Learner needs

As we saw in our section on learner characteristics, our learners have unique needs which we as teachers must meet. What do you think might be some negative consequences if we fail to address our learners' needs?

The TKT Course book identifies three general categories of needs. Can you remember what they are? Use these examples to help structure your answer.

1. ___________ needs.
e.g. challenge, support, praise, goals, learning expectations.

2. ___________ needs.
e.g. preferred ways of learning. target language, certain subskills, autonomy.

3. ___________ needs.
e.g. specific vocabulary and grammar, specific functions, specific text types.

It is important that you know how the teacher can meet these needs. Brainstorm some ideas related to each of the three needs before referring to pages 57,58 of your course book.

 We need to consider what approach would best suit our learners. We must be careful in selecting our materials and ensure our topics are relevant. Our activities and interaction patterns should reflect their personal and learning needs and we also need to consider what method of correction and feedback would be most beneficial to our learners.

Of course it isn't possible to always meet all our students' needs. It is important however to remember that if students don't learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn.