British council

Teaching mixed-ability classes 1

Submitted by admin on 13 June, 2003 - 13:00

You may often be teaching a class which has students who are clearly of
different levels. They may have different starting levels of English or they may
learn at very different speeds - for any number of reasons.

These are several strategies that a teacher can use to deal with this situation.
This is the first of two articles on the topic.
The second article covers...
Range of tasksExtra work / HomeworkStudent nominationSupporting
the weaker studentsError correction
This first article deals with the following strategies.
Discussion and needs analysis
Student self-awareness
Work groupings

Discussion and needs analysisIt is easy for students to get frustrated

in a class of mixed ability. Stronger students may feel held back, weaker
students may feel pressured. The teacher may feel stressed. The best solution
to this is to have an open-class discussion about the classroom situation - to
ensure the best for everyone it is better to acknowledge the situation and for
everyone to agree how to deal with it. It is probably best to stage and structure
the discussion.
Needs AnalysisUse a needs analysis to prompt the students to reflect upon
their learning style, learning strategies, language needs, learning enjoyment,
motivation, language strengths and weaknesses. Questions that might be
included are...
What kinds of class activities do you enjoy / benefit from?
Which language skill do you most wish to develop?
Do you prefer working individually or with a partner?
Would you rather sit and listen to the teacher all lesson or participate in group
work?
Students compare their answers in pairs or small groups. You should collect the
information and prepare a statistical representation of the key questions and
answers. This will help to develop the sense of shared community in the class.

Explain and discuss

Explain the mixed-level situation to the students and give a list of possible
approaches to the teaching and learning. In pairs, the students rank the
approaches/ideas according to their suitability for the situation.
Following feedback, you should highlight the strategies you plan to use.
A student contractDeveloping with the students, or perhaps writing it yourself,
a contract of behaviour for activities is a useful device. 'I will help and support
my activity partner.' 'I will participate in group work.'
Tell them what you are going to doIf you think your students are not mature
enough to carry out this kind of reflection, explain the situation to the class and
tell them what strategies you will be using. If students know what to expect,
you can hope that they will cooperate.
All of the above work could be done in the mother tongue, although I feel it is
best done primarily in the target language (as it draws attention to the fact
that this is a learning language issue.)

Student self-awarenessEncourage students to develop an awareness of

their own language abilities and learning needs. What are their strengths and
weaknesses, and how can they focus on these? How can they measure their
own progress
This may take the form of a learner's diary, regular self-assessment, keeping
records of mistakes, keeping a record of things learnt.

Work groupingsVarying the way students work in the class will help meet
the variety of levels in the class.
Pair workYou can pair strong with strong, weak with weak, or strong with weak.
Perhaps in a very controlled activity, the strong with weak will work well. In a
freer activity, perhaps strong with strong will be of benefit. Variety in the
pairings is the key here - and you should also be sensitive to the general
relationships between different students, and learn to note who works well with
whom.
Group workThese groups could be of mixed levels or similar ones. The hope is
that in a smaller group, the weaker student will feel more able to contribute.
Also, if the group is working with a set of information, divide the information
between the students, forcing them to work together.
You may consider dividing your class into groups by level for the whole lesson,
enabling you to give a different level or number of tasks to each group.
Discussion of this strategy with the class should help prevent stigmatisation.

Whole class - minglesThis is a favoured strategy of mine. A mingle activity

involves students talking or interacting with many different members of the
class in a short period of time in order to achieve a task. This means that any
one student will work with students at different levels - experiencing stronger
and weaker levels of communication. This supports the weaker students and
provides opportunities for the stronger ones.
A classic activity is a 'Find someone who...'
In this activity the student has to survey the class to find people who(for
example) have got something - Do you have a CD player? Or have
done something - Have you eaten fish and chips? Orlike something Do you like tennis? If a student answers yes to a question, then the other
student should ask for more information. If a student answers no, then
the other should find a new person to ask, and may come back to the
first student with another question later on. The potential for this is
endless. It is a great way to provide practice of a particular language
structure/area (10 questions all using the past simple) and provides
controlled practice as well as the opportunity for further freer discussion.
It also creates a lively classroom dynamic. Mingles can take many forms students may have to find the person who has a matching word to theirs,
or the second half of a split sentence. The students may all have the
same or different questions, or a mixture. The key is the general principle
of an information gap or communicative need.
Overall, variety in the types of working groups, and an open discussion of the
class situation will help to deal with some of the difficulties that are present in
mixed ability classes. The aim of these strategies is to create a positive working
environment, which is all part of ensuring better learning.
Gareth Rees,teacher/teacher trainer, London Metropolitan University, UK

one stop english

Classroom management:
teaching mixed-ability classes
By Tim Bowen

Level: Starter/beginner, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper

intermediate, Advanced Type: Reference material
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Advice and suggestions for teaching English to mixedability classes.

Romina Trossero in Argentina wrote into our Grammar Help section with
the
following problem:
Id like to get some information about mixed ability English language
classes and some activities to use with a class in which there are two
levels of English.
This is Tim Bowen's response:
This is a very common problem. Most, if not all, language classes contain
students of mixed abilities. This happens for a number of reasons, but
mainly because of different learning styles, different learning speeds,
variations in motivation and, very frequently, as a result of logistic
decisions. Very often the teacher is faced with a class with two or more
distinct levels of ability and has to tackle the problem of how to meet the
needs of everyone in the class. Naturally, this is not an easy problem to
solve and it would be wrong to suggest that there are any simple
solutions. A fundamental step, however, is to talk to the class about the
situation and to present it to them as a normal situation and one that the
class as a whole has to deal with. This is probably best done in the
mother tongue of the students. As most of the solutions to the problem
depend on cooperation between the members of the class, it is essential
to stress the need for teamwork and for the class to use English
whenever possible in classroom communication.
The use of pair and group work is essential if you are to involve all the
members of the class. A fundamental technique here is the use of
questionnaires and interviews. By pairing off weaker and stronger
students and involving both in the preparation and implementation of the
questionnaire you should ensure maximum participation of all the
students. You can then get the weaker students to interview the stronger
ones and vice-versa. Of course, this may be frustrating for the stronger
ones, but if they are able to see their role as that of helper or even
mentor, it may also have a positive effect.
A second area of activity that can be productive in mixed ability classes
is project work. Again, this can work successfully using mixed groups
where the stronger help the weaker, but another approach is to form
groups that are at approximately the same level and assign different
tasks that are appropriate to the level of each group. By adjusting the
complexity of the task, you can ensure that each group has a task that it
can carry out successfully, thereby providing the correct level of

challenge for the higher level students and not demotivating the weaker
ones.
A third area is that of homework. If you set the whole class the same
homework task irrespective of level, then you will have to expect very
mixed results. As with progress tests, the purpose of homework should
be to consolidate class work. To this end, giving weaker students less
demanding tasks can help both to motivate them and to give them
further practice in areas of the language which they have not yet
mastered. Assigning more challenging tasks to the stronger students in
the group should ensure that they remain motivated and continue to
make progress. It is more work for the teacher but, ultimately, it should
produce results.
Choral drilling can be an effective way of involving weaker or shy
students. If applied judiciously (in other words not all the time), it can
give excellent practice in rhythm and intonation, as well as reinforcing
word order and grammatical structure.
Finally, be diplomatic in your questioning techniques. Try to avoid putting
weaker students on the spot by nominating them to be the first to
answer a question in open class. Instead, try to encourage a culture of
attentive listening in the classroom so that you ask a stronger student
first and then ask a weaker student to repeat the answer. It may take
time but, once this style of interaction becomes habitual, it can be very
productive in terms of class dynamics.