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7 Ways Teachers Can Help Advanced Learners To See Their Progress

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Josie Estadilla
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51 views

7 Ways Teachers Can Help Advanced Learners To See Their Progress

Uploaded by

Josie Estadilla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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7 ways teachers can help advanced learners to see

their progress

They ‘know’ all the grammar; they communicate well; they understand most of what they read,
listen to and watch. What’s left for them to learn, and how can they feel that learning is taking
place?

This is the conundrum that many advanced learners and teachers of advanced learners face. At this
stage of language development, it’s helpful to focus on avoiding ingrained mistakes, differentiating
shades of meaning, being more precise, and expanding the range of contexts and purposes for
communicating. Because these changes can be subtle, students may not recognise that any change
is taking place. This article gives suggestions for how to help advanced learners see their progress.

1. Ongoing self-assessment
Although this may seem like an obvious place to start, frequent low-stakes progress tests show
students that they are improving, especially when they can check themselves and get instant
feedback. Another simple idea is to ask students to make a note of one or two new things they
learned from the lesson. Whether that is a new word, collocation, grammatical structure, or
intonation, challenge them to use it before the next lesson. Follow up by asking them to say how.

2. Action Plan
Advanced learners by virtue of arriving at an advanced level already have good learning strategies,
and may already be self-reflective. Capitalise on this strength by asking them to make a note of what
they feel they are already good at and what they think they need to improve. Direct them to be
specific. For example, they might write ‘I can communicate well, but people still get confused about
what I’m trying to say. I’d like to improve my pronunciation of words and also my vocabulary.’ You
could also ask them to write what success for them would look like: ‘Success for me would be to talk
about my area of study with someone in English so that they can understand me clearly.’ At the end
of the year, ask them to revisit this declaration to judge whether or not they achieved their goal.

3. Word lists
It’s easy to learn and forget new words. Ask students to keep lists of new words they want to
remember and use, and then test themselves regularly. There are digital tools students can use for
this purpose such as the premium online version of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. This
allows students to create their own word lists directly from the dictionary entries, then test
themselves on the word meanings in a computer-generated quiz. As students gradually build up a
bank of new words, they have visible evidence of language improvement.

4. Mistakes log
Advanced students often have ingrained, or fossilized, mistakes that can be hard to correct. Ask
students to keep a log of a few key ones. In the log they should write the mistake and anything else
that is associated with the mistake – e.g. the context they usually make it in if it’s a grammar

Oxford Teachers’ Club September 2020


© Oxford University Press
mistake, words they typically misuse a specific phoneme in, frequently misused words, etc. By
focusing on the specifics, it helps them to notice the mistake. In the log they can also record when
they successfully corrected themselves!

5. Recording – before and after


At the beginning of the school year, ask students to make a short video or audio recording of
themselves talking about a topic of interest. Put these away for the year. At the end of the year, ask
them to repeat the exercise. Now, get them to compare the before and after. They can rate
themselves on specific improvements: improved fluency with fewer hesitations, more nuanced word
choice, more complex grammatical structures, etc. Even at this high level, it’s possible to see
changes and progress.

6. Writing portfolios
In a similar way to recording spoken language, students can keep a record of improvements to their
written language. Ask them to keep their first and second drafts. On the last lesson, they can look
back at their written work to see how the sophistication of their language has improved. During the
term, help students use more sophisticated grammar and structures by pointing out where in their
writing they can make improvements. Be specific in your feedback and encourage them to work on a
few things at a time until they have mastered them.

7. Culture and Context


A lot of what students read or listen to will have cultural references which the reader must
understand in order to understand the text. As these come up, direct students to where they can
find out more about these references. For example, if a podcast references Irish folk music,
encourage the student to go and listen to some and learn more about this genre. Investigating
cultural references in texts will help students in their journey to understanding authentic material.

Stacey Hughes

Stacey has worked as a part-time lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and as a teacher developer,
materials writer and educational consultant in ELT. She currently works in the ELT Sales Enablement
Team at Oxford University Press. She has taught English in the US, Poland, Italy and the UK in many
different contexts. She also taught French and Spanish.

Oxford Teachers’ Club September 2020


© Oxford University Press

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