What are the features of ESOL?

Learning programmes and teaching approaches may need to take account of some or all of the following:

learners' short-term goals and the contexts in which they will need to use English;

·  learners' educational and employment aspirations;

·  learners' wider needs for skills, such as Information Technology, study skills, problem solving, job-search or specific subject skills;

·  the local community context;

·  techniques for teaching mixed-level groups and groups of learners with very mixed educational backgrounds;

·  techniques for teaching individuals whose listening/speaking skills are much higher or lower than their reading/writing skills;

·  communicative language-teaching techniques, including ways of working with learners who do not share a language with the teacher;

·  cross-cultural approaches which draw on learners' knowledge of other languages and cultures;

·  strategies for tackling specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia;

·  the need to move learners towards independence;

·  the effect of psychological or physical trauma, personal loss or culture shock on learning.