TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO ADULT LEARNERS

There is no need to discus about the importance of foreign languages nowadays. Apart from the students of all school levels we find also a great number of adult learners in the language classes. A lot of attention is paid to the finding of the best methodologies, techniques and procedures that provide the fastest language acquisition in the shortest amount of time possible especially for adult learners as they have an immediate need for immediate results. This paper will concentrate on the need of teaching methods for adult learners which have to be different from those used for school or university students as these groups of learners have different characteristics and as a result different needs and expectations. This paper will cover some definitions of the adult learner, the differences between the adult learner and the young learner, the main theories on adult teaching and learning, and at the end it will be discussed about how important it is for the teacher to take into account that the adult learner is not only different from a young learner, an adult learner, product of a culture and a political, social, economical situation, is also different other adult learners, and as such he/she might respond in different ways to different methods, techniques and activities