teaching mixed ability and beginner classes in higher education jo eastlake soas teacher trainer...
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Teaching Mixed Ability and Beginner Classes in Higher Education
Jo Eastlake
SOAS Teacher Trainer
Languages of the Wider World CETL
What do we mean by Mixed Ability in the Higher Education Language Class?
What are we referring to?
Students from different socio-cultural and learning backgrounds
Other learning variables among the students. Also SEN students.
Students of different levels. “False” beginners?
Other learning and negative/positive prior learning experiences. Effective learning (and social!) strategies.
Young adults and mature students.
Different access to education and educational resources (including technology)
Other languages and varieties the students bring to the class
Heritage and background learners
Suggestions for Case Study one:
Collaborative homework tasks e.g. students are required to produce and record a listening text such as a dialogue in the target language.
Tasks involving learner-generated materials. For some learners this could include the development e.g. word lists and word maps. Explanation and illustration of grammar points (to upload to VLE) to support a way of learning that is more familiar to them.
Suggestions for case study 2
Open-ended Project work. “Strong” and “weaker” students could be grouped together respectively, therefore leaving them to take the project to own level.
Peer Teaching projects. Stronger students required to design materials for class or group to support the learning of characters. Students “tutor” their group for 5 to 10 minutes every lesson.
Suggestions for case study 3
Use learner’s knowledge as much as possible in class
Set up “paper” conversation activities in class.
Ensure he knows how he’s assessed (regarding the use of the “Standard”)
Include communicative strategies etc. as part of the assessment.
Can Mixed Ability be a positive attribute of a Language Class in Higher Education?
Can encourage collaborative learning and in turn develop a vibrant learning community in the class
“Divergent Classrooms can become learning communities – communities in which each participant makes significant contributions to the emergent understandings of all members, despite having unequal knowledge concerning the topic under study” (Palincsar, Brown and Campione, 1993).
May support social understandings of SLA theory e.g. language
learning as participation in a community of practice. (e.g.
Participation metaphor in SLA, Lantolf and Pavlenko 2000)
On a transactional level, learners will be practised in communicating with speakers who have different skills in the language.
Useful resources:
Mixed –Ability Teaching in Language Learning. By Susan Ainslie and Susan Purcell. CILT publications 2001.
The Adult Language Learner. Edited by Lore Arthur and Stella Hurd. 1992 Dialogue Activities. By Nick Bilbrough. CUP 2007. Dictation. By Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri. CUP 1988. DIY techniques for language learners By María Fernández-Toro & Francis R Jones.
CILT publications 2008. And references …….. Block, D. The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition. Edingburgh Texts in
Applied Linguistics. 2003. Lantolf, J. Social- Cultural Theory in Second Language Learning. OUP 2000. Smith P,K, and Pellegrini A. Psychology of Education. Taylor and Francis. 2000