Pedagogical challenges of foreign language teaching in mixed-age primary school classrooms

An increasing number of primary schools, mainly in western European countries, have established mixed-age (M‑A) classrooms due to the belief of the teaching community in the pedagogical and social benefits of this approach. In the area of foreign language teaching, the M‑A approach has gained popularity, particularly at the primary school level. However, despite the increase in the number of M‑A foreign language classrooms, the benefits of this approach remain unclear. This lack of clarity might be caused by the lack of research on M‑A teaching practices in foreign language classrooms. In this article, I first describe what M‑A classrooms are and address relevant research findings on M‑A teaching. At the heart of the article, I address in detail some important pedagogical challenges of M‑A teaching. Specifically, I consider in what ways and to what extent differentiated instruction is possible in these classrooms. Later, I discuss the issue of the “right” approach to M‑A teaching and provide some pedagogical suggestions.