Mixed-level English classrooms What my paper is about: Basically my paper is about confirming with my research that the use of technology in the classroom WILL help mixed-level classrooms -The problem of mixed-level English classroom -surveys to teachers & students -for a way to help with this problem, I looked at the use of technology in the classrooms to see whether it would really improve the problems. -The things I looked: -whether the problem of mixed-levels in the classroom have an affect on the students as well as the teaching - what kind of problems exist?

Who were the participants Students: Undergraduate students between 18~25 Mixed backgrounds and ethnicities Teachers: Teachers of different levels, high-school, university - all teaching in Thailand Mixed levels of experience

Survey questions - to students Do you have some sort of technology use in your life other than cellphones? 100% yes - they do

Do you feel like there is much English-language level differences in your classroom? If yes, how does the difference make you feel? yes to some extent. bored Yes, there is. Some times makes hard some time easy and some how bored but depend on the situation. Yes, I think that from different situation. I got different feeling involving too hard and too easy!! Yes I do, but there is not in every class though. Normally, i will just do something else when lecture try to explain thing overs to friends who do not understand or understand alittle bit of English, also i will help my lecture to explain them, too. Not much. Yes there is, but it doesnt make any difference to me

Is the use of technology for you personal study helpful? it helps me reach knowledge and information easily. yes because its more advanced and updated. Yes, in my opinion I think that if I lack of the technology devices, then I can hardly find the information involving my learning.

Do you think that you would enjoy your classes more if there was more activities which involved the use of some sort of technology? For sure! If they provide more and more technology studying. I'll attend that class. sure, because it will make the learning more lively and effective. yes, it is boring to just sitting and listen to boring lecture which full of words and text. Also, I can easily learn some thing through activities or by doing. There were also comments which didn't agree with the use of technologies in the classroom no, because i will lost my attention. i think not. well i like the old fashion class There were more answers leaning towards agreement for use of technology in the classroom

Have you had any classroom activities so far involving technology? yes, both teacher and students enjoy using technology in classroom. Yep, I had it and it's pretty good. Yes. We've gone to the computer lab several times for some courses. It was fun. We lose track of time everytime we go there because we enjoy every little thing we learn about computers and learning with the help of it.

What I concluded from the students replies Most students replied to the question, “Do you think that you would enjoy your classes more if there were more activities which involved the use of some sort of technology?”, with the answers “yes” as it will be fun for them. There was not many students opposing the idea of more technology in the classroom, but for example, one of the replies, “no, because I will loose my attention”. This would not typically be what you hear from a student, but this students reason for saying no was the same reason as some of the teachers replied. From these results, it is still not a simple answer that has been solved but from the surveys, more clear information has been gained and some small but not definite conclusions can be drawn.

Survey questions - to teachers Do you use some sort of technology in the classroom? Please name a few things that you use and how you use them. I do not use much. Maybe computer and LCD, but that it all Yes I use the computer (calculator,research, etc), internet (current events), PowerPoint (slides), cd and dvd (speeches and demos) I have a variety of technologies available to me in the classroom including, Computer, video, audio, IBoard. I mainly use video clips. I use youtube or other forms of video player and show clips or features and then will use this material for my class.

Do you think that more technology in the classroom would be good? If so, What kind of technology, for what? I personally as a teacher would like more technology because it would make it easier for teaching but I dont think that the students need it here at SIU yes, interactive screens for students to learn from no. i dont want to use my time to ready for that. 1 pen and white boad were enough for my teaching. more technology must be interesting for students. but i think i have a skill to do enogh interesting class without that

What do you do when you have mixed English-language level students in your class i spend most of the class aimed at the middle students adn a small part of each class that brings in each extreme t is easy for students to get frustrated in a class of mixed ability. Stronger students may feel held back, weaker students may feel pressured. The teacher may feel stressed. The best solution to this is to have an open-class discussion about the classroom situation - to ensure the best for everyone it is better to acknowledge the situation and for everyone to agree how to deal with it. It is probably best to stage and structure the discussion. It is difficult. I try to adapt to the poorer students by using select words and using similar words, demanding a little more out of the better students in terms of quality, use assignments that all can do.

Conclusion from teachers questions The problems that teachers believe would be raised is that, from giving the students more technology to use in class, the results shows that it is dependent to whether this is a good or bad thing because they know that the technology would motivate students more but at the same time depending on what is given to them e.g. laptops in class, then it may be a large distraction for the students.

Group based activities which involve technology Activities such as research in a group setting -with the use of computers to do the research -The motivation factor for the students should rise - as gathered through the surveys -The groups for the research can be upto the teacher -The topic can be the same for every group this way

Overall Conclusion There is no exact answer yet but with the extra help of the modern day technology minimize the dilemmas that teachers have to deal with and also help the students who are very much affected in these mixed ability classrooms. A learner learns the most when they are interested, and technology has proved to be a big factor that is apart of the students’ interest. The survey has shown the importance of technology to the students, their motivation would go up. The recommended activity that I have given would be a good start

Somethings I would have liked to further look into -There were some specific factors why the survey cannot be taken as the best way to understand the situation. -If this research were to be further investigated, more detailed questions would be suggested for a better idea on the exact information needed. -To be able to actually test the activity with the students and to make an observation on that would give a much better idea to whether the activities would work well or not. -More participates would also be recommended, from both the teachers side and the students side as this would give a larger perspective on the issue.