Children or adults?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of teaching children? What are the advantages and disadvantages of teaching teenagers/adults? Speak from different points of view, say, behavior, learning, time, expectations, and the like. Base your answers on what you have learned in Methodology and Linguistics. In this way, you may discover the kind of people you would like to work with in the future. Waiting for your posts. Best regards from your teacher, Marcela.
Hello
ReplyDeleteFirst at all Children learn by movement so you need to motivate them a lot and they have a short attention span.
Teenagers have a great capacity to learn and they have a potencial for creativity when they are interested in it.
Adult are mature and self-directed and they have expectations about the learning process.
I like to work in the future with adult, because they are more responsable, they want to learn,they are more conscious about the learning process.
Silvia R
Hello Everybody
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic, well in my opinion, children are naturals learners, actually they have an elastic brain so, they repeat everything because they learn by imitation and also they learn indirectly rather than directly, on the other hand, teenagers are the best students because they are able to discuss abstract issues, but unfortunately they are looking for their identity so they have some problems of attitude, however, they are very creative.
Adults have a maturity and an understanding of priorities that younger students do not, and they are also vulnerable in the way children are not. I would like to teach to teenagers because they have a great capacity to learn and also adults because they have expectations and they have already formed a strong sense of who they are.
Maria Teresa Sanhueza
Hello
ReplyDeleteMy opinion about this issue is that children learn more easily and quickly compared to Adults, children learn by repeating what the teacher or by actions of the words is learning (eg learning prepositions) .
With teenagers and adults can develop discussions on topics discussed in class.
I think is more easer to teach to a teeneger/adult than a children, because children ask everything.
Nicole Lange Miranda.
um...I don't know if I preffer to teach to kids or adults, but I guess I preffer to teach to people who really wants to learn, such as in institutes. they people who go to institutes are really interested in learning a second language because they are aware of the advantages of knowing something more, that this could make the difference between them and the rest.
ReplyDeletegoing back tho the main issue...I think I would preffer to teach children because they are more likely to learn averything you can tell them or show them, they are like an sponge which absorbs everything near them.
Patricio Castro E.
Teaching children is pretty cool because they love discovering things. Kids are always asking and there are moments in which they surprise you with a witty comment or even a joke that gives you the chance to go beyond what you're actually teaching them. In terms of behaviour, children are restless, so sometimes it becomes difficult to keep them calm; however, once you've cought their attention, they will follow you in every single step. The disadvantage I guess, is that the process is long and it demans you a lot of "brain work" to get these little "monsters" (haha) to achieve the contents. Patience is the keyword I think.
ReplyDeleteAbout teenagers... uff! as I said in previous comments they are always provoking you; and they try to take you to the borderline in terms of behaviour, contents, etc. Teengagers look for your weaknesses and they act like rebels. To them, everything has to do with rapport... if they get a bad mark, is not their fault, it is yours... "it's because the teacher hates me". They are aware that they have to learn, but they don't want to learn what they need to, they want to learn whatever they want in the way they want to. Their mood is unpredictable... children also are unpredictable, but teenagers are even more unpredictable since they are facing their own internal changes, and because of it, they don't like rules.
As Patricio said, children are like sponges, I agree and I say as a complement that teenagers are like filters, since they don't buy you all.
Adults could be an excellent group to teach, but despite they are aware of what they are learning, they work like children in terms of cognitive process and also, as teenagers questioning everything!
You can call me idealistic, but my conclusion is: there is no such thing as the best group to teach... since a Linguistic perspective, children acquire the language more naturally than teens and adults; and considering Methodology, each group has a specific strategy... Harmer said in his lecture "There is something for everybody"; the thing is that what makes a group better than other is the teacher effort to make them think and work.
greetings to all!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteAs many of you mentioned before, I think that one of the advantages of working with children has to do with the fact that they develop their intrinsic motivation, much more easy that adults or teenagers. They are always willing to work and learn different things, and if you teach them using “story tales” they become absolutely crazy!
On the other hand, we have Adolescents or teenagers, many teachers are afraid of teenagers, because they think that they are very complicated to work with.
In my opinion, I really enjoy working with adolescents; I think they are in a complex stage of their lives, but also in a stage where you can influence them in a good way, because they are looking for an identity and we as a teacher, can help them in this sense.
Anyway I think that a teacher should be enough competent to develop their capacities with any group of people, nevertheless we always have some kind of preferences and we are more adequate for a determinate group of students which is not a sin, but It has to do with our personality.
Hugs
Paula.
I prefer to teach to adult students for some reasons ;). One of them is related to the idea of "plasticity" that we learned in our classes of applied linguistic. This concept says that adults learn in a more difficult way than children because they are very worried of grammar structures and details of the target language. BUT! they tend to have the predisposition to internalized the contents because they want to.
ReplyDeleteAnother important thing is that in my case, I don't like kids, noise, etc. Adult's classes are quiet, and "relaxed" in terms of behavior, and that's one of the most important factor FOR ME in muy choise.
Regards
/Juan
One of the advantages of teaching children from my point of view may be that it is easier to control in terms of discipline. Another advantage is that children have more resources to work with interactive teenagers and adults. Now with regard to the disadvantages I think it has much to do with education for children who come from home, often because the teacher makes every effort to teach, but at home have not been trained to listen, be respectful,etc. So therefore it becomes more difficult teaching.
ReplyDeleteIn relation to adolescents, from my point of view, students are able to handle more difficult due to the complicated stage live, most times they do not settle for anything, personally they aren´t my favorite group if I would have to choose to teach.
In the case of adults, one advantage is that it is not necessary to struggle with the discipline, unlike that of children and adolescents. Adults are most interested in learning, so they are better at listening to the teacher, ask questions and criticisms. Personally I think it's an interesting group to work, because it takes more time with them.
Regards
Laura
According to my experience doing my teaching practice, I would prefer to teach teenagers. Why? Because they look at you closer than an old teacher, in my opinion that is an advantage. To teach children is a little complicated because some of them are very over active and, though you can use a lot of interactive resources with them, and that is an advantage too, sometimes you can not control them. You can use these interactive resources with teenagers as well, it is a different way to lead with them. Another thing, I think that is "easier" to teach adults, because they have a motivation, they go with a different outlook, they GO TO LEARN.
ReplyDeleteThat is my personal opinion....thx!!
Regards!!!
Daniela Villanueva
I think that it doesn´t import the age of our students, we have to know how to manage different ages and levels, I believe that children are natural learners but we have to get their attention because they lose the interest easily; teenagers are very creative, however we have to motivate them, because they are in a complicate age, where nothing is good for them: adults are more mature, responsable and conscious about their learning process, because they want to learn and it is not complicate to teach them.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I prefer to teach children,the reason it is only because I love children and I feel more personal and professional satisfaction when I see their learning achieves.
JIMENA SAA
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello Everybody!
ReplyDeleteI totally prefer children! I love them! They are so innocent and tender! Teenagers are a big challenge but I like them too. I think that the main thing with teenagers is that you have to show them that you DO care for them. For instance, in many secondary schools there are some teachers that do not even know the name of their students! They just give their lesson and do not care about anything else. Students are only numbers for that type of teachers.
Finally, I think teaching adults is the easiest one in terms of behaviour. They want to learn so they pay attention and like going to clases.But, they are more demanding in terms of knowledge!
Regards!
I had the possibility to make classes in elementary school with some of my classmates, first grade and third grade the name of the unit the weather, we showed them some pictures and I made two persons and they had to select the correct cloth depending on the weather, all of them wanted to participate, children really want to learn and also they make you feel very comfortable, the disadvantages are for example there is a lot background noise or sometimes they don’t understand that they must be in their sits.
ReplyDeleteNow I’m working with teenagers but they are lazier than children because almost them are interest in finish school and start to work just some of them want it to study in collage and they are very slowly and sometimes they don’t understand the instructions because they don’t pay attention to it, but the advantages are in this level they can speak or write you can interact better with them. Both cases have advantages and disadvantages the point is to know how to teach in both cases and If I have to choose I will prefer children for those reason that I mention before.
Hi Everyone!
ReplyDeleteAs many of you have said on your posts before, it is a little bit difficult could reach a real balance in terms of teaching, among these three groups of students, because they have their advantages and disadvantages, respectively.
First of all, I think that teach children is quite great, because (as some of you said right here) they are like sponges, and they learn faster than the other kind of students by nature, because they have facilities to do it, according to biological processes. In my personal experience, these group of students have not been the best, in terms of an ideal class, because despite some of them want to learn, there are many of them that do not want to do it, maybe the main reason is because the school is plunged in a difficult social environment, and the students are difficult too. In spite of that, I prefer to teach children, because there are many other environments in which working, fortunately.
Anyway, in the case of adolescents, I think this is the most complicated group of students; they just want to do it nothing in classes, and many of them are very lazy just because; I have seen this kind of behavior at the school. I just can say that this is part of their nature too, as children are faster to learn, for example. Adolescents are in a complicated period in their lives, in which they are choosing their tendencies and preferences, so to capture their attention, we have to be astute. But they are not my best group to teach.
Finally, the group of adults. They are people who want to learn, so in terms of discipline it is not bad. However, they have another type of problems, for example; they used to let themselves go for their native language (in the case of SLA), and make their learning more difficult, because their brains got into the habit to develop another language (L1), and as I said before, this is a biological process in their lives as adults.
As a conclusion, most of times the success of a learning process is going to depend the teacher's ability, but the student's ability and motivation too, of course, because the nature is always going to put an obstacle in our ways, we want it or not.
Best wishes!
J.R
Hi!!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't have any preference so I think this is not a problem for me. In the three cases there are advantages and disadvantages; in the case of adult students, they are very motivated and is not very difficult work with them and in the case of children there are different activities that you can use with them and in my opinion is funnier work with children that adults.
On the other hand, in the case of teenagers is more difficult work with them because they are always bored and they don't like almost anything but as Danny said before for us is an advantage our age.
Regards!!
Elizabeh Tello
Hello Everyboy
ReplyDeleteWell, it is difficult for me to say wich group I prefer, because every group has something particularly attractive to me.
For example, children are amazingly charming, funny and overactive sometimes, and this last point is a challenge to us, because they get bored easily, so we need to put in practice all our imagination to catch their attention and obviusly for making them feel motivated, and willing to learn. On my case this is what I love about children, because I think I will use so many aspects of me that I do not know yet, that will make me improve as teacher and person.
Then we have adolescents, it is also an atractive group, because they are so moody, heavy going sometimes and unpredictable that you can never know how they will react, so they obligate us to work our minds to find ways of teaching that could motivate them. Also we cannot forget that we will need to be teacher, mother or father and psychologist if we teach adolescents, because they are so vulnerable I would say more than children (some of them of course) because of this Identity theme, so they will need more than a teacher, but that is atractive too, at least for me it is a great challenge, because it is not easy to work with them. As Daniela said, they are always proving and provoking you to see if you fall on their games, so we need to be aware of their plays.
Finally, I think adults could be one of the best group because they do not demand so much. It is true they are always cuestioning, and they need and want to know everything before giving a step, but they are kind, respectful and willing to learn. I say this because I had the oportunity of teaching adults so I know more or less how they work. Basically the only problem they have is time, because when they work and study is very complicated for them to dedicate time to study.
So I do not think they represent a challenge, at least for me.
I almost forgot it, according to teach in institues or universities, is ideal, because there you will find people who is interested on language, what would be actually a great oportunity even when it will demand a lot of effort, dedication and responsability.
As a conclusion I do not know yet wich group I prefer, but I do know I will do my best for my students.
Katherine Morales.
Hi!!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer work with children, their brain's plasticity is awesome. They are great!!
Advantages: Creative, high disposition, sponge brain, they learn very fast, children do not question what the teacher teach them, they only learn.
Disadvantages: They are like a room cradle, if one of them cry, everybody starts to cry, at school, if one of them speak, everybody starts to speak. Children lose the attention with facility.
Regards.
Joy.
actually I don't have a theme yet, but there are so many problems in chilean education, especially in englis, that it wont be difficult to find it, the problem is make the research and to get a conclution, a good conclution.
ReplyDeletewe are three people working in aour thesis and is going to be in english.