Students in the same class may have different vocabulary ranges, learn grammar at different speeds, and differ in their reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills. How can you organise a lesson so that every student can work at their own pace, achieve learning objectives, and still receive tasks that are sufficiently challenging? The answer is differentiation in teaching.
Why Is It Important to Take Students’ Different Levels into Account?
In classes where students have different levels of English proficiency, teachers often face one problem: a task that helps some students consolidate the material may seem too easy to others or, on the contrary, too difficult. If teaching is aimed only at the average level of the class, some students may not receive the support they need, while others may not have sufficient opportunities for further development. That is why it is important to take students’ individual needs into account by offering different ways of working with the material and tasks of varying levels of difficulty.
Differentiation is an approach in which a teacher adapts learning materials, activities, levels of support, and expected outcomes according to students’ needs. At the same time, differentiation does not necessarily mean preparing a separate lesson for every student. Often, it is enough to change the instructions, add prompts, or offer tasks that allow students to deepen their knowledge.
1. Use One Task with Different Levels of Difficulty
One of the most convenient ways to differentiate learning is to offer all students the same topic or learning material while providing different levels of task completion. For example, when studying the topic “Free Time Activities,” students can complete the following tasks:
• Basic level: name their favourite activities and write 3–5 simple sentences using a model.
• Intermediate level: write a short paragraph about how they spend their free time, using linking words and explaining their preferences.
• Advanced level: prepare a detailed response about the impact of free time on quality of life, compare different leisure activities, and support their opinions with arguments. All students work on the same topic but have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge according to their abilities and gradually move on to more challenging tasks.
It is important that the more challenging option should involve not simply writing more sentences but also a higher level of thinking, independence, or linguistic complexity.
2. Provide Prompts and Language Support
Students who find it difficult to express their thoughts in English independently may benefit from additional materials, such as lists of key vocabulary, grammatical structures, sample answers, and sentence starters. For example, when discussing the topic “Healthy Lifestyle,” you can provide the following language support:
• I think that… – I think that…
• In my opinion… – In my opinion…
• I prefer… because… – I prefer… because…
• One advantage of… is… – One advantage of… is…
Students who need support can use the ready-made structures. Those who feel more confident using the language can respond independently, using more advanced vocabulary and a wider range of grammatical structures.
This approach can also be applied to writing tasks, dialogues, discussions, and presentations.
Practical tip: You do not have to hand out different materials straight away. You can prepare a shared worksheet with prompts that students can use when needed.
3. Adapt Reading and Listening Tasks
Reading and listening are particularly suitable for differentiation because the same text or recording can serve as the basis for tasks of varying levels of difficulty. For example, after listening to a dialogue about travelling, students can:
• identify the topic of the conversation and choose the correct answers;
• find specific information, such as places, times, costs, or the speakers’ plans;
• explain the reasons behind the characters’ decisions;
• analyse the speakers’ attitudes and formulate their own conclusions.
For students who find it difficult to understand an audio recording, you can explain key vocabulary in advance, provide visual prompts, or allow them to listen to a section again. To provide an additional challenge for students with a higher level of English, you can ask them to explain how they interpreted a speaker’s position, justify their answers, or pay attention to intonation and language features. When working with a text, you can also vary the difficulty of the questions without changing the material itself.
4. Use Pair and Group Work
Working in pairs and small groups gives students the opportunity to exchange ideas, practise speaking, and learn to collaborate. At the same time, it is important to plan group composition according to the aim of the activity. If a task involves peer support, you can pair students with different levels of English. For example, when preparing a dialogue, they can work together to choose vocabulary, check grammar, and improve their answers. However, if the aim is to develop independent speaking skills or provide a sufficient level of challenge for more advanced students, it may sometimes be appropriate to form pairs of students with similar levels of language proficiency. To make collaboration effective, assign roles: one student can be responsible for ideas, another for vocabulary, and a third for the structure of the presentation. At the same time, everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves in English.
Avoid constantly assigning stronger students the role of helpers. They also need tasks that support the development of their own language skills.
5. Prepare Additional Tasks for Students Who Work Faster
In mixed-ability classes, students often complete exercises at different speeds. To keep those who finish their work earlier engaged in learning, it is worth preparing short tasks that allow them to explore the material in greater depth. For example, after a vocabulary exercise, you can ask students to:
• write their own sentences using the new words;
• come up with questions about the text they have read;
• find synonyms or antonyms for key words;
• write a short review or summary;
• use the new vocabulary in a dialogue;
• formulate arguments to support their own opinions.
These tasks should broaden the learning experience rather than simply add more of the same type of work. At the same time, it is important not to create a situation in which finishing faster always means having to complete more compulsory exercises. Additional activities should help students develop rather than feel like a punishment for working quickly.
6. Allow Students to Choose How to Complete a Task
Another way to differentiate learning is to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. For example, after studying a particular topic, you can offer them a choice of the following activities:
• write a short text;
• prepare an oral presentation;
• create a dialogue;
• record a short audio message;
• prepare a mini-presentation.
All options should correspond to the same learning objective while allowing students to choose the format in which they can best demonstrate their knowledge. This approach is particularly useful when students differ not only in their overall level of English but also in their strengths: some speak more confidently, while others are better at writing or organising information.
7. Assess Progress, Not Just the Final Result
In a mixed-ability class, it is important to consider not only the correctness of an answer but also how a student is progressing towards the learning objective.
For example, when developing writing skills, one student’s priority may be using the Present Simple correctly, while another may need to focus on the logical structure of a text, a wider range of vocabulary, and more complex grammatical structures. Clear criteria help students understand exactly what they need to improve. Useful tools include brief teacher feedback, self-assessment, and peer assessment based on predefined criteria.
Add a list of useful phrases, a sample answer, or key words.
1. Provide an additional challenge. Prepare one open-ended question for students who finish the main task earlier.
2. Vary interaction formats. Alternate between individual, pair, and group work depending on the aim of the activity.
3. Evaluate the results. Pay attention to which tasks were too difficult or too easy, and use these observations to plan future lessons.
You can start with just one adapted activity per lesson. Over time, these decisions will become a natural part of lesson planning. Having students with different levels of English in the same class is not necessarily an obstacle to effective learning. With a well-planned approach, shared materials, tasks of varying difficulty, language support, and flexible classroom organisation can help engage all students in the learning process.
The teacher’s main goal is not to make all tasks equally easy or equally difficult, but to create conditions in which every student can work towards a shared learning objective, receive the necessary support, and gradually develop their skills.
Differentiation does not mean more work for the teacher, but a more thoughtful approach to organising learning, where there is room for support, challenge, and individual progress.
