Teaching Older Adults–Teaching Unplugged?
By: Peggy Thoma
Teachers all around the globe spend a considerable portion of their careers reading, researching and trying out different teaching methods. After lots of trial and error, they manage to establish the methods that best complement their teaching style as well as their students’ needs. Until one day an older adult, over the age of 55-60, walks into their classroom. Some of these adults might want to learn English for work, which falls under business English, or for traveling, which falls under everyday communication, but now and then there’s a number of adults that come in and state “I just want to learn for myself.” The first few times I came across this statement, my amygdala was instantly triggered and my brain went into a fight or flight mode, and every time I conveniently chose flight. However, after the initial shock I reluctantly decided to take up some of these learners and this is what they have taught me.
Similarities to other learners
To start with, all learners need consistent practice and revision to reinforce their vocabulary and grammar. Research has shown time and time again that if you want to create new pathways in the brain, you need to revise and recall information at specified intervals in order to strengthen the connections between neurons. Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel have clearly outlined effective strategies for this in their book Make it Stick (2014). According to their findings, retrieving information is much more effective than reading and rereading.
Another similarity is that all learners benefit from immersive experiences and exposure to the language. This means that we need to make lessons relevant to their lives and we need to make sure that they are constantly exposed to new language through different kinds of activities such as articles, stories, videos, dialogues, and others.
Last but not least, all learners thrive in a supportive, safe learning environment that encourages them to take risks. Most learners are quite self aware and they don’t want to take risks, but this is exactly what blocks their learning. We are all familiar with Krashen’s (1982) affective filter hypothesis where he clearly shows that whatever the input is, if learners are not confident or they face anxiety, they will not be able to learn. It is therefore the teacher’s responsibility to create a safe environment by showing that mistakes are learning opportunities rather than signs of failure.
Differences to other learners
Older adults that come into our classrooms have left the educational system a long time ago. They are the learners who were taught in the classrooms of the 1960s and the 1970s. Because of that they have a very different “picture” in their minds of the teaching and the learning processes. We are now far from the audio-lingual and grammar translation methods as we have moved to more communicative and brain-based methods. As a result, these learners have to “unlearn” and “relearn” and adapt to the new reality. They will be doubting the new ways as they usually have set ideas. They will need to see the results before they decide whether to accept them or not, which means we have to allow more time so that they can adjust.
Life experience is another difference between older adults and other learners. The truth is, these learners have more life experience than their teachers. This is quite challenging especially for younger teachers who need to put together a curriculum as well as prepare materials. Content-wise the aim is to expand on what the learners already know rather than teach them new things. Actually, in many cases, the teacher is the one who learns more about life through this interaction.
So, if you are ready to be both a learner and a teacher, teach an older adult. It is a journey worth taking, an unforgettable experience!
References
Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it Stick: The science of successful learning. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in Second Language Acquisition. Pergamon Press.
Peggy Thoma (BA TEFL, MA) has been teaching English in Greece since 2004. In 2022 she set up an English language centre where she continues teaching both online and on-site.