CELTA Online Unit 29a Task 2: Observation 1.

b
As with the previous video, please watch and observe how the learners behave differently to adults and
make notes on the following topics in the notepad below. Again, you can use the notes you made in
Task 1 to help you complete the table.

2. Secondary school-aged learners in China

Your Response
Motivation
Energy Levels
Concentration
Ability to analyse language
Ability to hypothesise
Creativity

Suggested Response

Topic Primary school-aged Secondary school-aged

learners in Spain learners in China
Motivation Motivated by praise and encouragement. Motivated by topics which
are relevant to their lives
Enjoy working in groups.
Energy Levels Can be physically restless Able to sit still for stretches
of time but need regular
Have high energy levels.
kinesthetic activities.

Concentration Tend to have short concentration spans Able to concentrate for

Ability to analyse
language
Ability to hypothesise
Can get bored easily.
Not able to analyse language.
Find it difficult to hypothesise.
longer but still get bored if
the topic does not interest
them.
Able to analyse language,
e.g. answer concept
checking questions.
Can hypothesise, e.g. can
imagine what they would do
if they were rich.
Creativity Tend to have very good imaginations. Can be creative if topic is
motivating.
Enjoy weird and wonderful topics.
Enjoy creating things in
groups, e.g. project work.
Commentary

Primary school-aged children behave and think very differently from adults. As this affects the way they
learn, teachers need to adapt their approach in the classroom. However, there are more similarities
between teaching adults and adolescents, which means that many of the same activities and teaching
techniques can be used with both groups of learners.