How to Grade Language for Different Levels

I believe each of us has been there during different language classes, discussion clubs and foreign language events when we were speaking and the audience (the students) had no idea of what was going on. We have all been in two minds on whether we should actually speak in a way so that the students understand us, or we should carry on using ‘real English’ as we are trying to create an authentic language learning experience when people do not regularly adapt their speech to the language level of the listener. Take for example a situation when a person is abroad and asks for directions, wants to buy something, attends a conference, etc. The first encounter with the language will be that of a ‘real’ one — people speaking fast, using accents, varied intonation and stress patterns, etc.

So, which one to choose as educators? What will serve best to the needs of our learners?

What is Language Grading?

Language grading happens when the teacher adapts their speech in a way so that the message is understandable or almost understandable for the learners.

Here we should be careful not to overdo it though. During my experience of class observations, the thing that would confuse the students was the artificial speech of the teacher. If you slow down too much from your regular tempo and make it sound like you utter each word separately, especially if you don’t do it in normal communication, the students get lost and never ready for real life communication.

Students need to have enough exposure in the target language to be able to differentiate intertwined sounds in everyday conversations.

Grading the language for kids and adults surely differs. For young learners, miming, gesturing, slow speech are practiced much more as they don’t have enough experience in life to create associations.

As for adult learners, we can rely on their background knowledge to build the language competency on. It happens sometimes, that people have different levels of English in one classroom. This normally happens during language clubs where different people register to boost their fluency. It is important to make sure though, that those with higher language levels also grade their language for the rest of the group to avoid creating an uncomfortable situation for the weaker participants which can result in demotivation.

Language grading is also part of good classroom management strategies. If your students feel comfortable and confident, they are more likely to pay attention and improve themselves. Otherwise, when there is a problem with comprehension, it is very easy to lose the audience.

Common Beliefs

They say, providing an adequate challenge for the learners can solve the problem. This can be done in two ways — by choosing a language that will be a bit higher than the current level of the learners. This suggests that using a language that matches completely with the level of the students is of no educational use and will not upgrade their knowledge, hence, a bit of a challenge is what we need.

Another way is to provide a context familiar to the students enough that they can guess what the speaker wants to say or refers to. Here, they will have a chance to learn more words and phrases as associations are one of the best ways to memorize information. This one, however, works better with B1 and higher level of learners, as they have enough linguistic knowledge and exposure to draw conclusions and think analytically.

How to grade your language?

• Speak slower

Consider the level of your learners, add up the speed during the course to create a dynamic progress in comprehension. This does not mean that you should artificially pronounce each word separately and stress them all, but simply to speak slower using the necessary linking phrases, intonation, etc.

• Use different grammar

Choose grammar structures and patterns that match the language competency of the target group. For instance, use past simple/past continuous with A2/A2+ learners NOT Past Perfect/Past perfect continuous.

• Choose simpler vocabulary

Words that you are sure your students know. This is especially true when giving instructions. Instructions are aimed to direct the students to complete a task that will help them to improve their language skills. Using complicated instructions will not add to the learning process, it will rather misguide the students and cause several questions.

• Talk naturally

Sometimes we drop articles, prepositions and use keywords to communicate the message. This is as bad as using wrong grammar. A lot of learning happens when listening to the teacher speak, so our speech should be accurate.

• Say it differently

If you decided to challenge your students with a bit more complicated utterance, say it differently if they have difficulty understanding it. This will give them a chance to learn synonymous expressions and different ways of communicating the same message.

• Don’t rush

Give your students time to reflect on and analyze what was said. This might take a bit longer for low level of learners, however, they need to process it on their own if we want them to have progress and develop trust in their language skills.

• Use body language

Use gestures and miming if you need to show something. You can act out full instructions by just using your hands. For instance, if you want the students to listen to a track and answer some questions just put your hand on your ear to signal listening, show the questions in the book to signal answering to them.

• Use the new language

If you introduced new language during a class, use it in the following classes to provide students with the opportunity to listen to it in a context and encourage them to do it as well. You can ask the students each class to choose 3 new words they have learnt during the course, bring it with them to class and try to use it during the sessions in all possible situations. It will significantly enlarge their word-stock.

• Use the CEFR

CEFR is the mapping of language competency levels introducing the language resources a learner of a specific level has. This is especially useful when working with a certain level for the first time in order to have a general picture of what the students will/won’t have a challenge with.