What are the differences between teaching monolingual and multilingual classes?
The key differences between teaching monolingual and multilingual classes lie in the linguistic background of the students.
- Monolingual Classes: These are classes where all students share the same first language. Typically, these classes occur in the students' home country. For example, teaching English to Thai students in Thailand would be a monolingual setting. In such environments, the shared language can be leveraged to facilitate learning, but it can also lead to over-reliance on the native language.
- Multilingual Classes: In contrast, multilingual classes consist of students with different first languages. This is common in countries where English is the native language and the learners come from various linguistic backgrounds. For instance, a class in the UK might include students whose native languages are Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, etc. In these settings, there is no common language to rely upon, which can encourage more direct use of English in the classroom and foster a more immersive learning environment.
Understanding these differences is crucial for educators to tailor their teaching strategies effectively to each type of class.
Table of Contents
Advantages of teaching a monolingual class
Disadvantages of teaching a monolingual class
Advantages of teaching a multilingual class
Disadvantages of teaching a multilingual class
Advantages of teaching a monolingual class
a. The first advantage with the monolingual class is that students can actually help each other in their native language. So they can discuss L2 problems together in L1.
b. Secondly for a monolingual class, because they all come from the same country and speak the same language the students are going to have some common difficulties. This is an advantage to the teacher because we can work on those common difficulties with the whole class.
c. Finally, because they are all from the same country the students will be culturally similar, which is also helpful.
Disadvantages of teaching a monolingual class
a. Students will have less natural exposure to L2 than a multilingual class. An example of a monolingual class is teaching English to Thai students in Thailand. They are going to have less natural exposure to the English language in Thailand than they would in England.
b. Secondly as they all have the same L1 there will be a tendency for students to help each other in their L1 when they have problems. This may be an advantage at the lower levels, say up to pre intermediate (it can often actually be effective to allow them to do so). However, at the higher levels we should be discouraging use of their L1. So we should try and discourage any use of L1 at the higher levels.
Also read: Can I learn a foreign language while teaching English abroad?
Advantages of teaching a multilingual class
a. One advantage that the teaching of a multilingual class will have is that because the students are often learning the language in an English-speaking country, they are going to have more exposure to the English language, on a day to day basis.
b. Another advantage of a multilingual class is that because the students come from a range of different countries throughout the world they will have a large variety of experiences and cultures. Those varying experiences and cultures can be used within our classroom.
c. The final advantage here is that the students have no common language. As they come from different countries throughout the world and they all speak a different first language their only common language in this situation is therefore going to be English.
Disadvantages of teaching a multilingual class
a. One potential disadvantage is that because they come from different ethnic backgrounds we need to be very careful to be culturally aware of what we are doing and saying within the classroom.
b. Secondly, despite the fact that they may have some common difficulties within the multilingual class, it is also possible that some students may find some concepts very easy because it's closer to their native language than others. Therefore there may be a particular group of students from a particular country that have some difficulties that we may have to explain to them, that the whole class is generally okay with and we should be aware that this can cause boredom to a proportion of our class.
Also read: Which is the best age group to teach English?
