Teaching strategies and techniques in mixed-ability classes

Vol.9,No.2(2019)

Abstract
In this article, the authors review their day-to-day experience with teaching mixed-ability classes at an institution of higher learning. In the first part, they analyse the typical composition of the student population in a class, using the specific situation of the courses on “English for Health Care Professionals”. Students are further characterized in terms of their initial language competence, age, aptitude and motivation. In the second part, the authors present several practical activities they use with the general objective to maximize involvement and language acquisition of all individual students. The practical experience is scrutinized in relation to recent teaching and learning methodologies. The authors discuss strategies such as task and material variation, collaborative learning, individualization, and changes to classroom arrangement. In conclusion, they recommend a mix of varied activities to be tailored with respect to individual heterogeneous groups.

Keywords:
mixed-ability class; motivation; teaching strategies; collaborative learning; task differentiation; classroom arrangement
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