Teaching adolescent learners- English

1. Teaching adolescent learners
Judy Colmenero

2. As a profession, language teachers and researchers have spent much of their
efforts on understanding and educating adult and young learners.
However, adolescent learners do not fit into either group.

3. They are different from young learners because
they have had a more diverse set of experiences,
including social and academic experiences; yet,
they are not adults because they do not have the
breadth and depth of experience nor the cognitive
maturityofadults

4. Learners grow and develop more rapidly than at any other
stage in life, except for infancy.
Also, adolescents are often very much aware of their
growth and development, and this awareness can make the
changes they are experiencing uncomfortable and difficult.
From
about
10-14

5. Adolescent
English Learners
inInnerCircle
Countries
Adolescent L2 learners also fall into two
categories:
- Those who are newly arrived
- Those who were born in an Inner Circle
country.
In terms of English, they also fall into two
categories:
- Those who have had some schooling in English
- Those who have not.

6. Adolescent learners in the
newly arrived group have
had a variety of
experiences; and
consequently have
different learner profiles.
They may have:
♫ Spent time in refugee camps.
♫ Experienced trauma escaping or moving from their
home country.
♫ Had no previous schooling in any language.
♫ Had periods of interrupted schooling.
♫ Developed written skills but few oral skills or vice
versa.
♫ Developed good oracy and literacy skills in their
first language.
♫ Ambivalent attitudes to learning English and
consider it as purely an academic requirement, with
no relevance to their future lives.

7. What knowledge can have a new
student?
What behavior will he/she show?

8. Instructingforlearning

9. Thestandardsare
organizedaround:
 Goals - the overarching areas in which
learners need to develop competence.
 Standards - What students should know
and be able to do with English
 Descriptors - broad categories of discrete,
representative behaviors that students
exhibit when they meet the standard).

10. What are the 3
major goals of
the standards?
- Use English to communicate in social settings.
- Use English to achieve academically in all
content areas in school settings.
- Use English in socially and culturally
appropriate ways..

11. Key Areas of
Adolescent
Development
There are five key areas of
development related to adolescents:
- Intellectual
- Physical
- Social
- Emotional
- Psychological and moral.

12. What
characteristics
involve the
intellectual
development?
 Adolescent learners are transitioning from the concrete
thinking stage to the abstract thinking stage.
 Abstract thinking is characterized by developing one’s
ability to analyze one’s own and others’ thinking and to
think about abstract ideas, such as diversity, compassion,
and loyalty.
 Adolescents are trying to learn how to reflect on and
reason about their real-life experiences that have a
bearing on abstract concepts and ideas.

13. Adolescent learners are extremely
curious and interested in the world
around them and engage in numerous
intellectual pursuits

14. Whydoesthismattertome?
WhatcanIdotochangethesituation?
Whatareothersthinking?
IfIdothis,whatwilltheythinkofme?
What questions
can the learners
think about when
they are curious?

15. Teacher Support

16.  Provide opportunities for students to work together collaboratively.
 Help students connect the abstract concepts they are studying to
their real lives by providing time for personal reflection.
 Help students apply their knowledge and skills to worthwhile real-
life tasks.
 Differentiate instruction so that adolescent learners have different
options for learning new information (both content and language)
and expressing what they have learned (Tomlinson, 2001).
 Create classroom tasks that focus on helping learners develop
complex thinking skills
 Give learners opportunities to make choices in their learning and to
pursue tasks that are interesting to them.
 Talk to learners one-to-one and schedule short, regular student-
teacher meetings to find out what they are doing and thinking.
 Teachers can serve as powerful role models by modeling academic
tasks that will be useful tools for them outside of the classroom.

17. Physical
Development

18.  The physical development in adolescent
learners is characterized by rapid and irregular
growth. Because growth is so rapid, learners
often feel awkward and uncoordinated as if
they have not had time to adjust to the physical
changes in their bodies.

19. What are some physical changes
that teenagers can have
meanwhile they are growing?

21. Teacher Support

22.  Teachers must understand the physical changes that
adolescents are experiencing and then respect these
changes.
 Instructional methods that give students opportunities to
work together and to move around work best with
adolescent learners.
 Some teachers have success in allowing for open and
honest discussions about issues related to physical
development, puberty, and sexuality.
 Adolescent learners need opportunities for scheduled
physical fitness each day.
 Schools that support adolescents with some physical
fitness activity or programming are better at meeting the
needs of this age group

23. Social Development

24.  The focus on self is a hallmark of the
adolescent developmental process at
work, and needing to belong to and be
accepted by a group is the strongest
defining feature of adolescence.
Adolescent learners are beginning to
think about themselves as individuals in
relationship to society.

26. Teacher Support

27.  Take time to learn about the issues facing their
adolescent learners and demonstrate empathy.
 Serve as powerful role models by modeling acceptance of
others, working collaboratively with others, and talking
through difficult problems to reach a solution.
 Provide opportunities for cooperative and individual work.
 Establish clear expectations for social interaction in the
classroom
 Require students to apply their knowledge and skills to
the social issues of concern.
 •Teach students the language needed to function
democratically in groups.

28. Emotional and
Psychological
Development

29. - If the adolescents are bored, what do you
do to keep their attention?
- When it comes time to present in front of
their peers, what happen to them?

30.  This constant emotional roller coaster means
that learners often do not know where to
position themselves, and the full range of
emotions they experience can be frightening.

31. Teacher Support

32.  Create opportunities for small group discussions so that
students can share their ideas and beliefs with each
other.
 Provide opportunities for students to write and reflect as a
part of their learning experiences.
 Offer sincere positive feedback when it is appropriate.
 Create opportunities for students to work together on
tutoring and mentoring activities if they so desire.
 Invite guests and experts from the community to visit
class, so learners can interact with other adults.
 Help students set and achieve their personal goals.

33. Moral Development

34.  During adolescence, learners get excited about making change
and making a difference. However, they underestimate how
difficult it is to make change, and they are often impatient with
how slowly change happens in reality.

35. Who are the first ones to
judge other persons,
teenagers or kids?
Why?

36. Teacher Support

37.  Engage students in the community by involving
community leaders and other adults in authentic projects.
 Teach students culturally appropriate ways to resolve
conflicts in order to solve real-life problems, and teach the
language necessary to make the process work.
 •Create learning experiences for students that are
complex and involve problems that they might encounter
in real life.

38. Murray,D.E.,&Christison,M.
(2010).WhatEnglish
languageteachersneedto
knowII:facilitatinglearning.
Routledge.