Catering for Learner Diversity in the English Language Classroom

Every class is composed of individuals who are different from each other in terms of maturity, motivation, ability, learning styles, aspirations and interests. Catering for learner diversity is a significant consideration in determining learning and teaching content, level and methods.

Schools are encouraged to exercise flexibility in timetabling and grouping of students, and introduce differentiation measures and school-based programmes to support students’ English learning needs. For more information on differentiation measures to cater for learner diversity at the school and subject levels, please refer to Section 3.3.7.

To enhance curriculum planning as well as learning and teaching in a way that will help different students learn well, teachers are encouraged to consider the following:

 Be sensitive to the needs of different students and appreciate their capacity to learn and improve.

 Make use of materials and activities which - will arouse different students’ interest;

- are relevant to students’ ability level; and

- facilitate the formation of views and solutions to problems that promote conceptual development.

 Create situations and select suitable questioning strategies that will provoke thinking as well as encourage creativity and experimentation with regard to language use.

 Respond to and help students who need extra help and those who are ready to take on greater challenges.

Curriculum Adaptation

Teachers can suit the specific needs, interests, abilities and learning styles of varied groups of students by trimming learning content and materials, making additions or a combination of both.

Teachers need to employ their subject knowledge, professional skills and understanding of the students to select and use appropriate methods to help students work towards the learning targets and objectives. It is a good practice for teachers teaching the same year level to meet and decide on how the English Language curriculum may be adjusted for a particular class or group of students.

Expansion or reduction of the learning content should be done carefully and should not adversely affect students’ progress towards the learning targets and objectives at the senior secondary level.

Adaptation may enable students to learn at the level and pace that suit them best. A clear record of how the English Language curriculum has been adapted in a particular year must be passed on to the teachers in the following years so that they know the needs of the students, and so that continuity in the school curriculum can be achieved.

Learning Tasks and Exercises

The learning targets describe the intended learning goals for all students, but the means by which they work towards the common learning targets may differ in a range of ways. The following examples show how different ways of using tasks and exercises can cater for learner diversity:

 The same task or exercise is provided to all students in the class but the output required and/or the amount and form of support given vary.

 Further support is provided to the less advanced students by, for example,

- giving them more focused practice on particular knowledge, strategies and skills;

- giving them more clues and guidance in the task sheets; and - rephrasing some of the guiding questions.

 A variety of tasks or exercises that are graded according to difficulty are provided to students so that they work on tasks that match their stage of progress or learning styles.

Teaching Methods

Teachers should employ a variety of teaching techniques, including:

 using a variety of questions;

 giving constant feedback;

 flexibly employing different kinds of class groupings;

 giving individual attention during class teaching; and

 checking the correction work or supplementary language assignments done by individual students.

Teachers should create an atmosphere of trust to encourage students to be adventurous, allowing them to make choices, find answers to their own questions and pursue their own interests for improvement.

Adapting the Same Task to Cater for Learner Diversity

The two sets of examples below show how learner diversity can be catered for by giving students varied instructional support in the learning process along with adjusted expectations in the same task.

Example 1:

1. Students write a proposal to suggest ways to improve the facilities and services in a large public housing estate.

2. The teacher provides additional support to the less advanced students by giving more preparatory work focusing on text types, language items and skills, giving them more clues and suggestions for ideas and wording, and guiding them to work through a model or example.

3. The teacher requires two or more levels of performance:

- The less advanced students focus the discussion on improving some obvious aspects

of community life in a large public housing estate, such as cleanliness of the environment, security, sports and recreational facilities for young people.

- The average students are required to take a broader view of the various needs of different sectors of this community, such as working mothers and the elderly, and examine the issue from different perspectives.

- The more advanced students argue for a comprehensive policy that addresses not just isolated problems but embodies a vision of how to build a strong community.

Example 2:

1. A class is divided into groups of different abilities (about six students in each group).

2. The teacher helps students where and when necessary and to different degrees according to individual ability.

3. Each group considers the global developments and challenges teenagers face nowadays.

4. Each group chooses, defines and writes about an aspect of global development and prepares a report for the class on, for example, the changing nature of jobs and lifestyles because of technological developments, the challenges to maintaining a sustainable environment and the implications of the global village.

5. The more advanced groups can explore the issue(s) in greater depth and reflect on how teenagers can prepare themselves for the challenges and the possible roles they can play in it.

The less advanced groups generalise and report on the information they can collect.

6. Sub-groups of two to three students will be formed; each sub-group reads about its chosen issue and prepares notes for reporting orally to the other sub-groups, with the less advanced sub-groups getting help from the teacher as well as their classmates.

7. Each group prepares a formal report in writing, including information and views given by the sub-groups, and then relates it to the whole class for open discussion. A number of periods should be allocated for all the groups to present their reports in turn.

8. The teacher gives advice and suggestions on how the groups can improve their work; the reports can be re-drafted and revised a number of times if necessary. The reports are also marked and corrected.

Assessment

To keep track of students’ progress and demonstrate their learning and achievements, teachers are encouraged to:

 promote formative assessment to provide effective and timely feedback, both formal and informal;

 adopt different modes of assessment (e.g. short assignments, assessment tasks, projects, questioning) to address the needs of students, identify their strengths and weaknesses and

decide on the appropriate content, and learning and teaching strategies;

 help students develop the necessary skills to assess and monitor their own learning through self-assessment so as to enable them to learn better;

 promote peer assessment through which students can develop a better understanding of the learning objectives and assessment criteria, and what is expected of them; and

 use e-assessment to help identify students’ strengths and weaknesses and facilitate analysis of their performance.

The final outcome of the effort to cater for learner diversity should be to enhance pleasure and satisfaction in learning, confidence, motivation, concentration and persistence, and knowledge and skills in all students.

For more information on the learning and teaching strategies which could be adopted by teachers to cater for learner diversity, support students with special educational needs and maximise the potential of gifted students in the mainstream English Language classroom, please refer to Sections 4.3.2, 4.3.3 and 4.3.4 of the English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 – Secondary 6) (2017).

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