A crucial characteristic of young children is their ability to become competent speakers of a new language with remarkable facility, provided they get enough exposure to it. This language-acquiring ability is steadily compromised as they head towards adolescence.

Adolescent students have a great capacity for learning, enormous potential for creative thought and a passionate commitment to things which interest them.

They tend to be more disciplined than adolescents and apply themselves to the task of learning even when it seems quite boring. They tend to have a clear understanding of why they are learning things and can maintain their motivation by perceiving (and maintaining) long-term learning goals. On the other hand, adult learners come with a lot of prior learning experience that can hinder their progress and because learners of different ages have different characteristics, the way they are taught will also be different.

The Neurolinguistic Programming model shows how some learners are especially influenced by visual stimuli and are therefore likely to remember things better if they see them.

Some students are particularly influenced by auditory information and, as a result, respond very well to the things they hear.

Kinesthetic activity is effective for other learners, who seem to learn best when engaged in some kind of physical activity, such as moving or rearranging things with their hands.

The concept of Multiple Intelligences, first articulated by Howard Gardner. According to his formulation, we all have several different intelligences (mathematical, musical, interpersonal, spatial, emotional, etc.). Therefore, it is not appropriate to describe someone as "intelligent" or "unintelligent", because even if we are not very skilled in certain fields, that does not mean that our abilities are equally limited in other areas.

Some adult beginners find that language learning is more stressful than they expected and reluctantly give up. However, if things are going well, teaching beginners can be incredibly stimulating.

Intermediate students have already achieved a lot, but they are less likely to be able to recognise an almost daily progress. On the contrary, it may sometimes seem to them that they don’t improve that much or that fast anymore. We often call this the plateau effect, and the teacher has to make strenuous attempts to show students what they still need to learn without being discouraging. One of the ways of doing this is to make the tasks we give them more challenging, and to get them to analyse language more thoroughly.

Students at this level already know a lot of English. Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing a controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

Educational and cultural background: Some children come from homes where education is highly valued, and where parental help is readily available. Other children, however, may come from less supportive backgrounds where no such backup is on offer. Older students - especially adults – may come from a variety of backgrounds and, as a result, have very different expectations of what teaching and learning involves.