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Although teachers of any type of English class use many of the same skills, knowledge, and techniques, there are differences that must be considered and prepared for depending on the type of class and the level of the students. Types of classes can be separated into groups such as beginners, individual students, young learners, business English students, monolingual groups (who all speak the same native language), and multilingual groups (who do not all speak the same native language). Even within the category of beginners, there are distinctions: absolute beginners, who have had no English exposure; false beginners, who have had some exposure or even previous study of English but do not remember much of it; adult beginners; young beginners; and, finally, beginners whose native language is not in the Roman alphabet used in English. Each of these special circumstances needs to be addressed when planning and teaching the class.
One specialized area of English instruction is teaching the language to businesspeople. These, of course, are adults, who may be coming to the class because it is required by their place of employment. While the teacher does not need to be an expert in the students' field of business, he or she does need to have a solid understanding of what the students' needs are. Therefore, completing a needs analysis that includes the students' specific job responsibilities, areas in which they need practice, tasks for which they need specific English training, etc., is essential. It is also important when teaching business English to maintain a professional appearance and conduct oneself professionally throughout, and to be sensitive to cultural issues and company hierarchy. In situations where students have been sent to the class by their place of employment, there is a higher level of accountability besides the students themselves, so maintaining a good relationship with the company is important.
A final distinction in types of EFL classes is whether the group is monolingual or multilingual. In monolingual classes, an advantage is that students may all struggle with the same types of pronunciation and grammar errors. A disadvantage is the temptation for students to speak to each other in their native language when they need to be using the target language. In multilingual classes, students may struggle with different types of difficulties with English, thereby needing more specialized individual attention, but they are forced to use English to communicate with each other, which is a motivator for using the target language.
Overlaps exists among these categories, as a class may made up of beginner adults or young learners with different native languages, so teachers will pull methods and ideas used for various types of groups no matter the situation in which they find themselves.
