The Future of Education
Enhancing EFL Reading Instruction in Primary Schools: A Differentiated Approach in the Third Cycle of Learning English as a Foreign Language in Montenegro
Marija Mijušković, University of Montenegro (Montenegro)
Abstract
A differentiated classroom (DC) is a teaching strategy teachers use to adjust lessons so that they provide learners with the right level of English, background knowledge, needs and interest. The main feature of differentiated instruction is that the teacher recognises learners’ differences and modifies the content, whereby all learners work and learn simultaneously with different teaching materials. This research focuses on the effects of differentiated instruction applied to reading assignments for primary school learners in Montenegro, specifically concentrating on the third cycle of English language acquisition. Pupils in grades 7, 8 and 9 at four primary schools in Montenegro underwent differentiated reading instruction during their regular English reading lessons. Besides the assessment of learners’ work on the reading assignments, which was done by a reading model lesson evaluation rubric, learners also filled in a questionnaire about the effect the DC had on their reading skills. The results show that differentiated classroom assignments had a significant positive impact after learners applied the rules of the DC. The participants of the experiment mainly reported highly favourable opinions on their experience, stressing, in particular, the positive effects of differentiated teaching on their reading ability.
