21
Oct
As a teacher, you have planned your lesson carefully. You know what language you want to teach, you have chosen your activities and prepared your materials. But there is one question that needs to come before all of those:
Who are you actually teaching?
It sounds obvious. Yet it is surprisingly easy to plan a lesson around the language, the coursebook or an interesting activity rather than around the people who will be learning.
A class is more than a level
Knowing that you teach an intermediate class tells you something about your learners – but not nearly enough. Two learners at exactly the same level may have very different needs. One may need English for meetings with international colleagues. Another may need it for travelling, while someone else may be preparing to study abroad.
Their learning experiences may be different too. Some learners are confident speakers but worry about accuracy. Others know a great deal of grammar but become uncomfortable when they have to speak spontaneously.
They may all be B1. But they are certainly not all the same learner.
The learner changes the teaching decision
Imagine you are planning a speaking activity around making suggestions.
For a group of young adults learning general English, you might ask them to plan a weekend away together. For professionals who work with international colleagues, the same language could be practised through suggesting solutions to a workplace problem.
The target language hasn’t changed. The learners have. And because the learners have changed, the teaching choices should change too. The examples we choose, the support we provide, the pace of a lesson, the way we group learners and the materials we use can all be influenced by who is sitting in front of us.
Start with the learners, not the activity
Teachers naturally collect activities they like. We find a great video, an interesting text or a speaking task that worked brilliantly with another class and think: I could use this!
Perhaps we can. But a better question is:
What will my learners get from it?
An activity isn’t valuable simply because it is creative, entertaining or worked well somewhere else. Its value depends on whether it helps these particular learners move towards something they need to be able to do.
That means becoming curious about our students. Why are they learning English? What can they already do? What do they find difficult? When do they use English outside the classroom? What makes them reluctant to participate?
We won’t know all the answers immediately. Part of teaching is finding out.
Good teaching starts with noticing
Knowing your learners isn’t something you do once at the beginning of a course with a needs-analysis questionnaire. You continue learning about them every time you teach. You notice who needs more processing time, who speaks readily and who needs preparation first. You notice which language problems keep returning, which tasks generate real engagement and when learners need your help – or are ready to manage without it. Those observations should influence the decisions you make.
Good teaching isn’t simply delivering a well-planned lesson. It is responding intelligently to the learners who are experiencing it.
How does CELTA help?
Learning to look at a lesson from the learners’ perspective is an important part of CELTA. From analysing learner needs to planning and teaching lessons, trainees are encouraged to think not simply about what the teacher will do, but about what the learners need, what they will be doing and what they are likely to learn. Teaching real learners, observing their responses and reflecting afterwards gradually develops the ability to make decisions based on the people in front of you.
And at the Shakespeare School CELTA Training centre?
At the Shakespeare School CELTA Training centre, understanding the learners is at the heart of the training process. From the first lesson plans to the final teaching practice, trainees are encouraged to look beyond what they have planned and pay attention to what is actually happening in the classroom. Through teaching practice, observation and feedback, they learn to notice how learners respond, what they find challenging and when they need more – or less – support. The aim is not to produce teachers who follow a particular formula, but teachers who can make thoughtful decisions based on the learners in front of them.
And perhaps that is one of the most important questions a teacher can keep asking: Who am I teaching – and what do these learners need from me?