English Teaching Talks - Understanding differentiation

About the English Teaching Talks series

English Teaching Talks is new series produced by the British Council and presented by English language teaching experts from around the world. Divided into 6 short episodes, each video gives practical and useful advice, and is designed to help you develop your skills as an English language teacher in a number of different areas. 

Other episodes in the series are available. Click or tap on the title of the talk to visit the page:

• Integrating ICT - Nik Peachey
• Assessing learning - Carolyn Westbrook and Richard Spiby
• Learning Outside the Classroom - Claudia Rey
• Inclusion - Susan Douglas

 About the videos 

In this series of six short videos, Rachael Roberts considers how we can adapt the learning experience to all learners through differentiation, and how doing this creates a positive learning environment for all learners. She shows the importance of pair and group work to provide learners with the support they need in a differentiated class. She gives ideas for differentiation in teacher-led activities and practical techniques and strategies for working on receptive and productive skills – reading, listening, speaking and writing. Below is a list of each video. All videos include subtitles in English: 

Video 1: Introduction (3:03 minutes) 

Video 2: Creating a positive learning experience (3:24 minutes) 

Video 3: Pair and group work (3:28 minutes) 

Video 4: Teaching the whole class ‘from the front’ (3:48 minutes) 

Video 5: Differentiation in skills work: Reading and listening  (3:44 minutes) 

Video 6: Differentiation in skills work: Speaking and writing (3:19 minutes) 

Watch all the videos on YouTube 

Rationale 

To differentiate learning in our classes, Rachael says that teachers need to: 

• get to know all the differences and strengths of their learners.
• encourage a ‘growth mindset’ in all groups; mistakes can help us learn. 
• use pair and group work to encourage differentiation-friendly learning. 
• get more and better answers to all questions in teacher-led activities.  
• make changes to reading or listening tasks to add challenge or support. 
• plan for and encourage learners to speak and write at different levels.  

Pre-viewing task 

Before you watch the videos, think about the questions below. If you are using this resource as part of your professional development in your institution, discuss the questions below with your colleagues 

• How do you find out about the differences between your learners? 
• How do you choose pairs and groups to work together in class? 
• How do you get answers from the class after a task or activity? 

• Do you change listening or reading tasks to include challenge or support for different learners? How? 
• How do you include time for preparation or repetition when learners are doing a speaking or writing task? 

While viewing  

What ideas does Rachel give for each of the teacher needs in the rationale above? 

After viewing 

• Which ideas that Rachael gives would work well in your context? Why? 
• What ideas would you add? 
• What are you going to do with your classes as a result of watching this video? 

Watch the introduction below and watch all six videos in the series on YouTube