Teaching foreign languages to older adult learners: preliminary observations

Abstract

When discussing the topic of teaching and learning foreign languages, what comes to one’s mind first seems often to be the school environment in which learning a foreign language is obligatory throughout the entire education. However, adult learners, including older adult learners (OALs), and their foreign language learning process require scientific investigation as part of life-long learning proven to be an important aspect of the well-being of seniors in the psychological, social and medical dimension.

The aim of the paper is to take a closer look at what experiences related to foreign language learning older adult learners have, what their motivation is about, what teaching methods and materials they find efficient, what difficulties they experience and what could enhance the process of foreign language learning. In order to find answers to these questions, an online Google form questionnaire was created which was filled in by respondents aged 60 or above.

The answers received, despite being limited in number, show that OALs have experience with learning several European languages, they want to communicate with foreigners, including members of their family, in both travel and at work. They prefer private classes based on conversations, as well as the use of course books and other printed materials. The main difficulties include a lack of time and memory-related problems while having an opportunity to use the language in practice and having a good teacher could enhance the foreign language process.