Han Jing Mei, China
There are many ways to teach a class of mixed levels. For instance, students at both ends can be grouped together and the lower level ones can get help from the top level ones who volunteer to offer help when they have difficulties. Also teachers can ask the higher level students to answer difficult questions and assign them to be models to do certain difficult exercises. Lower level students may be encouraged to do the easier tasks
according to their levels. That may not only save the precious class time, but also help to maximise class participation and increase the confidence of the lower level students. If they cannot answer the questions, then their embarrassment may cause them to be more passive and pessimistic, or think that the teacher may want to embarrass them that will have a negative effect on learners. However if you are a native speaker of English, you have to try your best to use whatever is available to help learners understand what you have meant slowly and bit by bits.

Sergiy Tyupa, Ukraine
I had the same problem as Amel last semester while teaching English to students whose major was German. Some of them had studied English at school and were almost fluent, others had to start from the alphabet. It was very challenging for a number of reasons.

If I had chosen to work with some basic things, "strong" students would have been bored and would have lost their motivation to study. If I had given them more complicated material,"weak" students would have felt frustrated and inferior.

This is what I choose to do...

• First of all, we listened to a great number of basic dialogues and stories. Strong students did not feel bored because the stories were very inetresting (from 'Headway Elementary').

• Weak students, at the same time, could understand quite a lot, because I tried to write down all the unfamiliar words and expressions on the blackboard and explain them.

• Then I asked weak students simply to answer my questions to the stories they had just heard, and strong students had to retell them.

• Whenever we had to act out a dialogue, I asked strong students to work in pairs with weak students and help them out if they needed any help. Of course, a friendly and relaxed atmosphere is essential for success in such activities.

• Also strong students received a great number of individual tasks. They prepared presentations on some topics, spoke on the current events. As a result after three months' work all the students in the class were able to communicate in English rather well.

To put it briefly...

• give tasks of different degree of difficulty, based on the same text or tapescript

• make strong students share their knowledge with weak students by asking them to work in pairs or groups

• give individual tasks to strong students