How to stay on the level?

Novice teachers often face the following question: if students of different levels are placed in the same preparatory department group, how can a lesson be organised so that it is interesting for everyone? Yulia Amlinskaya, teacher of RFL, head of the international online school of RFL “Russificate” and the international online school for bilingual children “Russificate Kids” offers the following recommendations.

“Unfortunately, RFL teachers have to deal with mixed-level groups not only in preparatory departments. The same situation can arise at a language school or university, with both adult students and bilingual children. In the latter case, there may also be a significant age difference. We sometimes also find that students from Slavic countries learn Russian more easily. As a result, even when a group initially starts at the same level, some students can quickly move ahead of the others.

First of all, the teacher should assess the level of each student in the group, using not only a grammar test but also tests covering all four language skills: writing, speaking, reading and listening. It is also important for a teacher working with a mixed-level group to have a clear understanding of each student, including from a psychological point of view. Working with such groups requires not only additional methodological preparation, but also a teacher who is mentally prepared for the challenge: the workload is essentially doubled. The teacher will also need to monitor each student’s progress more closely and check whether they remain motivated, as motivation problems are common in mixed-level groups.

It is very important that the difference between students’ levels is not too great. For example, if some students are at complete beginners and others are at A1, this is not as much of a problem as having some students at A1 and others at B1. After B1, the situation becomes somewhat easier because by that stage students have already covered the main grammar, can communicate in Russian, and need to build up their vocabulary and study some more complex grammatical categories in greater depth. So, a mixed B1-C1 group is not as difficult to manage as a mixed A1–B1 group. Of course, the number of students at each level is also an important factor, as it affects how the course and individual lessons are planned. If there is only one advanced student, they can simply be given individual exercises. If there are two, they can work using a flipped learning format and so on. The overall number of students in the group also matters: the larger the group, the more difficult it is to work.

Unfortunately, when there is a significant gap between students’ levels, it becomes difficult for the teacher to work effectively. More advanced students may need individual assignments and a larger amount of homework. It may also be useful to introduce flipped learning. In other words, the teacher can prepare a set of tasks in advance covering all four language skills – speaking, writing, listening and reading – and give them to the higher-level students as homework. During the lesson, the advanced students can report to the teacher on the exercises they have completed, ask questions and carry out practical tasks.

At the same time, the teacher should never permanently divide the group into “beginners” and “advanced” students without bringing them together during the learning process. This can undermine the atmosphere of cooperation, damage relationships and create psychological discomfort for both sides. That is why the lesson should begin in the same way for everyone: by asking how they are doing and what has happened in their lives outside class. There is nothing wrong with more advanced students saying something that the others do not understand. On the contrary, this can encourage the other students to continue improving their Russian.

When forming mini-groups within a larger group, it is important to remember that lower-level students can learn from higher-level students. The teacher should therefore create mixed groups in which more advanced students can help those at a lower level – for example, by giving examples of the instrumental case or explaining endings. Of course, all of this should happen under the teacher’s supervision. 

It is recommended that the whole group work with the same topics and situations, but in different ways. For example, if the communicative situation is “At a Restaurant” and the group includes A1 and B1 students – the “difficult case” – they can be divided according to language level. While the beginners read the simplest dialogues, listen to them, try to understand them and create similar dialogues, the other group can work with different dialogues on the same topic, using more advanced vocabulary, create similar dialogues and take part in role-play activities.

If the number of beginners and more advanced learners in the group is roughly equal, some teachers prefer to use two different textbooks, one for each group. Others do not recommend this approach and believe that it is better to prepare separate worksheets for the advanced group.

Visual materials, pictures depicting scenes or events and Wimmelbooks can also be a great help to a teacher working with a mixed-level group, as they make it possible to design different tasks and ask different questions. There are also situations in which the gap between students’ levels is so great that the learning process loses its meaning. In such cases, the teacher needs to insist on separating the group”.