Differentiation in language teaching without double the work

In language teaching the range of skill levels is often wide. The same group can hold a student who reads a foreign-language text fluently and a student who needs the vocabulary spelled out line by line. The gap between students has grown over the past twenty years, and the Finnish teachers’ union OAJ has noted that although differentiation matters, in practice it often stays a “pious hope” because of a lack of resources. One reason is time: three versions of the same text means roughly three times the preparation.

You can, however, get the same topic to several skill levels in a single round of preparation, as long as you start from the right end. This guide walks through that method step by step. The examples are from language teaching, but the same logic works in first-language teaching and other subjects too.

Start from one good text, not three blank pages

The usual way to differentiate is to start from three blank pages: easy, standard and challenging. That is the heaviest possible route. A lighter starting point is one text or task that works well at the standard level. From it you shape a lighter and a more demanding version.

Take a reading text in an English lesson. If the standard version matches the group’s middle level, say B1, the lighter version can have shorter sentences, the hardest vocabulary explained next to the text, and questions that point straight to the right place. The more demanding version can have a longer text and richer vocabulary, with questions that ask the student to justify and reason. The topic stays the same, and the whole group talks about the same content, even though each student gets in at their own level.

This way you prepare one text properly and derive two more from it. The workload is smaller than building three separate sets.

One way to structure it: three skill levels

For many language teachers, three levels has proven a workable structure. More levels easily create more work than benefit.

1. Support level. For example shorter sentences, vocabulary in view and a model answer to guide the student. The idea is that the student can get started independently rather than waiting for the teacher.
2. Standard level. The group’s middle level and the core curriculum goal as such. You can make this version first and derive the other two from it.
3. Advanced level. The same topic, but richer language, open questions and productive use. This can keep the furthest-along students engaged. Professor of education Kari Uusikylä has pointed out that differentiation concerns the whole range of a group, including the gifted students who are easily left without challenge.

If all three levels practise the same core point, the shared wrap-up at the end of the lesson works for the whole group and everyone recognises what is being discussed.

Simply handing out extra tasks is not yet differentiation. In a study at the University of Turku, the furthest-along students often found the extra tasks they were given to be at the same level as the base tasks, so the tasks did not move their skills forward (Lahdenperä 2018). A more demanding version is therefore worth building at a genuinely different level, not just making it longer.

Build on the materials you already have

Many language teachers have a folder of texts and tasks that have worked over the years. Differentiation does not have to start from scratch. Often the fastest route to three skill levels runs through existing material: take a text that has worked and shape versions up and down from it.

This is what Bruukki is built for. You bring in your own text or task set, and you get a suggestion for a lighter and a more demanding version by CEFR level. The AI suggests, you decide what goes to the students. So you do not give up material you know works; you build on top of it.

Differentiation can show in assessment too

Tasks made at three levels easily stay half-finished if the whole group ends with exactly the same test. One way is to think already at the planning stage about how the goal shows in assessment. A way found to work in languages is, for example, to keep the core assessment goal the same but let the student show their skills at a different scope, say by producing either a few sentences or a whole text on the same topic.

This connects to the wider question of formative assessment, covered in its own guide. If a teacher differentiates the tasks but assesses everyone by the same measure, a student who needs support may still feel they are failing.

Where to start

There is no need to differentiate everything at once. One way is to pick one topic that produces the most spread in the group and make three skill levels of it as described. Once the method is familiar, you can extend it to the next topic. A few weeks later you can have a growing bank of ready three-level sets to reuse year after year.

If you want to try how your own material adapts to different skill levels, try Bruukki for free. We are glad to hear feedback from teachers, so do tell us if something does not work.

Sources

• Lahdenperä, E. (2018). Lahjakkaan oppilaan opetuksen eriyttäminen. Master’s thesis, University of Turku (in Finnish).
• Hirvonen-Blomqvist, K. (2020). Mistä on lahjakkaiden opetus tehty? Master’s thesis, University of Jyväskylä (in Finnish).
• Uusikylä, K. (2019). Differentiation in the teaching of gifted students. Lecture material, 9 Feb 2019 (in Finnish).
• “Lahjakkaat oppilaat tunneilla tyhjänpantteina? Oppilaiden väliset erot kasvaneet valtavasti.” MTV News, 22 Nov 2025 (in Finnish).

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