Adambaeva Feruza Rustambekovna
TUIT Urgench branch, Urgench
Since 2012 in Uzbekistan has been launched a large-scaled work on the improvement of
learning of foreign languages. As a result, they are studied now from the first grade, t eaching hours
meant for the subject were increased. Educational standards and programs have been improved, and
now they meet the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Nowadays not only
the children but also the adults are widely learning the English language. There is an obvious
question: Why Adults Want to Learn? Adults are in many cases not really interested in language,
but in what they do through it. That is to say, adult students view language as an instrument for
doing other things. They learn foreign languages due to the following reasons:
ı To gain knowledge or a skill they need
ı To better manage changes in their lives
ı To keep up with environment changes
ı To increase or maintain a sense of self-esteem
Teaching adult learners can be very rewarding, but very challenging as well. Adult students
are completely different form children or adolescent students. Compared to younger group of
students, adults do not need that much demonstration but ask for more explanation and formulation
of principles. They are matured, their intelligence has already developed. They went through a
whole educational system and they dispose of rich personal experience. They have also developed
specific habits and have specific expectations.
Characteristics of Learners
ADULT LEARNERS YOUNG LEARNERS
Problem-centered
Results-oriented
Self-directed
Often skeptical about new information
Seek relevancy
Accepts responsibility for own
learning
Subject-oriented
Future-oriented
Often depend on adults for direction
More accepting
Often train for unclear future
Often dependent on others
Like all learners, adults have different learning styles. Some feel comfortable learning by
watching and listening, whereas others feel they cannot learn unless they take down notes and
analyse rules. They may also have preferences for learning through different sense modalities:
touching, hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing. The teacher will need to understand and cater to
these differences by utilizing cycles of teaching that exploit different learning styles at different
points in the lesson. Adult learners also bring many other personal characteristics, perhaps the most
important of which is confidence or the lack thereof. Many students with little initial proficiency
leap ahead of their classmates, in large part because they are confident that they can and will learn
the language. These students go out and take the risks involved in using the new language to
communicate with anyone and everyone they encounter. Others of comparable ability and
background may languish at a low level of proficiency because they lack the confidence to use the
language. It is therefore very important to provide a supportive classroom atmosphere where risk
taking and other positive learning behaviours are fostered.
Although many of the “rules” for teaching children can apply in some ways to teaching
adults, the latter age group poses some different, special considerations for the classroom teacher.