Teach English in DaheishAtu Zhen - Wulanchabu Shi — Ulanqab

What should one do as a teacher when faced with a multilevel ESL class. Effectively teaching a class with many different levels can be a daunting thought. How does one successfully focus on teaching more advanced students while ant disregarding the beginning students and vice versa. It is difficult because the teacher wouldn’t want to content taught to be too difficult or too easy. The teacher must maintain a a class where everybody is learning even if they are at varying levels. It is possible to teach in the middle to cater to both beginners and advanced students, however there is still the chance that the advanced students will become bored while the beginners don’t understand. An example of this could be asking what each student did over the weekend as a Monday warm-up. Each student can answer, but to the best of their abilities. The beginning students can answer with a short and simple sentence, while the more advanced students can talk about several things that they did over the weekend. As a teacher of a multi-level class, I believe it of the upmost importance that all students participate and verbally interact with the class every class session. Right off the bat, one of the most important things is to establish a comfortable and nonjudgemental atmosphere in the classroom. Making mistakes must be welcome in the classroom so that the students push on and don’t get caught up on wanting everything to be perfect. For beginners, it is crucial to explain things several times and at a slow cadence. It is good to explain things not only with words, but with writing, pictures, doing examples, etc. It is also beneficial to ask the students if they have any questions or doubts. Most students will appreciate this. Often the beginners are appreciative of this because they will need to have things explained in a way so that they can progress and be successful. The advanced students will often appreciate this because, even if they understand the concept the first time it was explained, they will be able to listen to English being spoken and find more confidence in their English comprehension. It is important to be open to discussing and exploring topics that the students are interested in. This way, most students will be more driven to participate, even the beginners. What makes strategic interaction great for multilevel classes are a few key features. One very common strategy, that has been effective in my experience, is pairing lower level students with higher level students. A teacher can pair them up for role-plays or reading dialogues. There is an activity that I found to be quite productive: This activity is to group together two beginners with two advanced students and have them write a short story using vocabulary words learned prior to this activity. The students must use English to communicate with each other to achieve the end goal which, in this case, would be a final story utilizing many of the vocabulary words they had just learned. All students must participate and it gives them a chance to talked and come up with ideas together. Often these stories can turn out funny and get the whole class laughing. This is a strategic activity where everyone can participate at their language level and not feel embarrassed or pressured. All in all teaching a multi-level language class is completely doable. It can be incredibly difficult and frustrating, but with the right techniques, it can be fun and effective. Using interactive and amusing activities will motivate most students to make an effort, thus learning more vocabulary and use of the language. All levels will be able to communicate with each other, utilizing English (or the target language). It usually isn't painless to teach a multi-level language class, but it is possible.