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This unit went over different groups an EFL teacher might encounter and gave tips for how to manage classes in these specialized groups.
The first section of this unit discussed teaching beginners, there are different definitions of what exactly constitutes a beginner, ranging from having no knowledge base in English at all, including the alphabet, to having some knowledge base but not enough to produce the language. The age of the students also comes into play when they are first beginning their English learning process.
It's important for the teacher to be encouraging for beginners as they come along in their learning. The teacher should be clear and concise, using controlled language when giving instructions and teaching new concepts, it is important not to surpass the language level of the students to the point where they will be confused or won't be able to understand. Recognize the needs of the students and remember not to go too fast when teaching, this is a common mistake teachers make.
Sometimes teachers can be hired to teach individual students, one-on-one. Teaching individual students can have its benefits, since the teacher can specify each lesson to the needs and strengths of the one student. In this scenario the teacher should be able to find a good balance for piquing the students' interests while also attending to what he/she needs to improve on. In some cases the student may just want a conversation partner, the challenge for the teacher there is to be able to structure the conversation around certain grammatical or vocabulary points to keep the student challenged. Usually an individual student will be highly motivated, but likely on a varying schedule.
Children are another special group. Children are naturally curious and are able to absorb information and concepts easier than adult can. Children's minds need to be stimulated so activities have to vary throughout the lesson, if the children have to sit and listen for too long or the pace of the activity is too slow they may easily lose interest. The teacher should always use English as the language of instruction to keep their motivation up. As with beginners it's important to speak in slow and short sentences. Children are like activities like games and drawing, so it's good to have these types of things in the lesson plan, as well as rewards like stickers for good work. The teacher should always treat every child the same and never have favorites in the class, children are very sensitive and pick up on subtleties that they may perceive as unfairness.
Teaching business English is a quickly growing part of teaching English as a Foreign Language. In this instance the students are generally referred to as clients and their needs as individuals in the classroom may vary a great deal. It's possible that they could be from the same company, from different companies, or may have varying levels of English knowledge already. The challenge is to be aware of pre-established group dynamics and be careful not to single anyone out in a bad way. When teaching business English it is necessary to establish what they need as individuals and then do an overall diagnostic activity as a group and see where individual needs overlap, then aim to cater the lessons around the overlapping needs while still touching on individual needs as much as possible. Be sure to check in with students during various intervals of the course, like midway through, to make sure they still feel like their needs are being met and also to gain feed back for how to proceed in future lessons.
The last specialized group this unit covers are multilingual and monolingual classes. Multilingual students will generally come from different backgrounds so communicating with each other and with the teacher in English is a necessity. The challenge in a multilingual class is that since each or most of the students speak different first languages, they may each have different difficulties and challenges in English that can be hard to address as a group. In a monolingual class all of the students come from the same country or speak the same language so it may be easier to identify challenges they face coming from that one language. Since monolingual students come from the same culture, that can serve as a jumping off point for picking things that suit their interests in lessons.
