Experiencing Learners’ Differences in ELT Class: A Reflection of Teaching Experiences

Guru Prasad Poudel

Department of English Education,

T.U., Kirtipur

sharmagokul061@gmail.com

Introduction

This paper has been presented in the 22nd international conference of NELTA. It is based on
my experience of dealing with the differences that the learners possess in second language
classroom. During my eight years of teaching career to the master level students at the
Department of English Education, T.U., Kirtipur, I have recollected vivid images of learners
differences which have been reflected in this report. The learning of a second language is a
complex process, involving a seemingly infinite number of variables. While teaching a foreign
language, we need to know something about the intricate web of variables that are spun together
to affect how and why one learns or fails to learn a second language. Since we have been
teaching to the learners, we have to know, who are these learners? Where do they come from?
What are their native languages, levels of education and socioeconomic levels? Who are their
parents? What are their intellectual capacities? What sort of personalities do they have? And so
on (Brown, 1994, p.2). All these variables affect both the learners’ success in and the teacher’s
capacity to enable them to achieve the goal of acquisition. In the heterogeneous context of
language teaching, the students from diverse socio-cultural and linguistic background can be a
source of knowledge and resources for teaching.

Learners’ Differences

Learners’ differences are natural features in a heterogeneous classroom. It is undoubted that the
more students we have in the class, the greater difference among them may appear. The
variations in the learners can be observed in terms of learning abilities, competence, styles,
cultural background, attitudes, mother tongue, intelligence, experience, age, gender, personality,
confidence, motivation, interest, etc. So, we can not expect all the students will be able to do
same tasks in the same way at the same time and with the same interest (Valentic, 2005). The
teachers must understand that variety in the learners is the spice in learning and diversity brings
the variety in learning. That’s why, we need to recognize the differences that our learners
possess. However, it is extremely bad for a boy or girl to be made to feel ‘odd’ and different
from other boys and girls, rather we need to create a love for all (Ellis, 1995). To be specific, age
of acquisition, motivation, family language, literacy and socioeconomic status of the learner are a
few of the many learners’ differences that need to be considered when studying how individuals
acquire a new language (Thompson, 2008).
 The noticeable variables to learners’ differences: The things that I have experienced

In my practice of language teaching, I envisioned the following variables of learners

differences:

 Age (young, intermediate and adult learners)

 Gender(male and female students)
 Knowledge(highly proficient, average and less proficient learners)
 Ability(capable/successful and less capable/unsuccessful learners)
 Intelligence(gifted, moderate and problematic learners)
 Personality(extrovert and introvert learners)
 Style(holistic, analytical, convertor and diverter learners)
 Motivation(highly motivated, motivated and de-motivated learners)
 Interest(interested and uninterested learners)
 Background and experience (students with sound English language background
and poor proficiency)
 Mixed ability, preferences, discipline, confidence, and
 Competence (Competent, risk takers, shy, incompetent, and interactive learners).

The above variables may be different from context of classroom instruction and the nature of
students’ heterogeneity; however these are most common in my practice of teaching and learning
English.

The strategies that I have been using to address learners’ differences

Speaking from own reflexive perspectives, very often, I use to assign tests, observe their
classroom behaviors, interview them about the differences I notice on them, talk with other
teachers about their differences, analyze the cases, critical incidents and test score, talk with the
parents, etc. to identify their differences. During my classroom interaction, I found motivation,
effects of earlier input, attitude, background knowledge, style and preferences, psychological
traits and environment as the reasons of learners’ differences. As the part of strategies I:

 Provide separate time to convince or confess them.

 Assign individual tasks
 Manage extra time for thinking about and acting out.
 Keep personal touch.
 Equalize their learning outcomes.
 Provide supplementary materials
 Give additional projects based upon their interest.
 Consult with parents, staff and other fellow students.
 Explore their multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1978) and let them the opportunity
to explore.
 Adopt group investigation.
 Provide task alternatives
Besides the above, I use some other strategies based upon the context of classroom interaction
and the nature of content. Teachers’ own experience of learners’ differences and the use of
different strategies to address those differences can have practical implications as well.

Implications of observing and addressing learners’ differences in the classroom

The act of observing and addressing learners’ differences in real experience of language teaching
helps teachers understand the context of classroom teaching with heterogeneity. Similarly, it also
facilitates the teachers for identifying the variables of learners’ differences. In the same way,
such act helps teacher to be familiar with the indicators that project the differences in each of the
variables. More importantly, it seems quite significant for finding out some possible ways of
pointing differences, reasons behind the differences, strategies that can be used to handle the
differences and for enhancing the strengths to deal with the differences.

References

Brown, H.D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching. London: Prentice Hall
Regents Englewood Cliffs.

Ellis, R. (1995). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford: OUP.

Thompson, A.S. (2008). Prominent Learners' Differences in the Acquisition of Portuguese:

Language Aptitude versus Previous Language Experience. In Selected Proceedings of the
10th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium,134-145. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings
Project.

Valentic, J. (2005). Teaching with differences. The case of student of Japanese. Modern
language journal 78(2), pp.155-168.