Adapting Existing Lesson Plans for Online Adult English Learners: A Reflective Approach to Context, Relevance, and Inclusion

Introduction

In English language teaching, published materials often promise efficiency, structure, and pedagogical reliability. Though this sounds promising, for many teachers, especially those working with adult learners in online settings, ready-made materials rarely arrive as finished products. They just arrive as possibilities. They offer a starting point, not a final answer. This tension became particularly clear to me while taking the British Council’s TeachingEnglish: How to Adapt Resources course. One of the course units, focused on adapting and selecting lesson plans, invited teachers to reflect on how they search for materials online, why lesson plans often need adaptation, and how such materials can be reshaped for lower-resource contexts, large classes, and inclusive teaching. Although the course often speaks to school-based settings and younger learners, its central message remains highly relevant for teachers like me who work with young adults and working professionals online.

I found myself both aligned with and distant from the course at the same time. I agreed with the course’s emphasis on contextual relevance, learner inclusion, and teacher flexibility; however, I also realized that many examples need more refining when transferred to the world of online university classes and corporate English instruction. In my context, adaptation is not simply a matter of replacing a worksheet or simplifying a task. It is a pedagogical act of translation: translating materials created for one context into tasks that respond to adult schedules, workplace realities, digital fatigue, and the communicative priorities of learners who often come to class after a full day of work. This essay, my 575^th post on my edublog, argues that adapting lesson plans for online adult learners requires more than methodological creativity. It requires contextual reading, selective use of online resources, differentiation, and a willingness to co-create learning experiences that are professionally relevant, inclusive, and sustainable for both teacher and learner.

Searching for lesson plans: from abundance to relevance

The British Council course begins by offering practical guidance on how teachers can search for lesson plans online. It recommends searching by topic, age, level, and teaching purpose, and then evaluating whether a lesson can be used as it is or whether it needs adaptation. This guidance is sensible, especially in a digital environment where the amount of available material can be overwhelming. However, abundance does not equal relevance. The challenge is not simply finding a lesson plan but finding one that can survive contact with one’s actual learners.

My own reflection in the course makes this tension explicit: apart from looking for pictures to use in PowerPoint presentations, I “barely look for materials online,” particularly because many of them are not suitable for my online college students or my online corporate learners (Acuña Solano, 2026). Instead, I tend to begin with the coursebook and then adapt, expand, or transform it with the support of AI tools such as ChatGPT. When I do search online, I usually search for grammar points, charts, infographics, or explanations that I can modify to suit my two main teaching scenarios. This habit reveals something important: for teachers of adults, searching for resources is rarely about locating a ready-to-use lesson in a single category such as “travel” or “food.” It is more often about locating adaptable fragments, visuals, prompts, scenarios, explanations, and task ideas, that can be repurposed into a lesson with clearer relevance to learners’ academic or professional realities.

This perspective resonates with the British Council’s broader view that existing lesson plans can save preparation time, but only if teachers evaluate and adapt them for their own context (British Council, n.d.). Claire Ross (n.d.), writing for TeachingEnglish, similarly emphasizes that selecting and adapting resources must begin with an understanding of context, teacher needs, and expected outcomes. In other words, a lesson plan is not “good” in the abstract; it is useful only insofar as it fits a concrete teaching situation. For adult online teachers, that fit depends on questions such as these: Does the lesson acknowledge learners’ professional goals? Can it be delivered effectively in a synchronous online class? Does it assume physical classroom movement, shared printed handouts, or child-centered topics that would alienate adult learners? Does it help students communicate in contexts they actually inhabit?

These questions have gradually become part of my own informal checklist whenever I encounter online materials. The issue is not whether a lesson plan looks polished, but whether it can be recontextualized without losing its pedagogical value. In this sense, searching for lesson plans is less about consumption and more about discernment.

Why adaptation is pedagogically necessary

The British Council course invites teachers to think about why published materials often need adaptation and offers several reasons: limited resources, large classes, learners with different needs, and cultural relevance. These are essential concerns, but in my reflective journaling I felt the need to expand the list. In my context, adaptation is also shaped by internet connectivity, the downloading format of the material, job-related relevance, and the need to introduce “twists” that make the content meaningful for working adults. These additions may seem practical rather than theoretical, yet they are deeply pedagogical because they determine whether learning can happen at all.

Adult learners bring with them constraints that are different from those of children or adolescents. Many attend class after work, between family obligations, or while managing professional stress. Some need English for meetings, presentations, interviews, negotiations, or email communication; others need it for academic advancement. Their motivation is often high, but their time and cognitive energy are limited. This means that a lesson plan that is linguistically sound may still fail if it ignores learners’ professional identities or if it requires a level of preparation, emotional investment, or playful participation that does not fit the moment in which adults are learning.

Knowles’s (1984) principles of andragogy remain useful here. Adult learners, he argues, tend to be self-directed and problem-oriented, and they value learning that is immediately relevant to their lives. In language teaching, this suggests that adaptation should not only simplify or personalize content; it should also increase functional relevance in terms of work-related scenarios. A speaking activity about “planning a school picnic” may be harmless, but for corporate learners it may be far less motivating than a role-play about disagreeing diplomatically in a meeting, giving feedback to a colleague, or handling a project delay. Likewise, a reading lesson on childhood routines may be less compelling for university students than a task about professional burnout, remote collaboration, or the ethics of AI at work.

In that sense, adaptation is not a secondary act performed after “real teaching” has been planned. It is central to planning itself. Tomlinson (2013) argues that materials development should be driven by learner needs, affective engagement, and opportunities for meaningful use of language. When published materials do not fully address those needs, teachers must intervene wisely and promptly. That intervention may involve changing the topic, adjusting the task sequence, rewriting instructions, adding scaffolding, replacing examples, or altering the output expected from learners. The goal is not to disrespect the original material, but to bring it into dialogue with the teaching reality at hand.

Lower-resource contexts and the online classroom: a necessary reframing

One of the most interesting sections of the British Council course discusses how to adapt lesson plans for lower-resource contexts. It addresses situations where teachers may not have access to a projector, photocopier, internet connection, or audio equipment. These examples are highly relevant worldwide, yet they need to be reinterpreted for online teaching. In my course reflection, I noted that I could not meaningfully select any of the listed resources because the online environment restructures the question altogether. In a virtual classroom, students may use paper or digital notes; there is no need for scissors, photocopiers, or a separate audio player; and if there is no internet, there is no synchronous class (Acuña Solano, 2026). Computers or tablets are not optional extras but conditions for participation.

This does not mean that online teaching is a high-resource paradise. It simply means that resource constraints take a different form. In virtual adult classes, the real limitations often involve unstable connectivity, camera fatigue, poor audio, limited digital literacy, lack of privacy at home, and uneven access to time and attention (Acuña Solano, 2026). A lesson plan that assumes smooth breakout-room transitions, collaborative online whiteboards, constant screen sharing, and simultaneous use of several platforms may be technically impressive but pedagogically fragile. Therefore, adapting for a lower-resource online context often means simplifying the digital architecture of the lesson rather than adding more tools (Acuña Solano, 2026).

For instance, instead of requiring learners to move across multiple websites, an adult online teacher might set up a lesson around a single slide deck, a chat box, and a pair-work discussion. Instead of assigning a collaborative poster on an external platform, the teacher might ask learners to orally summarize, compare options, or type key points in the chat. Instead of depending on a sophisticated listening platform, the teacher may read a text aloud, use a short self-recorded audio clip, or ask learners to take roles and simulate a dialogue. In this sense, the spirit of the British Council’s advice still applies: good lessons do not depend on how much technology one has, but on how teachers engage learners and help them use language meaningfully (Acuña Solano, 2026).

What changes is the form of adaptation. In the online adult classroom, adaptation often means stripping away digital excess so that communication can remain central. It means recognizing that every additional platform increases cognitive load. It also means understanding that a beautifully designed task can fail if it asks too much of learners who are already dividing their attention between work messages, family responsibilities, and the demands of being visibly present on screen.

Differentiation, mixed ability, and inclusive design for adults

If one idea from the course aligns especially strongly with my own teaching, it is the emphasis on inclusion and differentiation. The course asks teachers to reflect on learners with different abilities, needs, and preferences. In my own practice, mixed-ability teaching is one of the defining realities of university-level and adult online instruction. Students often enter the same class with different experience levels in English, different confidence levels, different professional backgrounds, and different relationships to speaking. Some are quick, verbal, and willing to take risks; others are thoughtful but hesitant, accurate but slow, or highly competent readers who struggle to speak spontaneously.

Rather than treating this variation as a problem to be erased, I have increasingly treated it as a design principle. In my course reflection, I explained that instead of creating a single speaking activity for the whole class, I create six sketchpads and allow students to choose two of them. This gives them a measure of agency and lets them engage with topics they find more meaningful. In corporate classes, I often create six scenarios based on workplace dilemmas so that learners can discuss situations that feel closer to their own professional world (Acuña Solano, 2026). This is, in essence, differentiation through choice.

The British Council’s adaptation guide highlights several forms of differentiation: changing content, process, and product; providing scaffolding; and extending tasks for those who need more challenge (British Council, 2025). These principles are highly compatible with adult online teaching. Tomlinson’s (2014) model of differentiated instruction similarly emphasizes flexible pathways toward shared learning goals. Not all learners need the same route to reach the same destination. In an online speaking lesson, for example, differentiation may involve offering two versions of a prompt, allowing learners to choose between discussing a case study or a personal scenario, giving sentence starters to those who need support, or inviting stronger learners to reformulate or expand ideas more critically.

Importantly, differentiation in adult classes should not feel infantilizing. Adults usually do not want visibly “easy” tasks that expose them as weaker learners. What tends to work better is layered design: tasks that are open enough to allow learners to participate at different depths. A discussion question such as “How should a manager respond to an employee who consistently misses deadlines?” can generate simple answers from a lower-level student and nuanced responses from a more advanced one. A role-play can include optional challenge cards for learners who want to extend the interaction. A writing task can offer a model and a vocabulary bank without making those supports mandatory. In this way, inclusion becomes less about separating learners and more about widening access to participation.

Relevance, professional identity, and the adult learner

Perhaps the most significant adaptation I make to published resources is not methodological but thematic. I adapt for relevance. In my course notes, I remarked that many online lesson plans do not connect to my learners’ lives and that coursebooks often need to be reshaped for working adults in corporate positions. This is one of the clearest lessons I have learned from teaching adults: relevance is not decorative; it is motivational infrastructure (Acuña Solano, 2026).

Dörnyei (2001) has shown that learner motivation in language classrooms is strongly influenced by task value, learner self-concept, and the perceived usefulness of classroom activities. Adult learners are especially sensitive to this. They may politely complete a task about fictional teenagers or leisure activities they have long outgrown, but their energy changes when the topic touches performance reviews, difficult clients, hybrid work, intercultural misunderstandings, or career aspirations. In those moments, language stops being a school subject and becomes a tool for self-expression and professional action (Acuña Solano, 2026).

This is why I often replace textbook speaking tasks with sketchpads built around corporate dilemmas, workplace tensions, ethical decisions, or communication breakdowns. These scenarios allow learners to draw on lived experience while practicing target language in a way that feels purposeful (Acuña Solano, 2026). They also allow me to co-create meaning with students. Their examples, frustrations, and insights enrich the lesson in ways that no generic worksheet can. In this sense, adapting materials for adults is not only about teacher intervention; it is also about recognizing learners as contributors to the lesson. The British Council course itself clearly emphasizes the value of learner contributions and the importance of adapting materials to local realities (British Council, 2026). For adult learners, this often means making room for their professional narratives, not merely asking them to perform language in artificial situations.

Adaptation as reflective professionalism

What emerges from all of this is that adaptation is not a technical afterthought but a form of reflective professionalism (Acuña Solano, 2026). It requires the teacher to read the lesson plan, read the learners, and read the teaching environment simultaneously. It also requires humility. Not every adaptation works. Some tasks still need more refining after they are taught. Some attempts at relevance become too specific; others remain too generic. Some differentiated tasks create choice but not enough challenge. Some digital simplifications go too far and reduce interaction. Adaptation, then, is not a one-time intervention but an ongoing cycle of planning, testing, observing, and revising.

For this reason, I increasingly see adaptation as something that can benefit from collaboration. Teachers do not always have to work alone. In institutions where colleagues teach similar learner profiles, teachers can share the workload by exchanging adapted speaking prompts, comparing what worked in online discussions, or building a shared bank of workplace scenarios and differentiated tasks. The British Council course mentions the value of collaboration and even encourages teachers to co-create lesson plans. In adult ELT, this collaborative spirit could be particularly valuable, since so many of us spend time reinventing materials to make them suitable for professional learners. A shared repository of adaptable adult-focused tasks, categorized by language aim, workplace function, CEFR level, and modality, would save time and reduce isolation.

Conclusion

The British Council’s How to Adapt Resources course offers a useful framework for thinking about lesson plan adaptation, but its greatest value lies not in the literal examples it provides; it lies in the mindset it encourages. It asks teachers to stop treating published materials as fixed scripts and instead approach them as flexible resources that must be interpreted through context. For teachers of young adults and working adults online, this mindset is indispensable. Our learners do not simply need lessons that are grammatically sound or visually attractive. They need lessons that acknowledge their schedules, their goals, their professional identities, their mixed proficiency profiles, and the digital conditions under which they learn.

My own reflections throughout the course confirm that adaptation is not peripheral to my teaching; it is at the heart of it. Because I work in online university and corporate contexts, I rarely use online lesson plans exactly as they are. I search selectively, adapt relentlessly, and often build speaking tasks from scratch so that learners can engage with situations that resemble their own lives. I use differentiation through choice, simplify digital delivery when necessary, and treat relevance as a central criterion rather than a luxury. In doing so, I have come to see adaptation not as evidence that published materials are inadequate, but as evidence that teaching is interpretive work (Acuña Solano, 2026). Materials can open doors, but teachers must decide which ones are worth entering, which ones must be rebuilt, and which ones must be left behind.

Ultimately, adapting resources for adult online learners is an ethical as well as pedagogical commitment. It means refusing to ask learners to inhabit a classroom world that ignores who they are. It means shaping lessons that are not merely usable, but meaningful. And it means recognizing that in language teaching, context is not a background variable. It is the very place where learning either becomes possible or remains theoretical.  

San José, Costa Rica

Friday, July 17, 2026

📚 References

Acuña Solano, J. (2026). Personal reflections and notes on Module 2, Unit 2 of the British Council course “TeachingEnglish: How to adapt resources” [Unpublished course notes].

British Council. (2025). How to adapt resources for your learners [PDF]. TeachingEnglish. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2025-06/LG_I%20%282025%29_How%20to%20adapt%20resources%20for%20your%20learners_FINAL2.pdf

British Council. (n.d.). TeachingEnglish: How to adapt resources. TeachingEnglish. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/courses/teachingenglish-how-adapt-resources

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Knowles, M. S. (1984). The adult learner: A neglected species (3rd ed.). Gulf Publishing.

Ross, C. (n.d.). Selecting and adapting learning resources for teachers: Ensuring relevance to context. TeachingEnglish, British Council. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teacher-educators/planning-learning/selecting-and-adapting-learning

Tomlinson, B. (2013). Developing materials for language teaching (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd ed.). ASCD.

ELT Material Adaptation Strategies and Contexts

ELT Material Adaptation Strategies and Contexts by Jonathan Acuña

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