In my experience, When your are Young these differences between friends make you want to play more, to know more, t see what the others can do and to share what you are able to do.

I think Teachers should be able to deal with these “diversities” in order to take advantage of it, in a way they don´t become a problem for the class. 

An example of it is to organise the class in groups mixing these “abilities” so they can work in cooperation, this is something that I do in my classes. It´s also important the can use different tools, and if it´s possible that they can choose the materials (that makes the activity more interesting and challenging). Maybe some kids can read, let them “read”, others maybe enjoy colouring, and others may enjoy moving/jumping/speaking. When you teach you must be able to find what they love so they can improve on that, and the share with the resto f the class. When they feel confident they encourage the rest of their mates to do what each of them can do!. It´s contagious it works, they wait for the next class to show you what they´ve learnt, or what their Friends know! they even Will tell you what they want to learn!  

All that represents a big challenge since it is not easy to teach the students who misbehave or easily get bored because they do not like the activities, because I am not satisfying their learning styles or because they simply do not understand a single word. What I do to face all these difficulties, I talk to other colleagues to ask for some help or clues as Marina Marquez does. I also readapt the activities, look for other resources that the students feel more attracted to and try to be patient. Sometimes this is very tiring and implies a lot of extra work.

Last but not least, I always try to do my best to keep them motivated.

Alejandra Gargiulo.

 

 

 (Ps: I’m not an English teacher, and I don’t teach in schools yet!)

We have to work from diversity because we are all different. Inclusion is the answer.

Vanina Peralta.

In my experience, I try to make eye contact with the student and show the exercise by myself. It takes me longer than with the others and, in many cases I have been looked at badly which made me feel very uncomfortable.

Belen Castro Aranda

First, some students study English with private teachers or in institutes, others are repetears from bilingual schools but most students are afraid of the language: they don’t trust in their previous knowledge, don’t even realize of the transparency of some words with the same meaning so they fall in that easy expression “Miss, I don´t understand anything”. They neither try to face any worksheet. In this case, the strategies that I choose are to work with different worksheets for the same topic and encourage students with more experience on learning English to help students who are afraid of the language.

Then, some students have computers and others only cellphones. Most students have a lot of experience on playing video games but they don’t even know how to attach a file to a message to send their homework. The strategies here will depend on the available resources of each school. Thank God all the schools where I work have free access to the Internet so I can help students to develop some TICs skills on their cellphones or computers. Or I ask some support to those who have more experience on TICs to help their own classmates or me (and I sometimes update my TICs knowledge in this way).

Elena Salomón.

              This diversity, more often than not, represents a rather difficult challenge in the planning of my lessons. To overcome this difficulty, I try to work side by side with the grade teacher or my EFL colleagues through project work; this helps me integrate diversity, too, into the planning process, bringing new ideas from other peers.

              To accomplish this task, I make use of the games and awareness-raising activities of my own creation and the ones that the class book provides – fortunately, some of these books are also aware of diversity. I design lessons with differentiated instructions, base on stutents’ learning styles. Visual and auditory aids, board games, hands-on activities and online interactive games and worksheets are a great help to enhance motivation and as scaffolding for the class.

The difference in personalities is another aspect where diversity is reflected. I make an effort to make the students feel  important to me and to the whole class, no matter how shy, talkative, quick or slow they may be. 
Bye!

I think of different roles within the class, such as attendance taker, board cleaner helper, etc., so that all students can have an opportunity to participate adopting different roles during one class. I also include short games with visuals and music, puppets, bottle caps and realia. This helps to develop a bond with all learners and involve them in class work. 

Does “diversity” represent a challenge in your EFL class? 
Absolutely.

What tools/strategies do you use to face the challenge of “diversity” in your EFL class?
I try to shift the types of materials I use to present the contents, vary the group/ classroom arrangements....