TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULT LEARNERS
Keywords:
teaching, English, adults, communication, motivation, goalsAbstract
Teaching English language to adult learners can be incredibly rewarding, but incredibly challenging too. The world outside the classroom makes demands on all (four) language skills and the adult student is anxious to acquire a “survival” capacity or communicative competence”.1 In addition, many students will demand to see and spell what they heard and it seems pointless to refuse them this satisfaction. Adults have a way of learning what they want and when they want to learn it. Communicative competence includes the ability to have a conversation or communicate with a native speaker in a real-life situation, with stress on communication of ideas rather than on only accuracy of language form or knowledge of grammar rules. Hence students can have a meaningful communication which means that students are processing content that is relevant, purposeful, interesting and engaging.
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References
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