Is teaching English as a second language to adults harder or easier than teaching young learners?
11 answers from our tutors
Best answer
Teaching kids needs you to be energetic and creative while teaching adults will require patience and technical knowledge because adults have some reasons for learning English. So I guess by this, you can identify which one is easier for you.
It depends on the character and determination of the student actually. But especially with grammar topics, the age doesn't matter because that student needs to know the equivalence of that topic or topics on their native languge. If they don't it's hard to teach grammar regardless of the age. At some points it's easier to teach kids because you can do many gamifications and they'll probably like it, but with adults or teens sometimes they may think the activity you're doing is "lame" because they're not kids anymore etc.
Teaching kids from 3 years to 6-8 and adults after 60 can be hard. Teaching others is much easier.
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Online, I would say it is definitely easier to teach adults.
- Teacher FayCertified ESL tutor with over 3 years experience teaching adults and teens
I have taught adults, teens and young learners. I niched down to adults and teens only. My main reasons were, the parents of the kids gets involved in the lesson too much, telling the teacher what to teach and what they don't want you to teach, sometimes not wanting kids to learn grammar, just to talk, but not realising that the kids need to be corrected at times, sitting in on every lesson etc. Adults and teens are way easier
It can be to certain adult students it can be difficult but not harder it is much easier, young learners could be a bit difficult due to focus and it also depends on the age group of the students.
Teaching children requires you to have "the patience of Job". I find it far easier to teach adults. In some cases, it is not the children (let's call them what really they are, children) that are the problem per se, but the parents. Many parents will tell the children what to say, or even hit them when they get it wrong, or are just too tired to learn English. Yes, I once had a five year old child being forced to have an English lesson at 0300hrs (Their time)!
- Hloniphile MkhwanaziCertified TEFL teacher
Teaching adults is harder..this is because young learners can easily adapt to new teaching style and info compared to adults
Teaching English to adults is generally harder in terms of the adult overcoming ingrained habits and anxiety, while teaching young learners is harder due to attention span and behavior management. It depends on the specific challenges.
It is easier with younger learners because one learns new languages better at early stages of life
Teaching English to adults can be harder due to established habits and anxiety, but easier due to their motivation and ability to think abstractly. Teaching young learners is often more engaging but requires patience and creativity to maintain interest.
Other student questions
Best answer
Repeat the words a lot and give a context to it, plus the picture of it. Find synonyms, make the student create sentences using the new vocab and finally of they write down a story using these new words, they won't probably forget about them easily :)
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follow the guidelines, be active, and use social media to introduce your page to potential students.
