical approaches for the teachers to consider in teaching, yet, this time, we together will be looking on deeper of the teaching adults part. This is one of my efforts to open other people's eyes how important to know level of students due to the different approaches applied. Somehow there are group of educators who take this matter for granted. Whereas students are in favor to internalize the target language. Hence, the thumb of rule for a language classroom are;-

1. Do not do so much abstract generalization as it can be deadly for adults even though they are able to handle abstract rules and concepts.
2. It is true they have longer attention spans. However, rule of keeping activities short and sweet applies also to adult-age teaching. 
3. Sensory input at this level is not always be necessary, instead, it just a secret of making class lively.
4. As teacher/educator, we must not underestimate their emotional factors although their fragility of ego is not as critical as children.
5. Adults are able to understand a context-reduced segment of language. But, authenticity and meaningfulness are certainly highly important. 

And do remember these too;-

1. Adults cannot express complex thinking in the new language, they are nevertheless intelligent adults with mature cognitive and adult emotions. Show respect for the deeper thoughts and feelings that may be trapped for the moment by a low proficiency level.

2. Give students as many opportunities as possible to make choices (cooperative learning) about what they will do in and out of the classroom. So, they can more effectively make an investment in their own learning process.

and DON'T :-

1. Treat adults like children by

             - calling them kids

             - using caretaker talk (the way parents talk to children)

             - talking down to them

2. Discipline adults in the same way as children. If discipline problems occur, just assume that they are adults who can be reasoned with like adults.

I, once again, with full of hope, that we can gain something precious from this entry. Pedagogy is not just to be learnt, but to be applied too. With great patience and be supportive to the adults, God willing, everything goes smoothly. With that, I end this post. Thank you.

With love,

nadzirahnoh229