How to Teach a Language Class for Older Adults and Seniors

It's never to late to learn a foreign language, but for language teachers, there are some things to consider when most of your students are 50 or over. Many older adult and senior language learners have goals and learning preferences that differ from those of younger learners. Create lessons that meet these needs, and your older students will learn better and have more fun too.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Review activities

1. Get to know your students' goals. Unlike young students who are used to going along with a school curriculum, older adults can lose interest when the teacher's goals conflict with their own. Ask your students how they want to use their language skills. Some seniors in your class may be learning a foreign language just for fun, while others might need it for travel or volunteer work.
2. Use activities designed for real life. Keeping your student's goals in mind, choose or design activities that will give them knowledge they can use immediately. Try things like dialogues based on everyday situations, reading and discussing newspaper articles or writing letters to pen pals.
3. Plan for a slower pace. Older adults are generally just as intellectually sharp as younger ones (if not sharper), but some may have less short-term memory capacity or less patience with deciphering confusing information. Present one concept at a time in a clear, step-by-step way. Have a good variety of review activities on hand and go over previous material a little more often than you would for young students.
4. Be sensitive to physical changes. Although they may not admit it, some of your senior language learners may have slightly impaired hearing, vision or fine motor skills. Take care that everyone can comfortably see and hear what you present to the class. Keep writing assignments to a minimum for those with arthritis or hand tremors.
5. Talk with your older adult students about study skills. Many may not have taken a class for years and have forgotten some of the learning tricks they once used. Take some time to chat about ways to memorize vocabulary or learn grammar rules. There's no need to lecture, of course. Just start the discussion by asking your students to share their favorite learning methods or suggesting some methods to talk about.
6. Consider doing away with scores and grades. Older adults know very well how little information these provide. Instead of using a single number or letter, you might simply make notes on what the student did well and where they could improve.

Tips & Warnings

• Have fun. With older adults, there's usually no need to march through text book exercises. Many seniors take language classes for pleasure and will be glad to watch a film in the language, discuss cultural difference or just chat with a native speaker.
• Some older adult language learners lack confidence, believing they're too old to gain real fluency. Encourage your students by providing information on successful senior language learners and research on how aging really affects language-learning ability.

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