Inclusive strategies for teaching English

The same classroom can bring together students with different levels of English, learning paces, abilities, interests, ways of communicating and support needs. And that raises an important question for us as teachers: how can we teach the same content without expecting every student to learn in exactly the same way?

Inclusion isn't only about making adaptations once a difficulty appears. We can also think from the start about classes that offer different paths to access learning. Small decisions in how we present an activity, explain an instruction or allow participation can make a big difference.

An oral explanation may be enough for some students, while others will understand better if they can see it alongside an image, an example or a demonstration. We can combine spoken and written language, images and pictograms, concrete examples, gestures and demonstrations, audio and video, or objects and hands-on materials.

It isn't about using every resource in every activity, but about asking ourselves: is there another way to present this information that could make it easier to understand?

Sometimes the difficulty isn't in the activity itself, but in understanding what we expect the student to do. Short, concrete and organised instructions can reduce that barrier: we can break a task into small steps, show an example first, or visually highlight the important information.

Instead of only asking "Do you understand?", we can ask the student to show us what the first step would be. That way we check understanding without turning it into a test.

Easy tip: simplifying an instruction doesn't mean simplifying the learning. It means making the path to reach it clearer.

Knowing what we're going to do, how long an activity might last or what will happen next can make participation easier. A visible class structure or a small heads-up before making a change can help many students better understand the context they're learning in.

Also, when certain routines repeat and become recognisable, the student needs to spend less effort figuring out what they have to do, and can focus more on what they're learning.

Taking part in an English class doesn't have to mean raising a hand and speaking in front of the whole group. A student can take part by pointing to an answer, choosing between options, writing, using visual supports, working with a classmate, or completing a digital activity.

Offering different possibilities allows more students to show what they know. The goal isn't to avoid certain skills, but to create progressive paths to develop them.

Images, colours, diagrams, icons or key words can help us organise information and make it easier to understand. In an English class they can be used to anticipate vocabulary, remember structures, or make an activity easier to follow.

But it's important that these elements have a purpose. A visually accessible classroom isn't necessarily the one with the most stimuli, but the one where every element helps understand something.

We ask a question, we wait a few seconds, the answer doesn't come, and we ask again or answer for the student ourselves. Without realising it, we may be removing exactly the time that student needed to understand the question, find the words and build their response.

Giving time is also a teaching strategy, especially when we're working in another language, where listening, understanding and responding can require several processes at once. Silence can also be part of learning.

Getting something wrong tells us something: it can show us what the student has understood, what strategy they're using, or what they still need to practise. That's why a mistake can be far more useful when we see it as information than when we treat it only as something to correct.

Not every mistake needs to interrupt a conversation. Creating a space where it's possible to try, get it wrong and try again also builds confidence to use the language.

Music, video games, animals, sport, film, technology, art... When we know what sparks our students' curiosity, we can use it to give vocabulary context, create examples or start conversations. The content we want to work on can stay the same; what changes is the door through which we invite the student in.

A strategy doesn't work the same way for everyone. That's why, before deciding what a student needs, we have to observe: what happens when we present an instruction orally? Does their response change when we add a visual support? Do they take part more in a small group? Do they need more time?

Observe, understand, adapt, support, review. Adaptation is also a process.

Supports are important, but their goal shouldn't be to create unnecessary dependence on an adult. A good strategy can also help the student discover tools they can use on their own: checking a visual reference, reviewing the steps of an activity, asking for help, or checking a word.

Little by little, the student doesn't only learn English: they also learn what they can do when they need to keep moving forward.

There's no single strategy that automatically makes a class inclusive. Inclusion appears in many small decisions: in how we explain, in the materials we choose, in the time we allow, in how we respond to mistakes, and in our ability to observe and change what isn't working.

At English For Us we understand teaching as a system where methodology, resources, technology, support and teacher training all have to work together. Because adapting shouldn't only mean asking ourselves "How do we make this student fit into our class?", but also "How can we design our class so there are more ways to learn within it?"