Your students are not language learners, they are people with a deadline
Adult intensive English is almost always instrumental. Understanding what the student is actually trying to achieve changes what good teaching looks like.
An adult in an intensive English programme is rarely there out of interest in the language. They are there because a university requires a score, an employer requires a level of communication, a professional registration requires evidence of proficiency, or their life has moved to a country where they cannot yet operate. The English is a gate, and behind the gate is the thing they actually want, which is usually a career, a qualification, or the ability to function in the place they now live.
This is not a diminished form of motivation. It is a strong and specific one, and it has clear implications. It means the student has a deadline, frequently an external one they do not control. It means their tolerance for activity that does not visibly advance them toward the gate is limited. And it means their assessment of a course is made against progress toward that gate rather than against enjoyment or general improvement, which is why a class that is well liked and not moving anybody's score is judged harshly at the end of a term.
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