Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 197 ( 2015 ) 1209 – 1214
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.380
7th World Conference on Educational Sciences, (WCES-2015), 05-07 February 2015, Novotel
Athens Convention Center, Athens, Greece
The Challenge of Teaching English to Adult Learners in Today's
World
Mihaela Cozmaa
*
a
Department of English Language, West University of Timişoara, Bd. V. Pârvan 4, Timișoara 300223, Romania
Abstract
In close connection to the fact that, during the past few decades, globalization has grown significantly, more and more adults of
different nationalities seek the help of English instructors because they want to find employment abroad, to communicate more
effectively at work, to resort to overseas travels, or just to enjoy various types of social situations. In any of these cases, the
English learners are highly motivated to study this particular subject. However, those who teach adults must be aware of the
differences between the teaching – learning patterns specific to adults, on the one hand, and those that generally function with
children, on the other. The paper will discuss the cognitive, attitudinal, behavioural and methodological characteristics presented
by the adult learners of English in today’s world, taking into account both theoretical and research data. The ultimate purpose of
this paper is to arrive at conclusions that are relevant for the English teachers involved in the process of preparing adults for the
different situations which require a good knowledge of this foreign language.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
Keywords: adult learners; challenges; teaching English to adults; methodological implications
1. Introduction
The general perception regarding the traditional target audience of foreign language teaching is that it is normally
represented by various types of young learners, ranging from children, to adolescents and, sometimes, to very young
adults. Consequently, when the language students’ position is occupied by adult learners, the teaching process is
considered to be more problematic. Today, maybe more than ever before, this view is supported by parents,
* Mihaela Cozma. Tel.: +4-0256-592-321; fax: +4-0256-592-164.
E-mail address: mihaela.cozma@e-uvt.ro
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
1210 Mihaela Cozma / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 197 ( 2015 ) 1209 – 1214
educators and policymakers, who, in their effort to prepare children for a multilingual future, put forward the
concept of “the earlier the better” when it comes to learning a foreign language. But is it really true that the older the
students are, the more ineffective they are as language learners? Even if not all methodologists share this opinion,
there seems to be a general consensus that the learners’ age is associated with specific needs, competences and
cognitive skills, which, in their turn, involve characteristic teaching and learning patterns. This paper will discuss the
special features presented by the adult students, will identify the challenges that might occur when working with this
category of students, and, then, will consider some methodological implications for the process of teaching English
to mature learners.
2. The adults as English learners: specific features
Although the concept of “adult learners” may be given slightly differing definitions, depending on the aspect that
each definition is meant to emphasize, in my approach this term refers to persons over the normal age of traditional
schooling (more specifically, over 23-25 years old), who freely choose to get involved in a particular form of
instruction, in order to serve a professional, social or personal need or interest.
As I have already anticipated, in the field of the teaching methodology, the interest in adult learners emerged
from the idea that mature students learn somehow differently from the young ones. Building on this idea, the
American educator Malcolm Knowles developed the principle of “andragogy”, which represents the art and science
of adult learning. Knowles’ (1984) andragogical model is based on the following assumptions about the adult
learners: since adults tend to be self-directed, they can direct their own learning; a rich reservoir of life experiences
aid their learning; they are ready to learn when they assume new social or life roles; they have a task-, or problemcentred
orientation to learning, being willing to apply new learning immediately; and adults are generally motivated
to learn due to internal rather than external factors (Knowles, 1984, p.12).
In spite of the fact that Knowles’ model has been often subject to criticism, it has exerted a great influence on the
theories of learning and teaching, and has guided practice in the field of adult education. Starting from the main
ideas elaborated by Knowles (1984), as well as by other theorists and researchers interested in the problem of adult
learning (e.g. Harmer, 2007, Lightbown and Spada, 2006, Frențiu and Cozma, 2013), in what follows, I will briefly
discuss the main cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural characteristics presented by the adult students.
2.1. Cognitive characteristics
A common myth in the field of education is that adult students are generally more ineffective as language
learners than the traditional students, on the account that the younger people are, the more flexible their brains, and,
consequently, the better their cognitive functions. However, research seems to challenge this myth, indicating that,
indeed, younger students may be better when it comes to acquiring pronunciation, but, otherwise, adults are
perfectly able to reach high levels of proficiency in a foreign language (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 73).
Moreover, methodologists (e.g. Harmer, 2007, p. 81) stress that adult learners have greater cognitive capabilities
and conceptual complexity than the younger ones. This means that adults can offer a longer attention span, and they
can engage with abstract thought. Additionally, the older students have a more developed understanding of how
language works, being familiar with the more advanced elements of grammar, such as how conjugation works, or
what an adverb does. They already know what a well-built sentence is, and have a good sense of punctuation and
spelling.
All these cognitive characteristics of the adult learners involve the fact that teachers must adjust the instructional
materials and the teaching methods in order to accommodate the students’ skill and maturity levels, as it will be
illustrated later.
2.2. Attitudinal characteristics
It is widely agreed that motivation represents a factor of central importance for successful learning. Unlike
younger learners, the adults almost always have a sound reason why they are studying, and that reason will be their
primary motivation. Perceiving education as a way to improve their self-image and reach various personal goals,
Mihaela Cozma / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 197 ( 2015 ) 1209 – 1214 1211
adult learners are usually highly motivated from the very beginning of the instruction process, and this makes it
much easier for the teacher to perform his/ her task as a motivator. Moreover, as Harmer (2007) points out, “many
adults are able to sustain a level of motivation by holding on to a distant goal in a way that teenagers find more
difficult” (p. 84).
Adults are certainly more cooperative learners, and, what is more important, their cooperation comes as a natural
consequence of their seeing the point of the various instructional situations in which they are involved. In this way,
the teacher no longer has to “camouflage” learning by resorting to entertaining activities, such as games or songs,
although, if properly selected and used, they may be sometimes appropriate for students of an older age (Frențiu &
Cozma, 2013, p. 75).
Additionally, the mature age students have more learning experience behind them, and this aspect can prove to be
both beneficial and problematic. Thus, on the one hand, adult students have well-developed learning strategies that
have served them well in other settings, and the teacher can help them use these strategies to their advantage in
language learning, too. On the other hand, adults come to the English classroom with certain expectations about the
learning process, and, in case these expectations are not met, the learners may become critical towards the new
context of instruction.
There are also situations when adults are less confident in their intellectual abilities, and this might make them
anxious about learning a foreign language. In relation to the anxieties, insecurities, and fears of the adults who return
to school, the adult educator Stephen Brookfield (1990) discusses the term “impostor syndrome”, denoting a
collection of feelings of inadequacy, of chronic self-doubt which make people think that their accomplishments are
nowhere near as good as those of the people around them.
2.3. Behavioral characteristics
In comparison to other age groups, adults tend to be more disciplined and more willing to struggle on despite
boredom (Harmer, 2007, p. 84). This does not mean that older learners cannot display disruptive behaviour, such as
talking to their neighbours when they should pay attention to the teacher, arriving in class late, failing to do any
homework, or even di