How the GSE can help teachers personalize activities

Leonor Corradi
A teacher stood at a students desk helping them

Reading time: 4.5 minutes

Teaching is an art form that thrives on adaptation and personalization. When dealing with language instruction, ensuring that each student is engaged and effectively learning is of paramount importance. In my experience as a teacher, I have learned that we should always teach our students rather than the coursebook or the syllabus. I think most teachers would agree with this.

However, it may be challenging to adapt activities to cater to our learners¡¯ needs. What does personalizing an activity mean? How can we make it more accessible to our English learners? One would think that making the answers more obvious can be the way to go. Yet, this does not really help students learn and make progress. That's where the Global Scale of English (GSE) comes in as a valuable tool for personalizing teaching activities.

The essence of personalized learning

Personalizing an activity in language teaching does not simply mean making the responses more obvious. Instead, it's about tailoring the exercise to elevate the student's learning experience and potential for progress. This demands an insightful approach during the preparation phase of any given lesson.

Utilizing the GSE in language teaching

Let¡¯s analyze this listening activity at A2 level for a group of adults:

Audio script example:

Emma: Are you working on the Media project?

Vic: Yes. I may start working on a new project in a couple of weeks, but for now I¡¯m writing the objectives for Media. Why?

Emma: Well, Adam wants to see the photos for the project. He needs them for the ads.

Vic: Oh, they¡¯ll be ready next week. OK?

Emma: Awesome! Thanks. Any plans for the weekend?

Vic: Well, I have to work on Saturday. We¡¯re taking the Media pictures in the morning, but we¡¯re just going to have fun at the beach in the afternoon.

Emma: Nice!

Vic: What about you? What are you doing this weekend?

Emma: I¡¯m going to a concert on Sunday at 3 pm.

Vic: That sounds fun!

Listen and write T (true) or F (false)

1. Vic is working on a new project.

2.? Vic is working on Saturday morning.

3. Emma is going to a concert on Sunday evening.

GSE Descriptors

Upon dissecting this example by the GSE descriptors, we can identify the learning objectives that align with an A2 level:

  • Can identify simple information in a short video, provided that the visual supports this information and the delivery is slow and clear. (GSE 30)

  • Can identify basic factual information in short, simple dialogues or narratives on familiar everyday topics, if spoken slowly and clearly. (GSE 32)

  • Can understand the main information in short, simple dialogues about familiar activities, if spoken slowly and clearly.?(GSE 33)

  • Can identify key information (e.g., places, times) from short audio recordings if spoken slowly and clearly. (GSE 33)

We know that learners should be given a global task first for overall listening, which is also one of the communicative objectives in the Global Scale of English:

List of options sat under comprehension: Finding specific information, listening/reading for detail, listening/reading for gist, overall listening/reading comprehension, recognizing a speakers/writers opinion or purpose, understanding main points

We can easily personalize the activity to include overall listening by adding a question before students are asked to solve the exercise:

Are the speakers a couple? or, Are the speaker's family?

The first question gets a No for an answer, whereas the answer to the second one can lead to a discussion. This is a good thing for it can generate a debate in which students have to account for their answers, which they can do after they complete the exercise.

In a similar matter, the GSE indicates that at this level, students can extract key factual information such as prices, times and dates from a recorded phone message (at level 35). For learners who are ready to expand their abilities further, additional questions can be posed to extract specific factual information, as indicated by the GSE for a level slightly above A2:

  • Vic is going to be at the beach in the ____________.

  • Emma is going to a concert on Sunday at ___________.

Through such adaptations, we cater to different proficiency levels within the same group, offering a degree of challenge that is suitable yet stimulating. We can also consider these learning objectives for listening when analyzing the items in a listening activity. Let me describe some possible scenarios.

Addressing challenges and enhancing motivation

What happens when the tasks set before young learners at the same A2 level don't offer the necessary support? The GSE guidelines stipulate that learners should have access to materials and certain assisting elements, like visuals or supplementary information. It's our responsibility as educators to incorporate this support, thereby aligning the exercise with the learners' capabilities.

Occasionally, certain tasks may exceed the current level of the students. For instance, students may be asked to make basic inferences in simple conversations on familiar everyday topics (level 38). A stratagem I employ involves segregating items into 'A' (level-appropriate) and 'B' (slightly more advanced). This provides students with a clear understanding of their expectations and offers an optional challenge.

If they do not get them right, they do not feel frustrated since they know these items are somewhat beyond their level but if they do at least one correctly, this works wonders on their motivation, which has a positive impact on learning. The more motivated students are, the more motivated we teachers will be. The synergy between student motivation and teacher motivation cannot be overstated, amplifying the learning experience for both parties.

Conclusion

The Global Scale of English is an instrumental guide in shaping teaching activities to fit the varied needs of students. By leveraging its comprehensive descriptors and specialized insights, we can personalize our approaches to teaching English, providing a richer and more rewarding educational landscape. As we refine our activities using the GSE, we contribute to a dynamic classroom environment where each student is given the opportunity to flourish in their language learning journey.

About the author

Leonor Corradi is an English teacher based in Argentina. She is a former member of the Foreign Languages Team at the National Ministry of Education in Argentina, in charge of English and coordinator of state plurilingual schools in the City of Buenos Aires. She has extensive experience as a materials designer and coursebook writer and is an academic consultant for different educational institutions such as the British Council and Ministries of Education in Latin America.?

She has run professional development courses for teachers and has presented extensively at national and international conferences. She is the author of the Curriculum for Foreign Languages for the City of Buenos Aires (2001, English) and has been an ELTons Judge since 2014. Leonor has been a member of the Global Scale of English (GSE) Advisory Board since 2014 and is a GSE Ambassador.

Learn more about the GSE

More blogs from ÃÛÌÒapp

  • A child and parent laying on a carpet staring at eachother and smiling

    Mindfulness activities for kids to reduce stress

    By Amy Malloy

    How can we help children (and ourselves) deal with turbulent situations?

    As humans, we are programmed to position ourselves according to the constants around us: people, structures and boundaries. When those constants shift, it can be unsettling for adults and children.

    Sometimes we find ourselves in unprecedented situations, and we each have our own approach to managing things. If you feel confused and without direction because of a turbulent situation, please know that that is okay.

    We¡¯ll look today at why that is, to help us understand ourselves a little more and why these simple mindfulness activities can help us navigate it.

    What causes social stress?

    There may be many reasons for feeling stressed in life, but during turbulent times in society, it is often due to not feeling safe.

    Something in our environment is alerting our survival instinct. This makes our brains produce stress hormones, which get us ready to fight the threat, run from it, or freeze until it¡¯s gone away.

    The threat might be to our physical or even social survival ¨C and the two are linked. Things can feel even scarier when we also feel isolated from our social group, which keeps us protected from that threat.

    Human beings are social by nature. We live and work in communities, we connect through love and empathy and we protect each other. There¡¯s truth to the saying?¡°there¡¯s safety in numbers¡±.

    But it¡¯s not just about safety. We also define ourselves by comparing ourselves to others and working out what we are not.

    Research has found that we identify deeply with our role in society and the ¡®pack¡¯ to which we belong. This holds deep ties with our sense of safety, contentment and self-esteem. If the boundaries by which we define and position ourselves have shifted or continue to shift, we will feel unsafe, threatened and therefore stressed.

    Are children affected by social stress in the same way?

    If we then apply this to children, the constants to whom they look for security are the adults in their life. If the adults are behaving differently, the children will feel a shift and feel unsafe and stressed too. If they don¡¯t have their friends alongside them for social positioning, this too can lead to them feeling confused and uncertain.

    Here are some key ways we can help:

    Communicating and listening

    Children may often lack the language to express what they are feeling, or even to recognize it themselves. Therefore, we must offer ways to help them make sense of the world around them, to help them feel safe and to help express their concerns.

    Communication provides the necessary social interaction and models for them on how to handle the new situation. It firms up their boundaries, and provides a safe space where they feel listened to and acknowledged and this, in turn, helps diffuse their stress.

    The activity below is a lovely way to invite children to express any worry they might be feeling, mindfully and with support ¨C and give them something to do with their feelings. It also has the benefit of helping them breathe fully and slowly, which will calm down their nervous system.

    Breath activity: Worry bubbles

    1. Sit together and invite your child to put their palms together.
    2. Invite them to take a big breath in. As they breathe in, they can draw their palms further and further apart, spreading their fingers as they imagine blowing up a big bubble between their hands.
    3. Invite them to whisper a worry into the bubble.
    4. Invite them to blow the breath out nice and slowly. As they breathe out, they can imagine blowing the bubble (and the worry) away with a big sigh.
    5. Twinkle the fingers back down to the lap, and start again, either with the same worry or a new one

    Helping them find a safety anchor inside themselves

    By helping children focus on breathing, we can teach them that even if things feel wobbly around them, their breath is always there. The act of focusing on the breath also helps settle the fight or flight branch of their nervous system into a calmer, more balanced state.

    Breath Activity: Counting breaths

    1. Invite your child to sit with you.
    2. Invite them to place their hands on their tummy and breathe in slowly so they push into their hands, counting slowly up to four.
    3. As they breathe out, invite them to count up to six, as they slowly empty the belly and their hands lower back down.
    4. Continue until they feel calmer. You can do this every morning or evening to help sustain balance. With younger children, they might like a teddy on their tummy to push up and down!

    These two activities can be lovely daily practices to try and provide some safety and structure to your child or students¡¯ mental health right now. They are also enjoyable activities to try for yourself ¨C you may like to increase the in and out count of the breath a little bit for an adult breath.