Meeting every student in EFL class by Differentiated Instruction 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (TSD’2018) Meeting every student in EFL class by Differentiated Instruction Lecturer: Laura Naka University of Gjakova ‘’Fehmi Agani’’ Faculty of Education

The concept of EFL Diversity of Teaching and Learning Strategies in EFL Mixed Ability Classes One of the biggest challenges that teachers and students try to overcome is teaching and learning EFL in mixed ability classes, which is unavoidable phenomenon in every school. To meet every student’s need teacher should implement different strategies and find out learners’ individual preferences.

Literature review/previous research on DI Tomlinson (2001) suggests teachers to use the chance in addressing the students’ individual needs in order to make their learning process successful and meaningful to each student. Tomlinson has been researching on differentiated instruction since 1995 as she noticed the need to differentiate instruction. In a case study conducted, Tomlinson (1995) came to the conclusion that teachers need models of how differentiation ‘looks’ in classrooms. Dornyei (1994) defines the term of motivation: As one of the main determinants of successful second/foreign language learning achievement and, accordingly, the last three decades have seen a considerable amount of research that investigates the nature and role of motivation in the L2 learning process. This can be understood as a teacher's attempt to influence on students’ learning Dornyei’s (2001) book ‘Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom’ is the first of its kind in the second/foreign language (L2) field that is entirely devoted to discussing of motivational strategies, that is, methods and techniques to generate and maintain the learners' motivation.

The impact of teaching strategies on EFL learning It is important for teachers to create a relaxed, positive atmosphere in the classroom (Ainslie, 1994). In order to meet every student, EFL teachers must: first collect information about their students so that they can discover how diverse the population in their class is and start considering which types of teaching strategies, teaching methods, evaluation options, and materials they are going to use in order to develop their teaching plans applying differentiated instruction based on that teaching framework (Thousand, Villa, & Nevin, 2007).

Understanding the individual students' needs Mixed ability classes is the main factor that challenges the teacher, thus to overcome it, the EFL teacher should know his/her students. Understanding the individual students' needs language ability previous teaching culture family background interests self-confidence learning styles

Learning styles Aural aAAURA

What should be differentiated to reach diversity among students in EFL classes Content differentiation Process differentiation Product differentiation

Purpose of the research The study aims to investigate the diversity in EFL acquisition among students of Faculty of Education in University of Gjakova “Fehmi Agani’’. It will focus on the factors that influence the differentiation in EFL learning. Aims to examine the extent of differentiated instruction used by EFL teachers. It also tends to examine on how does learning based on students’ learning styles affects English language learning improvement.

Research Methodology Qualitative method - descriptive analysis. Sample – 3 EFL teachers and 80 students of Faculty of Education in University of Gjakova “Fehmi Agani”. 40 from Primary department and 40 from preschool education. Instruments - semi-structured interviews with EFL teachers and focus group discussion with students.

Conclusion The results showed a student's agreement on the implementation of differentiated instruction in order to meet every student’s need in EFL diversity classes. Students in undergraduate studies convincingly think that not all students are familiar with English foreign language at the same level and that they have their individual preferences to learn based on the distinctiveness of each. The ‘’one size fits all’’ teaching method does not work for everyone. DI is difficult to be implemented but not impossible to reach. Difficulties are seen in the limited time and large number of students in the classroom, in teacher’s professional development, student’s learning background, etc.

The study recommends the following: teachers should reduce the teaching method ‘’ one size fits all’’ and leave no students behind, EFL teachers have to consider different factors which affect the diversity of students that have impact on EFL learning, Similar studies can be conducted by exploring a broader spectrum of factors that affect diversity among students, teachers’ greater effort on recognizing students and their needs so the DI happens for real, it is needed collaboration among EFL teachers, respectively academic staff at UGJFA for improving the quality of learning, the application of differentiated instruction is crucial and results in the professional development of teachers, MEST or responsible education authorities in Kosovo should organize trainings with special emphasis on differentiated instruction.

Thank you