4 key challenges in secondary education

Anna Roslaniec
Anna Roslaniec
A teacher standing over a desk where a student is sat, helping them. Students are also sat at desks in the background

Let’s examine four of the most common challenges secondary teachers have and look into some strategies to help solve them.

1. My students are afraid of making mistakes

You’re not alone! Many teachers say their teenage students are quiet and unwilling to answer questions in class. Sometimes, this might simply be because they don’t know the answers, but more often than not, they are nervous about making mistakes.

When children grow into teenagers, they tend to become more self-conscious and worried about what their peers think of them – and making mistakes in public is a big no-no for them. However, there are several ways to facilitate a safe learning environment where your students are happy and willing to talk. Sometimes, though, it takes a little experimentation. Here are some things you can try:

Celebrate mistakes

When students make mistakes, ensure that you praise them for taking a risk or making an effort. Correct their errors and be clear with the rest of the class that the only way to learn is to try new things.

Be firm

Don’t tolerate any bullying or laughing when someone gets an answer wrong. If your students fear that others will mock them for their efforts, they’ll stay quiet. So make sure you have clear rules and that your students understand that mistakes are normal and to be expected.

Have students discuss their answers in pairs or groups

If your students are painfully shy and afraid of making mistakes, avoid picking on individuals to answer questions in front of the class. Instead, when asking a question, tell your students to discuss it in pairs or small groups first. This will allow them to formulate their ideas and feel more confident. Afterwards, you can ask the pairs to share what they discussed – leading to a natural open-class discussion.

Listen to your students

Another, powerful way of engaging your students in discussion is to listen to a conversation they are having with their partners and then express how impressed you are with their ideas during a feedback session. E.g. “You said X, which I thought was very interesting. Could you explain this to the class? It was a great idea.” This gives them the confidence to share their thoughts.

2. My students are not engaged with the activities I choose

This is another very common problem for teachers of teenagers. You spend a lot of time thinking of fun, interesting activities – then, when you present them to the class, your students look away and say they’re bored. Soon enough, you’ll get frustrated and not know how to re-engage them. Here are some ideas to help:

Get to know your students

Without fail, the best way to engage your students is by getting to know them as individuals over the year. Find out about their hobbies and interests outside of school, and learn what makes them laugh and what worries them. Use your knowledge of your students to find interesting books to read, videos to watch, or relevant subjects to discuss. This way, you’ll deliver tailored lessons your students find truly interesting and useful.

Allow a degree of autonomy

Sometimes quietness is also a sign of disengagement with the learning materials. To get past this obstacle, you can get your students to brainstorm things that interest them in groups, list them on the board and have a class vote on the topic of their next class project. As a teacher, you always have the power to veto inappropriate ideas, but giving students a voice is a powerful way of making them feel valued and involved in their own education.

Make things (a little) competitive

Even teenagers love games! And play is an integral part of learning, as it allows our students to be themselves, have fun, and communicate freely at the same time. By allowing them to play language-focused games in class, they’ll soon forget their inhibitions and start talking.

3. My students just want to do grammar exercises

Language is all about communication, speaking, listening, reading and writing – yet all your students want to do is grammar exercises. Frustrating as this is, it’s probably a sign that our students are not confident in their speaking or listening abilities. Here’s what you can do:

Encourage free language practice

Grammar activities are very structured and there is often a clear answer. Day-to-day communications, however, are much freer, which can intimidate less confident students. This activity will help you combine the two aspects of language learning:

  • Put students in small groups and give them a set of cards with exciting topics printed on them—for example; music, sports, environment, school, vacations, friends, food.
  • Tell students that they should each choose a card and speak freely about their topic for 30 seconds – the short time will help them overcome their fear of speaking and can be gradually increased as they get used to this type of activity.
  • Have students record themselves when they are speaking and then, when they listen back, have them identify the grammatical structures they used.

They should write down and correct any mistakes under your guidance. Not only will this get students used to talking and encourage a lot of emergent language, but it will also help them feel they are practicing grammar.

If your students really enjoy learning grammar, you can ‘flip’ your grammar activities and make them more communicative. First, provide them with a series of sentences or listening clips which have a common grammatical structure (second conditional sentences, for example).

Then have students work together (in English) to identify how the language is structured, so they can discover the grammar point for themselves. This not only gets them talking, but they are doing something they feel confident at.

4. My students are bored of all the repetition

Repetition is an important part of language learning. By practicing things over and over again, your students will come to understand it better and will be able to produce the language more easily. However, repetition is often quite dull, especially for fast learners. Here’s how you can make things more interesting for your teenage students:

Use a greater variety of activities to engage your learners

If you’ve been teaching your students a particular set of vocabulary, a grammatical structure, or some pronunciation rules, think about how else they can practice them.

For example, instead of drilling pronunciation over and over again, ask students to think of all the words they can think of that have the same sound in them (e.g. book, look, cook, shook, etc.). This will help them ‘hear’ the sounds in their heads and improve their understanding of other words.

If you have been learning vocabulary through reading, have students write or tell stories that incorporate the words.

The idea is not to stop repeating the target language or skill, but to practice it in different ways. Apply this principle to other areas of language learning so your students won’t feel like they are repeating things.

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    How teachers can use the GSE for professional development

    By Fajarudin Akbar
    Reading time: 4.5 minutes

    As English teachers, we’re usually the ones helping others grow. We guide learners through challenges, celebrate their progress and push them to reach new heights. But what about our own growth? How do we, as educators, continue to develop and refine our practice?

    The Global Scale of English (GSE) is often seen as a tool for assessing students. However, in my experience, it can also be a powerful guide for teachers who want to become more intentional, reflective, and confident in their teaching. Here's how the GSE has helped me in my own journey as an English teacher and how it can support yours too.

    About the GSE

    The GSE is a proficiency scale developed by ɫèAV. It measures English ability across four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – on a scale from 10 to 90. It’s aligned with the CEFR but offers more detailed learning objectives, which can be incredibly useful in diverse teaching contexts.

    I first encountered the GSE while exploring ways to better personalize learning objectives in my Business English classes. As a teacher in a non-formal education setting in Indonesia, I often work with students who don’t fit neatly into one CEFR level. I needed something more precise, more flexible, and more connected to real classroom practice. That’s when the GSE became a turning point.

    Reflecting on our teaching practice

    The GSE helped me pause and reflect. I started reading through the learning objectives and asking myself important questions. Were my lessons really aligned with what learners at this level needed? Was I challenging them just enough or too much?

    By using the GSE as a mirror, I began to see areas where I could improve. For example, I realized that, although I was confident teaching speaking skills, I wasn’t always giving enough attention to writing development. The GSE didn’t judge me. It simply showed me where I could grow.

    Planning with purpose

    One of the best things about the GSE is that it brings clarity to lesson planning. Instead of guessing whether an activity is suitable for a student’s level, I now check the GSE objectives. If I know a learner is at GSE 50 in speaking, I can design a role-play that matches that level of complexity. If another learner is at GSE 60, I can challenge them with more open-ended tasks.

    Planning becomes easier and more purposeful. I don’t just create lessons, I design learning experiences that truly meet students where they are.

    Collaborating with other teachers

    The GSE has also become a shared language for collaboration. When I run workshops or peer mentoring sessions, I often invite teachers to explore the GSE Toolkit together. We look at learning objectives, discuss how they apply to our learners, and brainstorm ways to adapt materials.

    These sessions are not just about theory: they’re energizing. Teachers leave with new ideas, renewed motivation and a clearer sense of how to bring their teaching to the next level.

    Getting started with the GSE

    If you’re curious about how to start using the GSE for your own growth, here are a few simple steps:

    • Visit the GSE Teacher Toolkit and explore the learning objectives for the skills and levels you teach.
    • Choose one or two objectives that resonate with you and reflect on whether your current lessons address them.
    • Try adapting a familiar activity to better align with a specific GSE range.
    • Use the GSE when planning peer observations or professional learning communities. It gives your discussions a clear focus.

    Case study from my classroom

    I once had a private Business English student preparing for a job interview. Her speaking skills were solid – around GSE 55 – but her writing was more limited, probably around GSE 45. Instead of giving her the same tasks across both skills, I personalized the lesson.

    For speaking, we practiced mock interviews using complex questions. For writing, I supported her with guided sentence frames for email writing. By targeting her actual levels, not just a general CEFR level, she improved faster and felt more confident.

    That experience reminded me that when we teach with clarity, learners respond with progress.

    Challenges and solutions

    Of course, using the GSE can feel overwhelming at first. There are many descriptors, and it can take time to get familiar with the scale. My advice is to start small: focus on one skill or one level. Also, use the Toolkit as a companion, not a checklist.

    Another challenge is integrating the GSE into existing materials, and this is where technology can help. I often use AI tools like ChatGPT to adjust or rewrite tasks so they better match specific GSE levels. This saves time and makes differentiation easier.

    Teachers deserve development too

    Teaching is a lifelong journey. The GSE doesn’t just support our students, it also supports us. It helps us reflect, plan, and collaborate more meaningfully. Most of all, it reminds us that our growth as teachers is just as important as the progress of our learners.

    If you’re looking for a simple, practical, and inspiring way to guide your professional development, give the GSE a try. It helped me grow, and I believe it can help you too.

    Additional resources

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    Does progress in English slow as you get more advanced?

    By Ian Wood
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Why does progression seem to slow down as an English learner moves from beginner to more advanced skills?

    The journey of learning English

    When presenting at ELT conferences, I often ask the audience – typically teachers and school administrators – “When you left home today, to start your journey here, did you know where you were going?” The audience invariably responds with a laugh and says yes, of course. I then ask, “Did you know roughly when you would arrive at your destination?” Again the answer is, of course, yes. “But what about your students on their English learning journey? Can they say the same?” At this point, the laughter stops.

    All too often English learners find themselves without a clear picture of the journey they are embarking on and the steps they will need to take to achieve their goals. We all share a fundamental need for orientation, and in a world of mobile phone GPS we take it for granted. Questions such as: Where am I? Where am I going? When will I get there? are answered instantly at the touch of a screen. If you’re driving along a motorway, you get a mileage sign every three miles.

    When they stop appearing regularly we soon feel uneasy. How often do English language learners see mileage signs counting down to their learning goal? Do they even have a specific goal?

    Am I there yet?

    The key thing about GPS is that it’s very precise. You can see your start point, where you are heading and tell, to the mile or kilometer, how long your journey will be. You can also get an estimated time of arrival to the minute. As Mike Mayor mentioned in his post about what it means to be fluent, the same can’t be said for understanding and measuring English proficiency. For several decades, the ELL industry got by with the terms ‘beginner’, ‘elementary’, ‘pre-intermediate’ and ‘advanced’ – even though there was no definition of what they meant, where they started and where they ended.

    The CEFR has become widely accepted as a measure of English proficiency, bringing an element of shared understanding of what it means to be at a particular level in English. However, the wide bands that make up the CEFR can result in a situation where learners start a course of study as B1 and, when they end the course, they are still within the B1 band. That doesn’t necessarily mean that their English skills haven’t improved – they might have developed substantially – but it’s just that the measurement system isn’t granular enough to pick up these improvements in proficiency.

    So here’s the first weakness in our English language GPS and one that’s well on the way to being remedied with the Global Scale of English (GSE). Because the GSE measures proficiency on a 10-90 scale across each of the four skills, students using assessment tools reporting on the GSE are able to see incremental progress in their skills even within a CEFR level. So we have the map for an English language GPS to be able to track location and plot the journey to the end goal.

    ‘The intermediate plateau’

    When it comes to pinpointing how long it’s going to take to reach that goal, we need to factor in the fact that the amount of effort it takes to improve your English increases as you become more proficient. Although the bands in the CEFR are approximately the same width, the law of diminishing returns means that the better your English is to begin with, the harder it is to make further progress – and the harder it is to feel that progress is being made.

    That’s why many an English language-learning journey gets abandoned on the intermediate plateau. With no sense of progression or a tangible, achievable goal on the horizon, the learner can become disoriented and demoralised.

    To draw another travel analogy, when you climb 100 meters up a mountain at 5,000 meters above sea level the effort required is greater than when you climb 100 meters of gentle slope down in the foothills. It’s exactly the same 100 meter distance, it’s just that those hundred 100 meters require progressively more effort the higher up you are, and the steeper the slope. So, how do we keep learners motivated as they pass through the intermediate plateau?

    Education, effort and motivation

    We have a number of tools available to keep learners on track as they start to experience the law of diminishing returns. We can show every bit of progress they are making using tools that capture incremental improvements in ability. We can also provide new content that challenges the learner in a way that’s realistic.

    Setting unrealistic expectations and promising outcomes that aren’t deliverable is hugely demotivating for the learner. It also has a negative impact on teachers – it’s hard to feel job satisfaction when your students are feeling increasingly frustrated by their apparent lack of progress.

    Big data is providing a growing bank of information. In the long term this will deliver a much more precise estimate of effort required to reach higher levels of proficiency, even down to a recommendation of the hours required to go from A to B and how those hours are best invested. That way, learners and teachers alike would be able to see where they are now, where they want to be and a path to get there. It’s a fully functioning English language learning GPS system, if you like.