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Unit 19 talked about teaching special groups and the unique needs faced by each group and how to tailor your approach as an instructor in order to effectively teach different groups.
Teaching beginners is a one broad category that can be broken down into several sub categories. There is the absolute beginner, who has no English skill at all. There is also a "false beginner" who may have had some prior English exposure, but they did not retain much English knowledge. There are many differences between adult and young beginners, particularly in terms of motivation. Finally a beginner who does not use the Roman alphabet in their native language will require a lot of work in the beginning on basic literacy skills and learning the Roman alphabet.
With reagrds to teaching children, the most important point I took from the unit is to keep things interesting. Children have a shorter attention span and will become distracted much easier than adult learners, who typically have more intrinsic motivation to learn English. Children will derive their motivation from the class environment itself, so it is important to have a classroom environment that will facilitate learning. A benefit of teaching children is that they are generally more adept at picking up new languages that adult learners.
In recent years there has been an increase in specialized English learning for adults. Specifically adults learning English with an emphasis in business has grown in popularity. When teaching English for a specific purpose it is important to balance the wishes of the clients (what they would like to learn) with improving their overall English skills (what they need to learn). This can be accomplished through the use of a Needs Analysis at the beginning of the course.
No matter what population you ultimately teach, it is important to be well prepared while at the same time being flexible. I think that for beginners it is better to err on the side of too much preparation. This will allow you to be more flexible, as you will have many different activities and learning goals in your toolbox.
