作者：袁小利
　　【Abstract】Differentiated instruction is an important strategy used by educators to meet the special needs of students， especially for modern higher vocational college students with diverse English abilities， learning styles and academic challenges.
　　【Key words】Differentiated instruction； Higher Vocational College
　　【作者簡介】袁小利，重庆工程职业技术学院。
　　I. The concept of differentiation
　　Differentiation is a process used to maximize student learning by improving the match between individual needs and the curriculum. Differentiation means that educators adapt the range of strategies to ensure that students’ needs are met with a way of tailoring teaching environments and practices to create different learning experiences based on diverse learning needs， different abilities and academic achievements in the same class.
　　II. The background
　　Bloom’s Taxonomy is used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. It covers three types of learning， which are in cognitive domain， psychomotor domain and affective domain. The cognitive domain list has been the primary focus of the most traditional education and is frequently used to structure curriculum learning objectives， assessments and activities. The cognitive domain includes 6 levels， which are Knowledge， Comprehension， Application， Analysis， Synthesis （create/build）， and Evaluation.
　　III. How to formulate questions to enable differentiation in English teaching
　　Our English teaching is like the ESOL classes in British. ESOL means English for Speakers of Other Languages. It contains 6 levels： Pre-Entry， Entry Level1， Entry Level2， Entry Level3， Level1 and Level2. The teacher who teaches different level will adopt different ways to teach students， like the Bloom’s Taxonomy. In Entry Level1class， teacher will pick Knowledge， very basic knowledge， （table 1） and ask them to remember and make simple sentences； In Entry Level2 and Entry Level3， teacher will pick Comprehension （table2） and Application， such as short conversations，， grammar exercises， and ask them to understand them and try to catch the general ideas； In Level1 and Level2 teacher will pick Analysis and Synthesis， more difficult task， such as， more difficult grammar exercises， articles， which need students to analyse and think； Of course， the different level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is not separated. Sometimes the teacher may adopt some levels at the same time.
　　IV. How to differentiate instruction in English teaching