Teaching Strategies and Adults Learners 

By Pablo Rubén Niño

 

 

When teaching a specific group of learners a good teacher must identify several factors that will affect the learning process both negatively and positively, and anticipate any potential difficulties the students may encounter during their learning process. Furthermore, the language educator must also consider which aspects of the group contribute to, and enhance their learning experience.

 As such, in writing this, I’d like to mention a few aspects that define adult learners as a very special group:

 

1. Adults are self-directed in their learning

2. Adults have reservoirs of experience that serve as resources as they learn.

3. Adults are practical, problem-solving-oriented learners.

4. Adults want their learning to be immediately applicable to their lives.

5. Adults want to know why something needs to be learned.

Consequently, when planning an ESL lesson for adult students, it would be very useful to consider these aspects inherent in adult learners in order to deliver better lessons that actually meet the needs and expectation of such a group.