Managing for Success &Language Related Problems in EFL Teaching

Critical Problems in English Language Teaching and Learning and What to Do About Them

Managing for successWhat if things don’t work as well as they

planned? Great number of reasons, but the one that

many teachers find the most difficult to dealt with is …

when students fail to cooperate!!! What happens then?Students’ failure in participating can

disrupt the learning, they get out of control, lessons have to stop while you reestablishes

the order!!! This can be unsettling for both you and your students.

What about our main aim as classroom managers?

TO PROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS rather than to become involved in damage-limitation

Problem behaviour can take many forms:disruptive talking,inaudible responses,sleeping in class,tardiness,poor attendance,failure to do homework,cheating in tests,unwillingness to speak in English,insolence to the teacher,bullying other students,damaging school property,refusing to accept sanctions and/or punishment,

etc.

TO MANAGE FOR SUCCESS!WHAT IS CHARACTERISED AS INDISCIPLINE DEPENDS ON WHAT COUNTS AS A DISCIPLINED CLASSROOM (WELL-ORDERED) FOR THE TEACHER!!!

ARE YOU TOLERANT ENOUGH???

IF WE ARE MANAGE FOR SUCCESS, WE NEED TO KNOW :

WHY IT OCCURS,HOW TO PREVENT IT,WHAT TO DO IF IT HAPPENS!!!

WHY PROBLEMS OCCUR?PERSONALITIES AND THEIR LEARNING

EXPECTATIONS! Closely bound up with their levels of self-esteem (how they feel about themselves -safe?), what level of comfort (having food to eat or warmth or shelter) and self-confidence they are experiencing .

THEIR CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES!WHAT HAPPENS IN THE CLASS!INTERPERSONAL TENSIONS BETWEEN

STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHER!

1. The familyA profound influence on students’ attitudes to

learning and to authority: The families!Difficult home situation: indisciplineHome attitudes to learning English:

good /badTeachers themselves: by pre-disposing

students to behave badly!!!

2. Learning ExpectationsNegatively affected by the previous experiences

of all kinds, by what went before !Their behavior can be the result of what they

were previously allowed to get away with!!!Positively affected by the learning culture they

are operating in.Norm of Mediocrity : being too good in lessons

is not desirable and/or appropriate.How students should behave in lessons!What they should think of teachers!If these norms are not confronted, problem

behaviour is likely to be an ongoing reality!!!

3. ApprovalSelf-esteem may result partly from the way the

teacher behaves! They seem to thrive on teacher approval.

Most students who enjoy good rapport with their teacher are happy to get that teacher’s approval. Where that approval is lacking, their incentive to behave well is often compromised.

They also look for approval from their peers (most noticeable in teenagers, they are often amazed by the humour or anarchic behaviour of their peers).

Teachers have to find the ways that students can meet with approval.

4. What the teacher doesTeachers’ behaviours in the classBeing prepared: students have something

interesting to do and far more likely to be engaged with the activities,

Being unprepared : they lose their interest, their incentive to maintain their level of concentration is lessened; therefore, they are more likely to be disconnected with you,and may become disruptive!

What the teacher does“Most of the discipline discipline

difficulties experienced by teachers are created before the lesson started”.

If you arrive at the classroom door without a clear idea of what to do, chances of things go wrong are greatly increased.

The way we react to inappropriate behaviour will have a profound impact on their subsequent behaviour.

If they see you as decisive, effective and fair, they will be far less likely to be disruptive.

5. Success and failureSuccess is a powerful agent for the

sustaining of a student’s motivation.Achieving identifiable goalsTeacher’s job is to make sure that they

recognise their achiements.If they don’t feel their own success (but their

failure in tests, in language use, in the teacher’s attitude to their classroom behaviour), they are greatly reduced .

Failure is a powerful engine for problem behaviour, that is why you need to manage for student success.

6. External FactorsBeing tired (lack of concentration)Noise from outsideWeather condition: a high wind tends to make

their children ‘go wild’.Physical condition of the classroom:

too hot (being too relaxed) or too cold (being too nervy)Discomfort > disengagement

CREATING SUCCESSFUL CLASSROOMSBehaviour Norms (They need to be explicitly

discussed, rewieved and revisited and they can be jointly negotiated).

How teachers can ensure succesful behaviour (start as we mean to go on, know what we are

going to do, plan for engagement, prioritise success, equality rules, praise is better than blame).

MODIFYING PROBLEM BEHAVIOURAct immediately,Keep calm,Focus on the behaviour not the students,Take things forward,Talk in private,Use clearly agreed sanctions,Use colleagues and the institutions.

What Can You Do?

What’s a frustrated EFL teacher going to do? English language teachers! There are good

ones, so-so ones and then there are those that justice would only prevail if they were permanently excused from the classroom!!!

So what’s a near-desperate EFL learner to do?

English Language Learning Classroom’s Most Critical Problems

1. Lack of Learner MotivationStudents skip class, and when they do show up it’s

likely due to fear of failure more than anything else. They may lack any semblance of attention during

class, chatting with classmates, doodling in their note books or in their textbooks.

What experienced EFL teaching professional hasn’t faced the problem of reluctant, unmotivated learners!One key to increasing motivation is to use activities

matched to the personalities, learning styles and characteristics of the learners as

often as practically possible.

A-Students Don't Prepare Properly for EFL Classes

If the number of class contact hours per week is very low, say for example less than four or five hours per week, there may be few other options available to the teacher outside of assigning homework or projects to be done outside of class hours. If EFL or foreign language learners consistently come to class with incomplete or undone assignments, both they and you suffer the results. So why not try "prodding" them gently by:

• Giving frequent or regular written and oral reviews• Scheduling mandatory tutorial or listening laboratory

sessions• Announcing a quiz for the next , or soon upcoming class

B-Students Regularly Copy the Work of Others

Foreign languages in particular, require individual effort and participation to acquire. Simply copying the work of other learners will not promote foreign language acquisition.

• Give learners individual workshops (or worksheets) which are not identical to be completed in class and outside of class hours

• Assign individual or small group projects to EFL learners

• Use individual-based web quests as assignments• Use dynamics and practice materials prepared in

class for each learner or small

2. Insufficient Time, Resources and MaterialsYou know the old adage, “you can never be too rich, too thin or

have enough foreign language vocabulary”.

So what can you do when charged with teaching EFL in a few hours per week?

Add too little time to a lack of resources and virtually zero other resources in many third-world classrooms and you have a critical teaching / learning situation indeed.

But there are ways, even on the lowest budget, of producing virtually free or very inexpensive ELT aids for use in the EFL classroom!!!

A-Students Don't Have a Course Book This can be an especially acute problem

when teaching a course book-based program.• Project course book pages on a screen or the

board using an Overhead Projector (OHP) or opaque projector for learners to note key items and exercises

• Make use of realia or alternative teaching materials and methods for the theme being taught.

3. Over-Crowded English ClassesThe number of learners in a class room can range

from one, to 20, learners in a typical classroom up to “multitudes of 35 or 40 or even 50 or more learners packed into a language leaning situation.

Forget anything even remotely resembling “individual attention”. Either the throng “gets it” or they don’t with little available to the teacher. When faced with over-sized groups, you should immediately implement strategies using choral, small group and pair work to help in lessening the load on both you and your large group of learners.

You may also separate out a few of the more “advanced” learners to help you with group work elements. It doesn’t solve all the problems, but it’s a good start.

Your Ideas, Suggestions and CommentsWhile it would be absolutely impossible to

provide detailed answers to such critical, world-wide problems in the English language teaching and learning classroom , we can recognize our limitations and constraints, and collectively make an effort to address and overcome them.