Chapter 2
Meeting Learners′ Needs
6 Responding to learning needs in the classroom
7 Using pair and group work
8 Working with large classes
9 Keeping your class in good order
10 Mature learners
11 Supporting learners away from home
12 Designing feedback questionnaires
This chapter is essentially about people and processes. In the last chapter we
talked a lot about the content of a language course—in this chapter we talk more
about the people who are doing the learning. Our first set of suggestions looks at
how classroom practice can best be adapted, so that the learning experience is
inherently beneficial as well as simply efficient in language acquisition terms.
Students learn a great deal from each other. In small group situations, we can
capitalize on this, and help them to derive the maximum benefit from each other.
Our suggestions also point towards ways of avoiding some of the many things
that can go wrong with inter-learner communication in small groups.
Teaching large groups of learners brings its own challenges. In the suggestions
in this book, we concentrate on helping learners themselves to derive a good
experience from those parts of their learning that they undertake in large groups.
Some classes are more demanding than others in terms of discipline. We offer
some suggestions for keeping good order in your class, and encouraging learners
to work with you to ensure a productive learning atmosphere for all.
We then look at the needs of some particular learner groups. We start by
offering suggestions on how to meet the needs of mature learners. It is
particularly important to adjust our approaches to mature learners in situations
where the age range in a group may be quite broad, and where mature learners
are learning alongside much younger learners. It is all too easy for the mature