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It should come as no surprise that people in different stages of life learn differently. As a teacher, it is important to understand not only how people learn, but also how to best teach them. Teaching kindergarteners and other very young students can prove to be the most rewarding. These children are not only young (and typically sweet), but they also have a new set of eyes and absorb information like a sponge. These students should be taught with ample games, songs, and group activities. Chances are, they are likely to match the level of energy that I put into a topic. If I am super excited about English, I can only hope that they will be as excited to come to class and learn. In addition to teaching these young students a language, there is ample evidence to suggest that bilingual toddlers and children have an advantage in certain aspects of memory (Brito & Barr, 2012). As a teacher, I will be pleased to know that I am helping them not only learn a new language, but also help them improve their memory for other courses and aspects of life! In addition to young students being excited to learn, they are still in the process of mastering their mother tongue. Because of this, they will spend less time trying to convert phrases or grammatical structures from their mother tongue into English. When they are learning English, they are more likely to pick it up as I teach phrases and structures, not as they memorize exact translations from one into another. Students of middle-school age are notoriously more difficult to teach. This is not exclusive to teaching English. Unfortunately, all subjects are likely to be difficult to teach to middle schoolers. As they get older and go through puberty, they are more concerned about what others think of them, exhausted from the influx of hormones, and generally confused about everything. As a teacher, I need to be certain to never put this age of students at risk of feeling social anxiety. I will do this by having small group activities and never “cold-calling” on a single student. Games and activities will still prove to be useful, but I will be certain to never ask a single student to report out how the group did. I will give out little surveys for students to fill out at the beginning or end of class to help give them an opportunity to give feedback anonymously. Once I create rapport with my students and better understand who they are as people, I will be able to adjust activities based on what they enjoy and respond to the most. Hopefully they will eventually be excited to learn English if I can engage them in the proper way. It is difficult to anticipate how adult learners will respond to my teaching. An adult learner has likely taken many other classes and has a certain expectation for both themselves and their professors for how learning should commence. They may have failed an English course before and have become bitter to the subject. If they have failed, if it wasn’t easy for them to pick up, or if it has been awhile since they have been in the classroom, there is a high likelihood that they are nervous. I can help mitigate this anxiety by providing them with positive feedback and avoiding critical feedback until they have warmed up. Adults also have many other important things occurring in their lives (jobs, children, travels, extra curriculars). To help make the class more beneficial for them, I can provide a survey at the beginning of the course. This will allow me to understand what everyone hopes to get out of the course and provide vocabulary and grammatical skills that will be of the most use for them. Because learners of various ages have different needs, it is imperative that I modify the way I teach to meet these needs. I can help meet these needs by being understanding, surveying my students, listening to them, and providing feedback when they are ready to receive it. I look forward to have the opportunity to teach students from all backgrounds and ages. Works Cited Brito N, Barr R. Influence of bilingualism on memory generalization during infancy. Developmental Science. 2012;15(6):812–816. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.1184.x.
