Teach English in XinkAi Zhen - Huanggang Shi

As we all know, young learners and adults are totally different, so there should be a big gap in teaching these two groups. For English teachers, we must be aware of these distinctions and use various methods to enable them to learn English quickly and effectively. The first thing we need to mention is the obvious differences in learning experience between adults and young learners. For young learners, they probably have had some learning experience, but their views haven't fixed and they are still open-minded, therefore, they are willing to accept and try new learning methods. So from the perspective of teachers, we can try different methods boldly. On the contrast, adults are experienced learners, they usually have gone through several years of schooling, so they have their own way of learning, that's why they will have a fixed view of how teaching should be carried, once teachers break the regular procedures of teaching, their subconscious will think this is not reliable，especially in china, adults have gone through more than ten years of indoctrination，many of them regard any fun activities as a wasting of learning time. Consequently, when teaching them, teacher has to remind them of the correct methods again and again to eliminate their doubt and unease. Some open-minded adults can quickly embrace new methods, but for most of them, they still try to use their familiar ways to study, for example, reciting words without context and sentences, or treat grammar books as the Bible. Secondly, the ways used to motivate the two groups should also be quite different. Once decide to learn English, adults must have their own reasons, maybe for job promotion or just want to travel abroad. Therefore, adults are self-motivated and teachers just need to encourage them to improve their confidence. However, young learners are usually obliged to learn English by their parents, some of them are quite rebellious or stressed. That's requires more personal care for them. What's more, teachers need to make classes varied and interesting to attract them. The psychological difference makes adults feel nervous and anxious about learning English, on one hand, many of them have been out of the learning environment for a long time, They have a natural resistance and shyness towards re-accepting learning environment. At the same time, some older students are worried about their classmates' stares, which lower their self-confidence, and they are generally fuss over about one thing, that is, the memory of the old is not as good as that of the young, however, once they start to study, they will spend a lot of time to make sure that they can perform as good as the young in classes. Thus, teachers would better to be gentle and encouraging when they are unrest. About their behavior, there is a lot to talk about. Adults have a greater attention span than young learners. That's why teachers don't need to maintain class order for them, they are well-controlled by themselves. Obviously, Young learners lack awareness of learning, thus, once the class is less attractive, they will be distracted easily. It is essential for teacher to think or create fun activities to draw their attentions. Even in study phase, we'd better try to summarize knowledge points in varied ways to make sure they will not feel boring. There are many more differences between young learners and adults, those are what require teachers must be meticulous .we have to vary our teaching methods according to the group of learners. sometimes we even need to discern them more detailed. For example, we can divide adults into the older and the young adults, but remember, we do need to care everyone equally so that it won't cause psychological imbalance. Being a teacher is not only teach knowledge, we have to know our students and try our best to be a great teacher. What is the sign of a great teacher? I think it must include how well you know your students.