Essay: Language Learning Strategies For Adult Learners: Challenges And Solutions.

In this report learners who are taken into consideration are between the age of 35 to 65 years. Amongst these 8 students there are 3 females and 5 males. It has been seen that many of these students come from native places of their own from mainly Asian countries. Hence it is a bit difficult for them to knowledge a new language in their adulthood and learn the skills of it as a whole. Not only that but also the common challenge that they face in their education belonging from the adult group of students is that they lack in confidence and their ability to learn in many different manners. Not only that but also the low amount of self-esteem causes them difficulties in learning something new. As first language is there are different languages that they speak coming from Asian countries which originally beholds different native languages. Hence being the students of such an age group it becomes difficult for them to acknowledge a new language and learn it as well. However different learners have different kinds of capabilities that are being talked about here for example all these different students have different kinds of problems, and they perceive the language in different ways as well (Joyce & Feez, 2016). Basically, learners are people who belong from age group who do not have the sufficient amount of communication skills that are required to survive through a normal life of having a proper job. Not only that but also the are people who want to implement the chances that they get as social practices and communication and learn the language of a different culture altogether so that they can have a stable job and life as well as far as the dialect or culture is concerned it can be said that these people have been taken into consideration where a project was routed for them to be involved in the practice of language so that they could learn the language more and have a grip on it which would make them proficient in the jobs that they would be doing. Hence it can be said that there are different kinds of specific goals with her included in the literary programs which helps them in understanding and grabbing the language in a better manner and also gives them an opportunity to learn it and perceived as well. Most of the students aspire in getting a job in the client service or the customer service sectors of companies (Taylor & Trumpower, 2021). For that matter communication is one of the major reasons why they might lack behind. Hence learning how to communicate in the native languages where they live in it's important for their careers. However, the people who are the learners has to be assessed according to the pre-existing language competency before they are enrolled. The Australian core skills framework ACSF talks about the five main features of the framework of communication which includes

• learning
• reading
• writing
• oral communication
• Numeracy 

These are the basic skills that are required to be acknowledged hand developed by the students who are perceiving it. however, on the other hand CSWE III curriculum also has a skill set which has been updated:

• To reflect the current national requirements regarding the reacquisition
• It also reflects the emerging needs and requirements of the students the industry and the community of the community consultations as well
• Another main feature is that it is better aligned and goes hand in hand in ACSF level 3. 

Challenges Faced by Adult Learners

Finding employment is a bit difficult for them as they do not have the grab language and hence it becomes difficult for them to communicate on an inter-generational level. Not only that but also these issues become even more problematic when they do not end up finding a job for themselves and this reason makes them even more frustrated and lose confidence as well.

To develop a particular skill set for the students who belong from the adult section of students it is important for the trainers to allocate a set up where they can treat and learn more about the language that they are about to pursue. So, the students who are required to have a fluency in the communication skills both in written and verbal communications it is important for them to schedule a timetable which would help them in understanding the subject matter in a better way.

1. At the first, it is important for the learners to develop the skills of familiarity of the subject old language that they are about to pursue. Just for the sake of the understanding of their requirements for employment skill development and to run a family business it is important for them to understand why they want to pursue the language that they are (Jacobsonet al. 2003). According to the Level 3 of learning of ACSF it is important for the learners identity to be divided according to their strengths weaknesses capabilities and also the limitations that are there.

2. Another most important thing that is needed to be considered is that there might be students who have kinds of disabilities that are needed to be addressed. For example, if a student is going through some learning difficulties, then it is important for the teacher to understand the problem and to figure out a learning plan accordingly.Not only that but also it is important for the teacher to develop certain sets of levels and castes so that it becomes easier for the students to have back comfort from where they might want to become comfortable reading or pursuing the language that they are doing. The foundation skills training that has been considered by the ACSF was basically developed for all the students with different kinds of problems that they are facing (Richards & Burns 2012). To address each student individual problems, it is important for the teacher to pay minute attention to all the problems that the students might be facing hence that can help the students to gain more confidence in themselves which would not only give them an opportunity to understand the difficulties of learning better but also to overcome them as well.

3. One of the main points of developing a curriculum is that when the teachers are teaching the learners to grab a new language and have their proficiency on that it is important for the teachers to come up with examples from authentic resources so that it becomes easier for the students to understand the examples better. The sources that can be developed are contents related to positive emotional and cognitive impacts that would allow the students to analyse understand the existence of elven skills in a better manner which would be beneficial for their communicative proficiency in the future. One of the major examples that can be drawn is that taking examples from the day-to-day life which includes reading orally like reading emails or newspaper articles. There are some typical language features which can be included in the resources as well which are:

• The expression of time through phrases like “…during the weekend” or “on the weekend”.
• Past tenses can also be used such as “visited”, “went”, “drove” etc.
• There can be use of similar and familiar lexis such as “to the groceries”, “to the movie hall”, “my friends” and so on and so forth.
• The participants can also use the pronouns “I” and “we” which belongs from the first-person perspective. Hence this ensures an authentic connection on the basis of social context switch not only includes the reading and writing of very simple social texts but also helps the students in working towards the freezes that they are using or taking as examples from the text itself.

Strategies to Overcome Challenges

One of the main suggestions that is needed to be taken into consideration is that the teacher should understand the basic needs of the learner who is trying to perceive a new language. Not only that but also according to the needs of the learner it is important for the teachers to go ahead and plan out how they are going to teach the students in a manner which would help the students in understanding the language better. It is important for the teacher to keep in mind that the students already have insight due to the low self-esteem that they have developed for not knowing a particular language. Not only that but also the students do have low self-esteem for the fact that They're learning something new in the age of adulthood. Hence that always bugs them to some extent or the other (Osmond, 2016). Therefore, it is important for the teachers to understand the problems that they might be going through and plan a program perfectly so that the students can game that confidence of learning something new. Not only that but also the teacher’s motivation plays a huge role in the learning process of the students. One of the major things that is considered by the CSWEIII curriculum is that set up learning plans according to pedagogical systematic functional linguistics which is also known as SFL. this curriculum is basically structured in a way which is the amalgamation of both the sequences related to the contradictions of genres the built of resource which becomes meaningful and systematically organised. However according to the CSWEIII curriculum, it had been seen that the stakeholders raised a few problems that they thought might be changed order to bring about a new developed way of learning which led to the changes in the curriculum such as:

• It was changed from a modular structure to a unit structure for the better understanding of the students the poor unit of learning and taking learning as the only essential thing was removed from the structure.
• The post rules were also changed such as six electives of five elective units allowing for greater flexibility that is a part of the course content was made mandatory.
• The numeracy modules were replaced with six FSK numeracy units. 

In addition to all these features, conducting group activities or discussions is equally important so that the group members of the students can interact with each other and develop an insight about each other’s culture and background so that it becomes easier for them to make friends and have that comfort zone where they learn better. An example can be taken of small children who learn their first language at home. Hence literacy at home plays an important role of how a person is learning about languages and perceiving one as well. There for sometimes it becomes difficult for people to come out of that comfort zone off the literacy that they gain from home and to pursue a new language which comes from a different cultural background altogether (Griffiths & Stone, 2013). However it might be made easier for them to understand a new language which would help them in employment by the teachers bye developing characters of the students and also making study plans which would help students in gaining the knowledge about a new language without any fear of embarrassment sometimes frustration can be difficult to handle by the students and hence it is important for the teacher to be kind to the students show that the students do not become afraid of learning something new which would actually help them in the long run.

References:

Feuerherm, E., & Oshio, T. (2020). Conducting a Community-Based ESOL Programme Needs Analysis. ELT Journal, 74(3), 327-337.

Griffiths, G., & Stone, R. (2013). Teaching Adult Numeracy: Principles & Practice: Principles & Practice. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Jacobson, E., Degener, S., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom: A Handbook for Practitioners. 

Joyce, H. S. D., & Feez, S. (2016). Studies of Literacy over Time and across Disciplines. In Exploring Literacies (pp. 40-84). Palgrave Macmillan, London. 

Osmond, P. (2016). What happened to our community of practice? The early development of Adult Basic Education in NSW through the lens of professional practice theory. Literacy and Numeracy Studies, 24(2), 3-23. 

Richards, J. C., & Burns, A. (Eds.). (2012). The Cambridge guide to pedagogy and practice in second language teaching. Cambridge University Press. 

Taylor, M., & Trumpower, D. (2021). A Portrait of the Adult Learner: Pluralistic Interpretations of Literacy Learning Outcomes over the Years. Adult Literacy Education, 3(1), 4-17.