Video Transcript
Have you ever caught yourself simplifying things so much for your learners that you suddenly think… hang on, I’m talking to these adults as if they’re children? It’s an easy trap to fall into, especially when someone’s English is very limited.
But if you're teaching adults, it’s something we really need to keep an eye on. If you want a few ideas for avoiding it and some solid rapport-building tips, keep watching.
Hi, I’m Jo Gakonga. I’ve been teaching English since 1989 and training teachers on CELTA and MA courses for about 25 years. I also run ELT-Training.com, where I make video-based material for teachers at all stages of their careers. If you like this kind of thing, like and subscribe. I make a new video every week.
So, here’s the thing: when an adult can’t express themselves fluently in English, it’s surprisingly easy to respond to their language level instead of their life level. And that can slip into sounding rather… infantilising. It’s not because we’re patronising people on purpose, but at some unconscious level we respond to the level of people’s communication. At the extreme end of this, it’s called ‘caretaker speech’ and it’s defined in the dictionary as:
A speech style often used by adults and older children when talking to infants or young children, characterized by shortened sentences, simplified grammar, restricted vocabulary, slow speech, many repetitions, raised pitch and exaggerated pitch variation, and many utterances ending in questions with a rising tone.
This is easily recognisable in any language and it’s not likely to make your adult learners feel very comfortable. It’s really important to keep in mind that language difficulty doesn’t mean lack of knowledge.
I learned this the hard way years ago in a beginner class. One learner- an older man- had almost no English. And yes, I admit it… I assumed he had very little formal education. Then, in a simple getting-to-know-you activity, I asked him how many languages he spoke. He looked at me and said, “Seven.”
Seven!
Then he added, completely casually, that he also wrote in four different scripts including Sanskrit and Ancient Greek. I nearly fell off my chair.
And honestly, I felt the shift in my brain. In one sentence he went from “just a beginner” to “someone with linguistic superpowers.”
That moment has stuck with me for years. Because your adult learners might be engineers, nurses, parents, business owners, community leaders… or in this case, someone with a language repertoire that puts mine to shame. Their expertise doesn’t vanish just because they can’t yet wrap it in English words.
And even if someone doesn’t have formal qualifications, they’re still adults with lived experience, coping skills and a lifetime of knowledge. If we forget that, we risk knocking their confidence and making the frustration that’s inevitable at low levels, even worse.
So, what can you do?
The simplest thing: get to know your learners as people. Ask about their lives, their jobs, their families, their interests. Make their expertise visible in the classroom.
If someone’s a doctor, draw on that when the topic is health.
If someone’s a teacher, bring that into discussions about education.
Maybe someone’s an amazing cook or has spent years caring for relatives.
When you acknowledge what they know publicly, warmly, it builds trust, rapport and a richer classroom culture, too.
So, just something to keep in mind next time you’re planning a lesson, especially at lower levels. And I’d love to hear from you. Have you ever had a moment like my “seven languages” story that changed how you saw your learners? Drop it in the comments. I always reply.
