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Hi,

I have recently taken a job abroad as an engineer/English teacher! I am supposed to be teaching approx. 30 adults, each for around 90 minutes per week.

I gave them a test this week in order to assess their levels, and from this I think that I have students at beginner, elementary, pre int, int and upper int levels.

This is a problem. I can't really afford (time-wise) to be teaching more than about 3 groups. Although I have CELTA, I am by no means an experienced teacher and so I was planning on getting the company to buy some course books (probably the Headway series). But if I go with my level assessments and buy the Headway books, I'll have 5 levels!

Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Thanks!

Hey kidpaprika!

I'm going to stick my neck out and assert that all of us here who are ESL teachers have had the "five different levels in one class" problem to face, in nearly all of our classes. I initiate little kids in ESL, I am their first English teacher, they have never seen English in a class before, and even so, no two have the same "level".

The test you gave them might very well illustrate the differing levels your students have based on their level of grammar proficeincy, their level of reading comprehension, their familiarity with the material, their capacity to successfully choose the right answer or fill in the blank correctly on any exam, the number of years that have passed since they last took a test, etc. However, I would not use the test results as a marker for levels.

In your situation, I would broadly divide the people into managable groups of ten to fifteen people (though that number is quite high, you mention you don't have time for more groups, so two might be your limit). I would make that division based not on individual scores on a placement test, but rather on criterea like how many years each has studied English in the past, or those who have had some contact with English grammar and structure and those who have not, or even perhaps those who are more gregarious vs those who are seemingly more shy. Maybe even divide them between those who need English right away and those who are simply interested because the company offers them "free" classes. Or, base the division on personal objectives.

Once you have divided the groups, you must find the common denominator among the members of each group. I have found that the most common are poor pronunciation (not only of individual sounds, but incapacity to string sounds together in order to make meaningful utterances), poor structural manipulation (even more "advanced" students get tongue tied with question and negative forms in English), poor improvisational skills (capacity for being prepared for any or all the responses in any given "standard" conversation).

Based on these denominators, structure a class that covers the problems that the individuals share. Stronger students become examples for the weaker ones. Weaker students become motivation for the stronger ones. I'm not quite sure where I've written on this subject, but if you do a post search on my nick (revel) you will find somewhere here in Dave´s some class structure comments on levelless classes that might be of some use. I also direct you to the thread in Applied Linguistics called "Interpretative ESL" that might give you some ideas.

Hope this helps!

peace,
revel.