Differentiation within levels

It is understandable to expect that a class of B1 students should all be at the same language level after they have been through standardized testing. However, even though a student may have tested to the B1 level overall, their language abilities across the four skills is likely to vary. One student might be stronger at listening than speaking, and another may be better at reading than writing. According to Scrivener (2011, p. 89) every student has a mixture of language levels therefore every class is a mixed level class. It is best practice for these variances to be considered by the teacher in lesson planning and delivery.

Students will also have different motivations for learning English, different social skills, different ways of learning, and different expectations of the course. Conducting a needs analysis to find out more about students is often useful. It is the responsibility of all teachers to know their students well, and to allow students to get the most from their classes, regardless of their individual differences.