Innovation in Language Learning
Differentiated Classrooms in Teaching EFL to Adult Learners 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 interests. 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. Building upon the foundations of research conducted in 2022 at the University of Montenegro, we set up an experiment in which 20 Master’s students underwent differentiated homework assignments during a compulsory EFL Methodology course. Besides the assessment of their work, which was done by a model lesson evaluation rubric, students also filled in a questionnaire about the effect their homework assignments had on their teaching. The results show that differentiated classroom assignments had a significant positive impact after students applied the rules of the DC. Differentiated classroom assignments addressed listening, speaking, reading and writing teaching tasks. In such a way, they had four projects in total, and they did these in pairs, each time choosing a different peer to work with on the task. The participants of the experiment mainly reported highly favourable opinions on their experience, stressing, in particular, the positive effects of differentiated teaching on their teaching ability.
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Keywords |
differentiated classroom, EFL, adult learners, teaching |
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References |
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