Adults learning

Adults learning

Teaching children, we often enjoy their pleasant perception and ability to use language in the classroom. When for adults, their experience sometimes puts us in difficult situations, deciding what the best way to teach them English is.

Adults learning has some serious advantages, but also negative drawbacks. Speaking about positive treats, we should mention understanding peculiarities in their self-perception and a strong ability to analyze and systemize information. We can happily use it, when we present the language as a completed system and let them choose their own goals in learning process.

However, on the other side, we should remember that the ability to imitate decreases after 12-14 years and the level of verbal memory also reduces. In this field such psychological aspects as the rising quantity of different stresses, lack of freedom and self-confidence attack us. The biggest fear of mistakes and language barriers are also elements of our ancestors’ adoption to life hardships.

What can we do to make their learning easy and fun? First, we can use the communicative approach to improve the ability to use the language and to build conscious connections between structures and communicative functions. That is the place where we need to use more visuals, work in small groups, game technologies, presentations, business coaching, case-studies, discussions in small groups, projects and learning the culture of foreign languages.

What’s more, we should be very flexible with the teaching approaches; it will give our learners a feeling of stability. No need to forget traditional methods, we learnt at school, as well as an opportunity to make notes, using handwriting.  

Adults have a strong ability to reach their goals. Therefore, we must let our students choose them and then adopt our lessons to their needs. Giving an ability to practice the language by watching films, series, using data-services in English, attentive listening to other students, we can reduce a fear of making mistake.

To sum up, teaching adults has positive and negative aspects, but flexibility and balance in teaching methods can help them to enjoy their learning ad make strong connections between the classes and reality they live in.

Tatyana Yermakova

School 418