Who my learners are

 

This is a question that I'm struggling with at the moment. I can explain who my students have been for the past two decades, but they are probably not the same ones I’ll be teaching in the future. 

Those I’ve been teaching vary greatly in terms of age, cultural background, experience and education. I’ve been teaching adult students of all ages, from 16 to 80, representing the generational cohorts from early Baby Boomers to Generation Z. They are mostly international students so they come from many different cultures. Some of them come with high school groups, others are on gap year before going to university or are taking a break from university. In recent years the school has targeted people over thirty, and as a result, we’ve been getting a lot of students who are employed coming to improve their language skills for work. 

What kind of students I’ll be teaching in the future, especially if it’s completely online, is a little difficult to predict. Many of the students who studied at my school came because they wanted to improve their language skills while at the same time having a life experience, immersing themselves in a new culture, meeting others from different cultures, perhaps being away from their parents for the first time and spending time in Vancouver. There are very few of these types of students in Canada at this point in time and it’s unclear whether they are going to come back in the future. 

Moving forward, I’m more likely to be teaching students who are studying for more practical purposes, probably limited to those who are preparing for exams, who are developing their academic language skills in preparation for attending college or university programs or those who need English for work purposes. Another type of student who will continue is immigrants. 

Immigrants could come from anywhere and might have variable abilities with technology. Some of them might therefore need extra support with using technology. With these groups, I would want to make sure a lot of support was given to help them use different tools, perhaps by providing tutorials to help them learn to use tools they were unfamiliar with. I would also try to use tech tools that are straightforward to use.

With exam prep students and business English students, I would assume a greater level of comfort with technology as the students are likely to be younger in the case of exam prep students or more experienced with technology in the case of business English students. 

As well as students’ comfort with the technology, I need to consider their access to appropriate technology and to the internet. Students may be limited to older computers / tablets that don’t have full functionality or may be doing their work on a phone, for example. Their internet access may be slow or spotty. This may affect their ability to participate in the course.

Finally, one of the biggest challenges with language classes is that students may struggle because their language skills are limited. For this reason, any instructions given must be very clear and broken down appropriately. Modelling will likely be necessary for all tasks and activities that students are asked to do. 

With online learning it will be even more important to consider the level of the materials like reading texts learners are asked to work with. If they are asked to read something that is beyond their language skills or reading skills, for example, it’s likely to be even more frustrating in an online environment than in a face-to-face one where the instructor is readily available to encourage them or offer guidance.

I think the biggest sign that a student was struggling would be if they didn’t attend synchronous learning activities regularly or didn’t do their assignments. Assessments might reveal who is not keeping up or is having difficulty learning the material / developing their language skills. 

Luckily, with language classes, some of the lessons would almost certainly be conducted on a videoconferencing platform, which would allow me to have a better idea of who is having difficulties. However, I’ve found that on zoom I still needed to explicitly ask students how they’re doing and request that they let me know if they are having problems. I point out to them that it’s more difficult for me to tell how they’re doing because I can’t see them as well.

I would include frequent assessment activities to make sure everyone was keeping up. If appropriate, I might also include some one-on-one check-ins over zoom and would check in with the group by soliciting formal or informal feedback regularly. This could be in the form of ‘exit tickets’ at the end of a class or module that would help ensure students are feeling confident and are taking away what they need to from the class. I would make it very easy for students to contact me for help and would respond within a short time.