Teaching English Toolbox

Different Learners, Different Needs

More Fluent Learners

From DeepAI: a cute cat speaking English fluently to a mouse

Keep in mind that there are ALWAYS a handful (or more) of learners that are MOTIVATED and GOOD at English - they are not necessarily the native speakers!!!!!!! The question of "what to do with the more fluent learners" in your class is not an easy one because:

  • There are many levels of "native speakerness" - from kids who just moved whose parents are both native speakers to kids whose parents use EN as their language of communciation (and many variations in between) and you are responsible for everyone having a productive role in your class;
  • There are learners who are simply exposed to a lot of language (gaming and more) and may be better in English than yourself.

 You are not responsible for heritage language development - a child who grew up speaking English might do something outside of the mainstream classroom in order to keep up with their native-speaking peers if the parents and the child want that. You are responsible to try to ensure that every child has a good role in your class and learns - and you might consider that learning English is perhaps secondary to learning good work ethic skills, good management skills, learning about the world, and more general skills. You might consider that activities where there is only one right answer are not good for the classroom and that for every step, there is room for differentiation - but for ALL the learners. Thus this is just like in any regular classroom: there are always children who are better than the others (or the teacher) - what do you do in other subjects?

Native Speakers

In the following blog post, you have some reflections on Native Speakers in the Swiss context: https://edacross.blogspot.com/2023/01/those-pesky-native-speakersagain.html . Below you will find a more personalized reflection.

Laura Loder Buechel's Reflection - 2017

I have had two daughters going through the Swiss experience of learning English in public schools. Our family language is English. With our children, my husband speaks English at home and German outside of the home (he's Swiss German) to them. I always speak English to my children, but speak German outside the home (this is the phenomenon where my husband will be talking to a neighbor in German and then address the kids in German whereas I'll speak German to the neighbor and English to the kids in the same situation).

  • My daughters both started English in the second grade. 
  • They did not want to be separated from their classmates.
  • They never dared correct their teachers so this made for funny conversations and anecdotes at home (why would a teacher insist that the plural of "mouse" is "mouses"?? Why would a teacher say "Do you can"? "Why did the teacher say she has "an ID" and not "an idea?"). 
  • They were often used as the "helpers" (fine, but are there also "helpers" in Math lessons?), but they had to do the same boring work as everyone else, so what others got done in class, they had to do at home.
  • They were occasionally corrected, rightfully so for spelling but not rightfully so for speaking (occasionally a British variation was insisted upon).

In the fourth grade, my older daughter:

  • Had one lesson a week with the class and one lesson working in the hallway on various tasks I gave her (letter writing, book reading, etc..). 
  • Was responsible for the homework and had to take any tests from the coursebook or vocabulary-translation tests that the other children took for a grade (even though grades are not supposed to be entirely based on tests).

This system worked well and is a good compromise, but essentially I felt it was my responsibility to get them a quality English education - by no means do I expect Swiss teachers to be able to handle this level of English - so I pulled my daughters out of Swiss English lessons and they work online. They have an online course from the US at Connections Academy.  In the primary school they had to do all the tests and homework that the classroom teacher assigned, but in secondary this course replaced English and the transcript is included in the report card. 

The decision to pull them out was a good one. That they can keep up at the level of their American peers is fantastic, but most of all, this course has helped them in their general language skills, not just English, but also English, in that:

  • They had to read books and write summaries;
  • There were rubrics for every writing task and feedback and steps along the way were always based on this;
  • They had to learn to use powerpoint and other tools for online presentations;
  • The feedback from the teachers was better than that I had experienced so far: they got concrete ideas for improvement and were expected to integrate it into every further assignment and re-write all the time.

My suggestions for teachers who have such children:

  • Don't make the stronger kids the "helpers" - this is done too often and though it teaches diplomacy, it doesn't really help them develop. You could have a classroom duty "Aemtli" where a child a week is the "assistant" and this starts with the stronger kids but then rotates so everyone has a chance;
  • If the parents are unhappy, encourage them to provide what they think is meaningful work (school should not pay for a separate course, I paid for my kids');
  • Let the children do whatever it is you are working on in German, but in English (e.g. if they are writing a creative story, they can do it in DE and then in the EN lessons);
  • Have them focus more on writing than the others;
  • Use them for something like reading and recording a book out loud - you can use this with the others; 
  • Whatever you do, don't use vocabulary translation tests for many reasons, but also because multilingual kids don't "think" like this.

Inclusive Practices

Some learners in your class may have specific IEPs (individualized education programs) for language or behavior issues. You will hopefully be working with a specialized teacher who can provide you with some specific advice. The collection of articles below, however, should provide you with some insight. Keep in mind that the section in this toolbox on Adaptive Learning may also be of interest to you.

  • If you are using a course book, open it up to the unit you are on. How can you use the more open activities wisely so that the more fluent learners are challenged? How are you simplifying it so that other learners who need more support get it?
  • How do you differentiate your instruction so that many different answers are acceptable? How can you support tasks instead of exercises in your classroom so that all learners succeed?
  • How do you enable more fluent learners to develop their skills? How do you get learners who may have difficulty learning to focus on the important aspects of learning English (e.g. strategic competence or general communicative skills)?
  • What daily or weekly routines or rituals do you have in English and how does each step support a differentiated approach to instruction?