Teaching Mixed Ability and Beginner Classes in Higher Education Jo Eastlake SOAS Teacher Trainer Languages of the Wider World CETL

What do we mean by Mixed Ability in the Higher Education Language Class? What are we referring to?

Students from different socio-cultural and learning backgrounds Other learning variables among the students. Also SEN students. Students of different levels. “False” beginners? Other learning and negative/positive prior learning experiences. Effective learning (and social!) strategies. Young adults and mature students. Different access to education and educational resources (including technology) Other languages and varieties the students bring to the class Heritage and background learners

Suggestions for Case Study one: Collaborative homework tasks e.g. students are required to produce and record a listening text such as a dialogue in the target language. Tasks involving learner-generated materials. For some learners this could include the development e.g. word lists and word maps. Explanation and illustration of grammar points (to upload to VLE) to support a way of learning that is more familiar to them.

Suggestions for case study 2 Open-ended Project work. “Strong” and “weaker” students could be grouped together respectively, therefore leaving them to take the project to own level. Peer Teaching projects. Stronger students required to design materials for class or group to support the learning of characters. Students “tutor” their group for 5 to 10 minutes every lesson.

Suggestions for case study 3 Use learner’s knowledge as much as possible in class Set up “paper” conversation activities in class. Ensure he knows how he’s assessed (regarding the use of the “Standard”) Include communicative strategies etc. as part of the assessment.

Can Mixed Ability be a positive attribute of a Language Class in Higher Education?

Can encourage collaborative learning and in turn develop a vibrant learning community in the class “Divergent Classrooms can become learning communities – communities in which each participant makes significant contributions to the emergent understandings of all members, despite having unequal knowledge concerning the topic under study” (Palincsar, Brown and Campione, 1993). May support social understandings of SLA theory e.g. language learning as participation in a community of practice. (e.g. Participation metaphor in SLA, Lantolf and Pavlenko 2000) On a transactional level, learners will be practised in communicating with speakers who have different skills in the language.

Thank you! Jo Eastlake SOAS Teacher Trainer Languages of the Wider World CETL

Useful resources: Mixed –Ability Teaching in Language Learning. By Susan Ainslie and Susan Purcell. CILT publications The Adult Language Learner. Edited by Lore Arthur and Stella Hurd Dialogue Activities. By Nick Bilbrough. CUP Dictation. By Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri. CUP DIY techniques for language learners By María Fernández-Toro & Francis R Jones. CILT publications And references …….. Block, D. The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition. Edingburgh Texts in Applied Linguistics Lantolf, J. Social- Cultural Theory in Second Language Learning. OUP Smith P,K, and Pellegrini A. Psychology of Education. Taylor and Francis. 2000