School Classroom Management Techniques For Teaching Esl
Today we're going to take a brief look at how to create a better atmosphere for learning in your classroom. We're going to be using one very simple technique which I myself have created and used to great success in the classroom with a few of the... how shall we say, less enthusiastic students.
It's a very simple and straightforward technique that anyone can use and it has a marvelous affect upon the students, not only making them feel better and more confident within themselves, but also helping them to actually want to take part in the lesson.
Okay, in every classroom we have the good students(the ones that are good at English and like to learn and take part) and we also have the not so good one(the ones that sit and talk and don't know much)
Why has the situation come about? Well there are many reasons for it, too many to go into in this short post. However we'll just quickly skim through a couple here.
Firstly, many students find English a rather difficult language to get a foot hold in. They have limited opportunities to actually interact and use the language with native speakers in everyday situations. This does not in itself help the progress of the students. At the end of the day most of them will actually see learning English as a boring waste of time. Coupled with the fact that they have now fallen so far behind with learning it, and basically can't understand a word the teacher is saying. This further acts to discourage the student or students. In the end they just say.... bugger this, and chat away with their friends.
When this scenario happens, you might find that your classroom gets noisy and you begin to suffer from discipline problems.
What can we do? Well, first off identify the problem students. Bring the problem students to the front of the class and sit them individually next to some of the better students, if they both have nothing in common that's all the better, less for them to chat about.
Please note, that you could inadvertently sit a couple of enemies together, but you'll soon find out about this if you do and then you can then take the appropriate action to remedy the situation!
Don't make the lesson too hard, and focus your attention upon the troublsome students and make them do some of the work, like reading from dummy cards, copying you when you speak. Writing a few simple things down. The point here is to bring attention to these students and help them. Don't expect them to recite a novel or hold a conversation with you on global warming or anything silly like that!
Make it easy for them! Make them use the target language. Then just before the lesson is about to finish bring out the students to the front of the class. Make sure the rest of the class are silent when you do this. Then tell everybody in the class...
These students have worked hard today!
These students have spoken English very well today! I
'am proud of these students because they have worked hard and tried very hard!
Then start clapping, and encourage the rest of the class to join in. This not only makes the students in question feel great! It also boosts their confidence and makes them feel good. It also creates good feelings about learning the language, and you're far more likely to get them to work and participate more in further lessons. After all I've never met anyone who didn't like to look good in front of their peers! I've never met anyone who didn't like to be praised and applauded!
Just a little word of warning, do not overuse this technique! It works well! However if overused it becomes a bit predictable, and may even start to look and sound a little insincere.
Posted by thailanddelights at 07:24
