A discussion about methodologies applied to adult learners in english classes

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(1)UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DA PARAÍBA CAMPUS I CENTRO DE EDUCAÇÃO CURSO DE LETRAS INGLÊS. EVERTON MATIAS DE ARAÚJO HERCULANO. A DISCUSSION ABOUT METHODOLOGIES APPLIED TO ADULT LEARNERS IN ENGLISH CLASSES. CAMPINA GRANDE 2017.

(2) EVERTON MATIAS DE ARAÚJO HERCULANO. A DISCUSSION ABOUT METHODOLOGIES APPLIED TO ADULT LEARNERS IN ENGLISH CLASSES. Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso apresentado ao Curso de Graduação em Letras Inglês da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, como requisito parcial à obtenção do título de graduado em Letras-Inglês. Orientador: Prof. Me. Técio Oliveira Macedo.. CAMPINA GRANDE 2017.

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(5) A. minha. esposa,. pela. companheirismo e amizade, DEDICO.. dedicação,.

(6) AGRADECIMENTOS. Ao professor Técio Oliveira Macedo pelas leituras sugeridas ao longo dessa orientação e pela dedicação. Aos professores do Curso de Letras Inglês da UEPB, em especial, Auricélio Soares Fernandes, Celso José de Lima Júnior, Nathalia Leite de Queiroz Sátiro e Valécio Irineu Barros, que contribuíram ao longo do curso, por meio das disciplinas e debates, para o desenvolvimento deste artigo. Aos colegas de classe pelos momentos de amizade e apoio..

(7) “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela.

(8) SUMMARY. INTRODUCTION................................................................................. 10 METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………. 10 1. English Language in the adult learners ‘classroom ……………… 11. 1.1. Contributions of English Language to adult learners …………… 11. 1.2. The role of English teachers in teaching EL to adult people….... 13. 1.3. The disadvantages of learning English as an adult learner…….. 17. 2. Methodologies in teaching English…………………………………. 18. 3. Experience……………………………………………………………….. 21. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………….... 23. REFERENCES…………………………………………………………... 25.

(9) RESUMO Neste artigo são mostradas as dificuldades que os alunos adultos têm na aprendizagem da língua inglesa e é exposto uma investigação de métodos que podem ser aplicados em sala de aula, a fim de tornar a aprendizagem dos alunos mais significativa. São investigados alguns fatores que podem tornar o processo de aprendizagem de inglês mais difícil para as pessoas adultas do que as crianças, alguns desses fatores são: trato vocal, a idade crítica, aquisição da língua materna que as pessoas adultas já adquiriram, mas não é somente analisado sobre as desvantagens de aprender a língua inglesa como um principiante adulto, há algumas investigações sobre as vantagens em aprender o inglês na idade adulta tais como: experiência de vida, maturidade e concentração em seus objetivos. É mencionado algumas estratégias que os professores de Inglês podem aplicar em suas aulas, a fim de obter uma aula melhor. É demonstrado a importância que os professores de Inglês têm no processo de ensino de Inglês e afeto é algo muito importante que os professores devem trazer para a sala de aula, com carinho aprendentes de Inglês se sintam mais confortáveis durante as aulas e melhores resultados professores de Inglês podem obter, especialmente com alunos que tiveram dificuldades durante a vida escolar. As atitudes dos alunos são mostradas e os resultados deste artigo são: a satisfação dos alunos, a melhoria deles na aprendizagem, a superação da baixa autoestima dos adultos em língua inglesa, os sentimentos do professor. Alguns autores estão presentes neste artigo: Oliveira, Lima, Mulik, Richter, Sobroza.. Palavras-chave: O papel do professor na língua inglesa, Métodos, estudante adulto..

(10) INTRODUCTION. Adult people have more difficulties in learning English than children. According to Penfield and Roberts (1958), the ideal age for language acquisition occurs in the first ten years of life, in which the brain has its highest point of plasticity, since puberty the brain would not have the same resources, it would lose them, that is one of the reasons that makes adult people to have more difficulties in acquiring language than children. The focus of this article is to investigate the methods that can be used in classrooms of adult learners and to relate an experience of a classroom. English teachers should try to look for other methodologies, in order to make the English Language learning process less complicated to adult students. According to Oliveira (2008), adult people tend to make more mistakes than children when they are learning a foreigner language, because they have acquired their mother tongue, so that is a disadvantage to them. It is shown an experience of a group from the subject Internship II from UEPB, in which adult students were observed regarding their difficulty in learning English Language. In this observation are mentioned some factors for the students being unsuccessful with the subject, it is exposed the methods applied with them, it is mentioned their opinions, another important point that is clarified is the age matter, it is exhibited that according to some theories the age it is a big factor that makes the process of learning English harder when the person is an adult. Some teaching methods will be exposed here, and some of them are presented and explained more in detail as well as the reasons why they were chosen to be applied with the group. Besides the main focus of this article that is to help EJA students in learning English Language, another one is to give support to English teachers who want to give a better class for adult learners with difficulties in learning.. METHODOLOGY. The methodology of this article was done through the post Method Era. This also article was done through a bibliographical research, where were shown some authors' opinions on the problematic studied. During the development of the project. 10.

(11) is shown some methodologies that can be applied to adult students who have problems in learning EL. This article was carried out with the main focus on discussing methodologies that can be applied in the classes of adult learners and also to help the teachers to make the process of learning EL easier for older students who have many difficulties to learn, and specifically in EL. This article was done through articles, websites and for my own observations in the Internship.. 1. English Language in the adult learners` classroom. English language may help students to better know their environment, as we can see in this passage from Brasil (2011). 1. An important contribution of the Foreign Language in school is, therefore, help to interpret the political and social framework of the media, as well as to understand both foreign cultures and the culture itself, with the different forms of expression and behavior. (Translated by the author). This is a substantial contribution from EL (English Language) to the school and at the same time to the school system, according to it some students will have the opportunity to learn not only to speak the language, but they will have a better comprehension of the world around them. In the Brasil (2011), it can be found that English language has an important role in the collaboration to the construction of citizenship and favors social participation of students, allowing them to broaden their understanding of the world where they live and can intervene in it. It makes the population more intelligent, knowing more their world, knowing what is happening in their countries and abroad. According to Brasil (2011), the teacher should value the knowledge of the students, because doing that they will be able to construct conceptions, systematized by school work. So, it is praiseworthy to value the background that students bring to the classroom, doing that it will be easier to work with them in the school.. 1. “Uma importante contribuição da Língua Estrangeira na escola é, assim, ajudar a interpretar o quadro político e social composto pela mídia, bem como a compreender tanto as culturas estrangeiras quanto a própria cultura, com as diferentes formas de expressão e de comportamento”. (Brasil, 2011, p.3). 11.

(12) 1.1 Contributions of English Language to adult students English Language may bring many contributions to older students, contributions that can change their lives in some ways, since from home as a hobby or in their professional lives, in order to get a new job or changing the position in a company. In the Professional Contribution, according to the Mulik, (2011). 2. The foreign language within the EJA has a fundamental role since provides the contact with the culture and the scientific and technological knowledge produced in the language-speaking communities. Learning EL, the basic right of all students, contributes to the insertion in the job market and the inclusion of these students in the local and global communications. (Translated by the author). EL contributes a lot to the professional life, it contributes in several ways, to write a curriculum vitae to job interviews, following this idea the people who can speak EL, certainly will have more opportunities in their professional lives, some of them may obtain a job promotion, many companies nowadays need people to be able to speak English, in order to perform some duties. Another contribution that EL offers to adult learners is alternative leisure – In the Brasil (2011) is menteioned that: 3. it Provides a more comprehensive perspective of Leisure situations, allowing young people and adult people to read books, newspapers and magazines, better understanding of movies, television news, documentaries, interviews, novels, etc. (Translated by the author). Older students can learn English Language not only for job reasons, but they may learn EL for their own entertainment, as mentioned previously they can use EL for many purposes such as: when they are watching a movie, soap opera, television news, documentaries etc. It may be very outstanding to the studies. As we can analyses so far, EL is very applicable to keep being taught in the school, and here specifically with adults’ classes. Reading and writing are another contribution from EL to adult learners, according to Mulik (2011): 2. “A língua estrangeira dentro da EJA tem um papel fundamental uma vez que proporciona o contato com a cultura e os conhecimentos científicos e tecnológicos produzidos nas comunidades falantes dessa língua. A aprendizagem de LE, direito básico de todos os alunos, contribui para a inserção no mercado de trabalho e a inclusão desses alunos nas redes comunicativas locais e globais”. (MULIK, Katia, 2011, p.8) 3 “Proporciona uma perspectiva mais abrangente de situações de lazer, permitindo que os jovens e adultos possam tirar maior proveito da leitura de livros, jornais e revistas, compreender melhor filmes, telejornais, documentários, entrevistas, novelas etc.” (Brasil 2011, p.4). 12.

(13) 4. Even though working with texts takes time and is sometimes exhausting, it does not can be neglected. The contact with the diversity of genres be they oral or written, need to be present in LE classes so that students and understand better the discourses that surround society. (Translated by the author). It may also help them to write new texts, for example; in the school, when they have to develop some kind of work. It may increase the taste for reading, because they will be able to understand different kinds of texts. Certainly, it lets them more proficient with the ability in reading and writing. Another contribution from EL to mellowed students is to help them to find themselves as members of a linguistic community, according to the Mulik (2011), the perspective of teaching and learning of foreign languages, focused on the use of language in communicative contexts, it is basis for classroom with the participation of the student - with his or her support and contribution in the construction of the knowledge of the other one. With this knowledge, they can start to question the importance of what they are learning and a better understanding of the world. With that the school helps them to know new perspectives of themselves. In the Brasil (2011) states: “the student has the chance to participate in the knowledge, using their own history and their learning objective”. With this idea mellowed learners may understand better their environment and start to write text more critically. 1.2 The role of English teachers in teaching EL to adult people. In Brasil (2011) is exposed that was made one questionnaire to teachers of adult learners and some of them were questioned about the teaching of EL in the EJA classes and they said it predominates essentially lectures, written materials and the use of textbooks, having as content topics such as: greetings; days of the week, months; professions; colors; verbs to be and to have; personal pronouns; nationalities; numbers; articles; adjectives; prepositions; interrogative forms; short answers, So, that is the first idea that we can have about the teaching of EL in older students’ classes.. 4. “Mesmo que o trabalho com textos demande tempo e por vezes seja exaustivo, ele não pode ser negligenciado. O contato com a diversidade de gêneros sejam eles orais ou escritos, precisa se fazer presente nas aulas de LE para que os alunos ampliem suas possibilidades de produção textual e compreendam melhor os discursos que circundam na sociedade”. (MULIK, Katia 2011, p.9). 13.

(14) The way that English teachers work in the mellowed students’ classes are: reading aloud and translating texts. We can be sure about that with this passage. 5. The teachers pointed out as irrelevant the work with interviews, television programming, advertising texts, letters, reports, news, poems, newspaper editorials, journalistic articles, dictionaries and encyclopedias, recipes, statutes, declarations of rights. (Translated by the author). The role of the teacher is important in the process of learning, they are responsible for keeping a good environment in the classroom and they are also in charge of detecting problems in the class. We can affirm it through this passage of the Leaf group (2015). Teachers play vital roles in the lives of the students in their classrooms. Teachers are best known for the role of educating the students that are placed in their care. Beyond that, teachers serve many other roles in the classroom. Teachers set the tone of their classrooms, build a warm environment, mentor and nurture students, become role models, and listen and look for signs of trouble. (Leaf group 2015). It is very respectable to the teachers keep a good environment in the class, because if the teachers prepare a warm and happy environment, the students consequently will feel happier to learn English, but if the students notice that the teacher is not acting in a good way, they will be affected by his/her mood and his or her performance is not nice. it can be affirmed through the following passage leaf group (2015). Teachers also play an important role in the classroom when it comes to the environment. Students often mimic a teacher’s actions. If the teacher prepares a warm, happy environment, students are more likely to be happy. An environment set by the teacher can be either positive or negative. If students sense the teacher is angry, students may react negatively to that and therefore learning can be impaired. (Leaf group 2015).. There is a questionnaire that we can find in Brasil (2011), that some teachers answered questions about the advantages that students obtain when they learn English: the use of the prior knowledge and the world of the students; reflections on other cultures, values, habits and customs; understanding the social function of the text; recognition of different types of text based on textual organization; the concern to be understood and to understand, both in speech and in the writing; the. 5. Os professores apontaram como irrelevante o trabalho com entrevistas, programação de tevê, textos publicitários, cartas, reportagens, classificados, poemas, editoriais de jornais, artigos jornalísticos, verbetes de dicionários e enciclopédias, receitas, estatutos, declarações de direitos”. (Brasil 2011, p.5). 14.

(15) recognition that foreign languages increase the understand of the values and interests of other cultures. All those points above were answered and make us understand that language is not just to decode a language to one another, but students can use the language to understand better the different cultural universe through the internet, magazines, news on TV, reflections about values, habits, customs etc. Collier (2005), reinforces this idea saying that a growing number of researchers believe that caring is both essential for school success and the key to students’ ability to learn. In the meantime, students demonstrate that they are interested in the class, teachers should take advantage of the situation to start to communicate more with students and show them that they are able to learn. Oliveira (2008), states that self-esteem has a considerable role in the learning process of English: 6. The fact that self-esteem is a paramount in the process, once it is raised, becomes safety, encouraging and providing the student with subsidies to develop even greater tasks. At the same time as the opposite occurs, the students will lessen their commitment, transforming what was learning into a frustrating activity. (Translated by the author). Self-esteem and self-confidence have a noted role in learning and it would not be different with English as a foreign language, teacher must be careful and attentive to students, according to Oliveira (2008), students with high self-esteem feel more confident in the learning process and they perform better during classes, good grades they obtain etc. On the other hand, if English learners do not have high selfesteem, the result during class is the opposite of those who have it, low-esteem English students have no interest during classes, they do not feel motivated, so they feel frustrated. Thus, teachers have to try to make their students to feel well during classes and, consequently, students will get better results. According to Oliveira (2008), there are external factors that are reputed in the learning process, “the ability to learn EL still depends on external factors arising from the learning culture that students acquire and bring throughout their intellectual, cultural and social experience”. 6. “O fato de a autoestima ser algo primordial no processo, uma vez que ao ser elevada, converte-se em segurança, encorajando e fornecendo ao aluno subsídios para desenvolver tarefas ainda maiores. Ao mesmo tempo em que, se ocorrer o contrário, o aluno diminuirá seu empenho, transformando o que era aprendizagem em uma atividade frustrante”. (Oliveira de Frank (2008, p. 6). 15.

(16) As quoted above, Oliveira (2008) states that English learners can bring external situations to the classroom that have a key role in the learning process, so English teachers should be mindful of the qualities students bring to the classroom and should try to take advantage of these qualities to help them in the learning process. The role of the teacher is also to search strategies to apply in their classes, to Richter (2000), every teaching-learning strategy has its value; there is no method that is perfect for all types of students. According to him the best solution is to allow them to personalize their pedagogical path. How to study, how to learn, those are questions that students should also ask. Often the method of teaching, teaching materials, language courses and schools do not take into account the heterogeneity of the students. Therefore, the teacher should be very well grounded in theory, to adapt the method to the reality of each student, especially of adults with learning difficulties, adapting it with the aim of facilitating learning as much as possible. There are several courses that have their own method, with specific steps to be followed by the teacher, class after class. They are great methods, but the teacher must always be aware to all the students, to detect if it is necessary or not to use this method with another approach, according to Richter (2000) teachers have to be prepared to identify the difficulties of the students. The experience that adults have can be used to benefit them in the learning process of EL, Sobroza (2012 apud SCHÜTZ 2008): states that adult people have more experience than children and this is an advantage for them. So, grown people can better understand the grammatical structure of a foreign language and they can also make comparisons with their mother tongue. As adults have accumulated knowledge, they have the ability to deal with hypothetical and abstract concepts. We can assume that adults can use their lives experiences that they have accumulated to benefit them in the EL learning process. Any person is able to learn EL, even adult people who faces many difficulties during the process of learning English as a Foreign Language. As Pallu (2008) states that adults have many difficulties to learn EL and age is not the distinguishing factor of this acquisition, more than the level of the affective filter and the amount of effort that the student presents for this learning. 16.

(17) Adult students have difficulties in learning EL after post-puberty, according to Oliveira (2008), mentions that it is possible to acquire EL post-puberty, since a student can achieve fluency in EL, even when their learning begins in adulthood. He affirms that adults have more needs to learn EL, they are more self-centered than children in the process of learning English. 7. The issue of adulthood deserves special mention because it is seen as a phase of maturity, where the concerns and targets to be achieved are seen or faced more solidly and learning is a factor that has goals. (Translated by the author). The author mentions that adult people should focus on their goals, as adults have reached the age of maturity and they have many concerns and goals to achieve, they have to face the process of Learning English more seriously. These concerns and targets can be for their professional lives, personal purposes etc. Sometimes they need to speak English to get a salary raise or to get a better position in their jobs, and also for personal purposes, for example, traveling abroad or for their own entertainment (music, movies, books etc.) As we already know that adults have difficulties in learning English language, they have to be sure about the real purpose for learning it, according to Nielson (2014), if a grown up wants to learn a foreign language, they have to ask themselves why they want to learn the language, get their expectations sorted, build a study plan around what is expected to be used. Having this in mind adults will have more reasons and build a plan to learn EL in a better way.. 1.3 The disadvantages of learning English as an adult. Adult learners as they have already acquired their mother tongue, they begin to make a comparison between their mother tongue with the target language, so they make some mistakes due to this comparison, mainly when they learn expressions, Oliveira (2008) confirms that, in the hypothesis known as fossilization, the adult learner of English tends to understand the syntactic, semantic and phonological parameters between the target language and the mother tongue. Even adult learners. 7. “A questão da fase adulta merece destaque por que é encarada como uma fase de maturidade, em que as preocupações e alvos a serem atingidos são vistos ou encarados com mais solidez e a aprendizagem é um fator que possui objetivos”. (Oliveira de Frank ,2008, p. 4). 17.

(18) who have a good level of English can make mistakes when they begin to compare their mother tongue with the target language. There is a critical age in our lives that occurs in the post-puberty period and this makes the learning process more difficult for older students, according to Carvalho (2004, p.8), who states that "EL in adult education is more difficult, because it is "contaminated" in relation to the phenomena related to the native language already acquired ", and they have already passed through this critical age. According to Sobroza (2012), the critical age occurs between 12 to 14 years of age, during this period, adolescents begin to lose the ability to assimilate languages, even the mother tongue, this loss is more noticeable in speech. Sobroza (2012 apud SCHÜTZ 2008, p. 12) affirms that, "the monolingual adult who already has an established phonological matrix, is characterized by a cushioned auditory sensitivity, it is trained to perceive and produce only the phenomena of their mother tongue system." That is a reason for the adult people having more difficult to learn EL than children, because as they have already acquired the mother tongue, it makes the process of learning a foreign language harder.. 2 Methodologies in teaching English. According to Brown (2002), a method is: Method was defined as an overall plan for systematic presentation of language based on a selected approach. It followed that techniques were specific classroom activities consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well. (BROWN, 2002 p.9). Following his thoughts, we can conclude that a method firstly needs an approach to be put into practice, and with an approach the techniques that are put into practice. Kumaravadivelu (1994) identified what he called the “post method Era', is a result of the widespread dissatisfaction with the conventional concept of method”. The teachers adapt their approach in accordance with local, contextual factors, in this method there is no method to be followed, because it allows the teacher to choose the best way to teach students. In the Post Method Era, the role of teacher is more independent from theories as Mahshad (2014) says, teachers are able to analyze their classroom procedure to see what works and what does not work, so they can 18.

(19) assess their instruction effectively to bring the necessary changes for achieving the desired goal. We can assume that this method allows teachers to have his/her own strategies and techniques to be used in the classroom, and they decide which kind of procedures they have to use, due to the analyzes that he/she makes, when they recognize the level and the characteristics of the students. In the following topic, we will see that was used this strategy of analyzing the students, in order to find the best way to teach the classroom that it will be mentioned in the next point of this article. There are other methods that English teachers can use in their classes such as: Direct Method, Traditional Method, Socio-Interactionist Method and Audiolingual Method. In this part of the article we will see the main idea of each one of them. In the next topic is about an experience of Internship and some of those methods were applied in a classroom. Starting with the Direct Method: 8. It is a methodology of teaching that has as main objective the social integration of the students. In it, students share the knowledge they have. It is opposed to the traditional teaching method. The English classes, through this methodology of teaching, are taught with direct contact with the language. In addition, students can only communicate in English during the classes. Gestures, images and simulations are used for communication, always in the English language. (Translated by the author). As mentioned above, this type of methodology is used to make students to communicate in EL, through this method student have to share to each other their backgrounds. To make this process easier to students, English teachers can use their hands to make gestures and bringing visual material to the class and they also simulate some situations to the students. Another Method that English teachers can use, it´s one of the oldest, the Traditional Method: 9. "It's the oldest teaching methodology. It arose from the Enlightenment and was intended to teach Latin and Greek to the students. English classes that are taught with this type of teaching encourage students to use the literal translation of words through the teaching normative grammar. The classes 8. “É uma metodologia de ensino que tem como principal objetivo a integração social dos alunos. Nela, os alunos compartilham os conhecimentos que possuem. É oposto ao método de ensino tradicional. As aulas de inglês, através desta metodologia de ensino, são ministradas com o contado direto com a língua. Além disso, os alunos só podem se comunicar em inglês durante as aulas. São usados gestos, imagens e simulações para a comunicação, sempre na língua inglesa” (Grupo guia da carreira, 2017) 9. “É a metodologia de ensino mais antiga. Surgiu a partir do iluminismo e tinha como objetivo ensinar o latim e o grego aos alunos. As aulas de inglês que são ministradas com este tipo de ensino incentivam os alunos a utilizar a tradução literal das palavras, através do ensino da gramática normativa. As aulas são expositivas e possuem uma grande carga de teoria, com exercícios para memorização do conteúdo ministrado.”. (Grupo guia da carreira, 2017). 19.

(20) are expositive and have a lot of theory, with exercises to memorize the content taught." (Translated by the author). As observed above, this type of methodology gives all the authority and voice to the teacher, he/she is the knower of everything and everything that students do in the classroom is followed by teacher's instructions, they cannot do the activities for their own. It is a process of memorization in which students are involved with texts and grammatical rules. This method is mentioned as too old, where it was intended to be taught to Latin and Greek students. The Method that will is more mentioned in this article it the Socio-Interactionist Method, which was chosen to be used in the classroom of the experience of Internship that will be discussed in the next topic. So, the Socio-Interactionist Method: 10. "It's the latest teaching methodology. It is the method defended by the National Curricular Parameters. In it the teaching of English takes place through the communication between the students, that is, of the exchange of experiences. Classes are taught based on the social interaction of students, with emphasis on real situations. In addition, it uses reflection, if using several textual genres.". As shown above, in this method the adult people have the opportunity to learn EL by exchanging experiences lived by each one and the classes are taught with a context that involves their social lives. As the process involves real situations, the classes become more appealing to adult students who seek to learn something more real, several textual genres are used in this kind of methodology. Another method is the Audiolingual method: 11. This method of teaching focuses on speaking and listening to English, rather than on writing and reading. Classes are taught only in oral form, through a mechanical process of questions and answers, where the correct answers are reinforced. It has great emphasis on linguistic structures. (Translated by the author). 10. “É a metodologia de ensino mais recente. É o método defendido pelos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais. Nela o ensino do inglês se dá através da comunicação entre os alunos, ou seja, da troca de experiências. As aulas são ministradas apoiadas no convívio social dos alunos, com ênfase em situações reais. Além disso, utiliza a reflexão, se utilizando de diversos gêneros textuais”. (Grupo guia da carreira, 2017) 11. “Este método de ensino possui foco na fala e na audição do inglês, ao invés de utilizar da escrita e da leitura. As aulas são ministradas somente na forma oral, através de um processo mecânico de perguntas e respostas, onde são reforçadas as respostas corretas. Possui grande ênfase nas estruturas linguísticas”. (Grupo guia da carreira, 2017). 20.

(21) As mentioned previously, in this method the focus is on the listening and speaking. The teacher works in oral form, making questions all the time to students to answer, in order to stimulate the communication and during the classes the students are corrected constantly. In this method, the structure has a great emphasis in linguistic and teachers can use it, if they see that the focus of the students is just to speak and to listen. The next topic is about an experience of an adult’s´ group. 3 Experiences This part of the article is about an experience of Internship II and I was the teacher who taught. Post Method Era and Socio-Interactionist Method were applied in the classroom during the moment of training. The Internship II is a subject required by the UEPB, located in Campina Grande, Brazil. In this subject, the students have to study theories in the university and after they have studied the theories they have to go to some school to train them. The school that was chosen to happen the training was the Municipal School Joséfa Araújo Pinheiro, it is located in the town of Esperança in the state of Paraíba, Brazil, the grade that was taught was the 7th grade of elementary, in the classroom there were 12 students with the ages about 30 to 55 years old. In the very first class, it was worked a text about the contributions of English Language, in order to let students aware about the importance of it to their lives. The role of the teacher in this experience was very considerable to investigate the best methods to work with adult learners, to identify problems in the class, to seek learning styles and to bring a good environment to the class, in order to motivate students. As mentioned previously, in the Post Method Era there is no method to be followed and the Socio-Interactionist Method involves social contexts, it was noticed that they would be more useful to work with adults, it could be noted that students get more interested in matters of social life. Following the perspective of this Method teachers do not have to follow any kind of Method if they want and they have to observe the students to start to plan classes that make students to learn and also to motivate them.. 21.

(22) As shown previously in this article according to Oliveira (2008), motivation and self-esteem is something important to be worked with adults who did not have the opportunity to finish their studies, for several reasons, and they do not feel the confidence in themselves to learn school subjects anymore.. As the group were. about 12 students it was easy to work with those problems and to find learning styles to labor such as: their experience of lives and also showing the goals that students could achieve with EL. The disadvantages in learning English as an adult learner, was discussed in this article with Sobroza (2012) and Oliveira (2008), knowing the difficulties it could be worked better with those mellowed learners, especially self-esteem and motivation. As the students participate in the class, the Socio-Interactionist Method was used in the classes, because it is suitable to the profile of the classroom. The decision of choosing this method was done after some observations. During the classes, it was applied the Socio-Interactionist Method, through some topics that were presented in the students’ expectations, for example the importance of English Language. The training was followed by the perspective of the Post Method Era of observing the best way to teach the students. It was noticed that the students did not like to be listening to the teacher all the time, but students like to participate in the class, to pronounce the words, to come to the board and answer some activities, to present some subjects, to make questions to each other etc. Even though they make several mistakes in writing and pronunciation. So, it was used the Socio-Interactionist Method and the students really appreciated the class, because they were all the time participating and also through the content taught in the class they could talk about their personal lives, doing that it could be observed that the teaching was making more sense to them and they were not learning just for learning, but there was a meaning in that for them. The class that students appreciated more was one about clothes, they had the opportunity to talk in English by answering some questions that were made. It was made questions about the kind of clothes that they liked and the same questions they also made to their peers. They showed some clothes that they brought and talked about it in English in order to get a grade. During this class, it could be observed that they were really happy, because in the very beginning they felt like they would never 22.

(23) learn to speak anything in English, but during the class they were making questions to each other and they were perceiving that they were able to speak in English, they were making questions by their memories. During the classes was asked to them how they would like to learn and they said that they like to participate in the classes, with their answer it was chosen the Post Method Era perspective due to some observations that were made, and during the first classes it was decided to use some theories of the Socio-Interactionist Method, because as seen before this method makes the students to get involved in the class and not only listen the teacher as the center of the class, it involves subjects about social life and they had the opportunity to talk and reflect about their lives. The experience in the classroom was good for me as a teacher, because it helped me to teach in the way that the students learn more effectively. In the very first glance, I thought that I might not teach them, because they were too unmotivated and I could not see any interesting of them in learning, they did not have good financial conditions to buy school material such as: dictionaries, notebooks, pencils etc. This experience was too different for me, because I never had a classroom like that. The experiences that I had were with young students and also in a language course. In the end of the experience was successful, because I could teach them and also, I proved for myself that I was able to teach adult learners.. CONCLUSION. In this article were shown some methods such as Post Method Era and Socio Interactionist Method and learning strategies that English teachers can apply in their classes, here it was applied in adults´ group, in order to get better results with students with difficulties in learning English Language. In the article it was discussed the English school subject with adult learners , the advantages in learning it, the disadvantages in learning English when the learner is an adult, the important role of the teacher to the older students, the attitudes that English teachers may have with students and the most important point of this article is the report about an experience of training in a classroom, where it was observed that students had difficulties in learning EL due to some problems and also for their 23.

(24) own self-esteem and expectations in learning, because for a long time they have not studied anything from school. This experience of adults´ classroom is very useful to the English teacher, maybe teachers can be unaware about attitudes that they can take with adult students and about the best way that they can learn, and the experience of this classroom may let teachers more aware, and it can aid teachers with the classrooms that they have today and the classrooms that they will have. To conclude the article is shown that the perspective of the Post Method Era and the theory of Socio-Interactionist Method were useful to make the learning of the students more effectively and more meaningful to them, they were chosen after some observations in the classroom. This article is very useful to the English teachers who are seeking new ideas and methods to apply in their classes.. 24.

(25) A DISCUSSION ABOUT METHODOLOGIES APPLIED TO ADULT LEARNERS IN ENGLISH CLASSES. EVERTON MATIAS DE ARAÚJO HERCULANO. ABSTRACT In this article is shown the difficulties that adult students have in learning English Language and to investigate the methods that can be applied in their classroom, in order to make students to learn it and with more meaningful. It is investigated some factors that can make the process of learning English harder to adult people than children, some of those factors are: vocal tract, the critical age, acquisition of their mother tongue that adult people already have acquired, but it is not only about the disadvantages of learning English Language as an adult learner, there are some investigations about the advantages in learning English in the adulthood such as: life experience, maturity and concentration on their goals. It is mentioned some strategies that English teachers can apply on their classes, in order to get a better class. It is shown the importance that English teachers have in the process of teaching English and affection is something very important that teachers must bring to the classroom, with affection English learners feel more comfortable during the classes and better results English teachers may obtain, especially with adult students that have difficulties during their school lives. Students´ attitudes are shown and the results of this article are: the satisfaction of the students, the improvement of them in learning, overcoming of adults` low self-esteem in English Language, teachers´ feelings. Some authors are exposed such as: Oliveira, Lima, Mulik, Richter, Sobroza.. Key-Words: The role of teacher in English Language, Methods, adult student.. 25.

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