An article discussing ways of helping students overcome difficulties in learning English could initially attempt to focus on specific areas such as pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary usage. However, to do that justice, a whole chapter or book would be required. Instead, this article takes a broader and more simple focus by looking at three general aspects of language learning that are not only important for all learners but particularly crucial for those struggling with the challenges language learning presents. Often, the underlying causes of many of the difficulties students face in learning a second language stem from at least three factors; anxiety, motivation, and learning strategies.
Anxiety
Language learners, in some cases, may have an inbuilt predisposition to feeling anxious, or they may be the type of person who only has anxiety in certain situations. For many students, a language class is a particular context that induces anxious feelings. This is because language learning can put them in situations where their ‘language-ego’ is threatened. This threat can manifest in many ways such as when they feel they are in competition with other learners. Whatever the cause of the anxiety, there seems to be a link between higher levels of anxiety and lower achievement in language learning. However, it is important to consider, just as it is in the case of motivation, whether anxiety is the cause of poor achievement or its direct result. From studies in the field, it appears that both are valid assumptions. It can be the case that a learner with a high aptitude for learning languages and a record of success can experience anxiety after an unexpected failure. But as is the case for many learners, their own general anxiety and the situational anxiety can have a seriously detrimental effect on their learning. Anxiety can have both positive and negative elements. There is a positive anxiety, similar to a feeling of euphoria, that students might feel as a result of the opportunity that learning a new language offers to reimagine themselves in a new and positive way. Negative anxiety might also be a result of a disconnect in the student’s mind between the pedagogical approach in the classroom and their own beliefs about language learning. Thus, it may make sense to conclude that teachers should not only be looking at ways to minimize negative anxiety but also seeking ways to promote positive forms of anxiety.
Anxiety can happen at three stages of the language learning process, and in each stage, anxiety can have a negative impact on learning. In the input stage, learners experience anxiety because they are struggling to understand unfamiliar language or concepts. In the processing stage, stress comes from trying to memorize and identify patterns in new input. In the output stage, anxiety stems from trying to retrieve and use previously learnt language.
As teachers, we can have an impact on learner anxiety through the pedagogical and classroom management choices we make, but we should not be looking to minimize anxiety in all cases. As mentioned previously, anxiety can be beneficial, so it is important to try and promote the correct type and appropriate level of anxiety.
Here are some ways that you can minimize negative anxiety. Do not place too much emphasis on error correction as this can reinforce in the students’ minds the things they cannot do while not encouraging them to acknowledge what they have achieved and can do. Instead, it may be helpful to provide models of correct language usage. This also encourages students to self-monitor their language use and make comparisons and adjustments. With more challenging tasks, take a scaffolded approach and break the task into smaller and more manageable parts that build upon each other. At each stage, you can pause and review to provide assistance so that students feel confident in tackling the next stage. Make it clear to students from the outset that making fun of peers and laughing at errors is not accepted behaviour. Make the classroom a collaborative and supportive environment by creating opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and share their challenges. Try to find ways for stronger students to support weaker students. This may require passing on some basic teaching strategies, but it will contribute to a collaborative and supportive learning environment. Take time to impart and model learning strategies in class as these will equip students with practical tools to take on more challenging tasks. Consistently encourage students to take risks while reminding them that your classroom is a safe place to learn. Help them see that mistakes are welcome as they present an opportunity to reflect and review. Finally, work with students to help them set individual goals and when goals are achieved, use this as an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate success.
Motivation
Of all the factors that lead to successful language learning, motivation is one of the most crucial. For teachers to be effective in helping their students acquire a new language, they must understand the role that motivation plays in that acquisition.
Motivation can be defined in many ways, but a simple way to look at it is to see it as the reason why people decide to do what they do, why they are or not able to sustain the required effort, and why they are willing to put in the level of effort they do. Motivation can also be seen as a ‘passion’ for doing something. For learners to succeed, they require a certain level of ‘passion’, and it is a teacher’s role to help them find ways to connect to that passion.
When looking at how you might be able to help students develop an appropriate level of motivation, three principles should be kept in mind. Firstly, avoid simplifying motivation as purely a system of rewards and punishments. Instead, try to motivate students by making your lessons more interesting and engaging and helping students become more autonomous learners. Secondly, do not assume that once motivation has been established that it will last automatically. It is human nature that we can lose sight of a goal or become fatigued in its pursual, which can lead us to be distracted by other interests. Therefore, maintaining motivation is a must. Finally, in deciding on particular motivational strategies, always choose quality over quantity. Look for a few simple, effective, and easy-to-maintain strategies that suit your teaching style and your students’ learning styles.
Several strategies can be used to positively influence individual student motivation.
The first is to ignite students’ interest in language learning and the course they are enrolled in. This may involve selling them on what they can realistically expect to gain from the experience – the satisfaction gained from mastering a second language or the future opportunities it can unlock. Try to connect language learning to interests that students already have. For instance, you may learn that some students have an interest in performance arts, so show them how language learning can involve role-plays and music. Make it clear that language learning is not about rote learning vocabulary and grammar rules, but more about a wide variety of learning activities such as communicative tasks and games.
Raise students’ level of expected success. It is no revelation that people’s motivation declines in situations where they might expect to fail. Therefore, it is important to set tasks that students can realistically expect to achieve. Likewise, it is difficult to stimulate and maintain motivation when tasks present no real challenge. According to the theory of optimal arousal, students are generally more motivated when they are required to perform tasks or engage in activities that provide them with challenges that are appropriate for their abilities, i.e., these tasks are neither too difficult nor too easy. When arousal levels are too high, such as being too anxious or stressed by an overwhelming challenge, students may give up and resort to a less stressful activity like texting on their phones. If an activity is easy and students’ arousal level is low, they can become bored and engage in activities that will increase their arousal level such as acting out in class. Therefore, to maintain a healthy expectation of success among students it is necessary to consistently provide activities that give them some sense of accomplishment. It also helps to make the criteria that determine success clear, give sufficient preparation time, and remind students that ongoing support is always available.
Most of us have had the experience of being in class and thinking, “Whenever am I going to need to know this in real life?” Not seeing any personal relevance in what they are doing is another way motivation wanes in students. Therefore, take the time to know what interests students and what their particular goals are and try to link these as much as possible to what is happening in class.
Predictability and monotony are two effective motivation killers. Think about various aspects of the learning process and try to mix them up as much as you can. During each lesson try to vary the focus, types of tasks, learner interaction patterns, and teaching materials.
Not only should your learning tasks be varied but inherently interesting. As previously mentioned, they should be suitably challenging and could also include elements such as personal interest, humour, or novelty.
Self-confidence and motivation usually go hand in hand. Confident learners show a willingness to communicate regardless of the amount of the second language they have acquired. To help students build self-confidence, provide consistent encouragement highlighting their efforts and achievements, and try to minimize their language anxiety. When students feel they can maintain face, they are more engaged and motivated to participate. Continually reinforcing that mistakes are a natural and even welcome part of the learning process should help students feel more comfortable in class. Similarly, avoid putting students in situations where they feel their social image might be threatened. For activities that require free and unscripted speech, rather than having students perform in front of the whole class, consider having them perform in smaller groups in which every member is also required to perform.
Help students become more independent learners. Students who have a sense of ownership in their learning tend to be more motivated. Ownership can be developed by giving students as much of a say in what they do in class as is beneficial to do so. For certain activities, it may be appropriate for students to take on a leadership or teaching role.
Positive reinforcement is a way that teachers can increase learner satisfaction, which in turn, can result in increased motivation. For whatever reason, it is not uncommon for teachers to focus more attention on what students are not doing well and consistently articulating this back to them, rather than giving equal or even more attention to successes and celebrating them with the students. Making it clear to students that you recognize their abilities and achievements helps validate in their own minds the effort they have expended, builds faith in you as a teacher and the course, and adds to the overall tone of a positive learning environment.
The way feedback and assessment are provided can also have an impact on student motivation. When it comes to assessment, it pays to make it as transparent as possible so that learners are clear on the criteria that constitute success. This helps them develop a roadmap for achieving the criteria, and if they can see that they are fair and valid criteria that are clearly linked to the taught syllabus, they can be more motivated in class. Assessment should also make room to acknowledge effort and progress and not just a measure of their current level of proficiency. Provide periodic formative assessment throughout the course to help students track their progress and provide opportunities for feedback. With feedback, allow students to ask questions and make feedback constructive, which does not mean avoiding weak areas and only focusing on the positive. For areas that need improvement, provide clear and easy-to-understand explanations with examples followed by helpful tips to address particular issues. Finally, offer opportunities for peer and self-assessment. This will help promote students’ understanding of their learning and provides opportunities for critical analysis of their own efforts encouraging them to become more autonomous learners.
Learning Strategies
Research shows a positive correlation between strategies that students employ in their learning and their level of success in language acquisition. Successful learners apply strategies that are characterized by an active approach to learning. For instance, they may recite silently in their heads what the teacher says, they may think out an answer in their heads to a question posed to another student, they might closely examine the meaning of the language they are practising, or may actively seek opportunities to use the language outside the classroom either in a passive or active form.
Active learning strategies can be classified in four ways. Firstly, meta-cognitive strategies might include planning a study schedule or reflecting on the success or failure of certain study habits. Cognitive strategies involve techniques such as ways of memorizing vocabulary or using context clues to guess the meaning of words while reading. Affective strategies are characterized by how learners deal with issues such as a lack of motivation or frustration with a perceived lack of progress. Social strategies include the ways students cooperate with other learners or ask questions. For a teacher, it is important to develop some awareness of which particular strategies are more likely to lead to successful language learning and attempt to pass these on to learners who are experiencing difficulties. However, this is not a straightforward process as the specific strategies that work well with one student may not apply to another.
Conclusion
While the ways in which students can have difficulty in learning English are numerous, as a starting point to help your students cope with these challenges, this article has briefly considered three broad but universally relevant areas that affect learners’ ability to succeed. Anxiety, motivation, and learner strategies are all well covered in the academic literature, and it is hoped that this article has sparked an interest in further exploration of the topics covered.
Words are the building blocks of a language, and as such, the acquisition of vocabulary is extremely important. Through building vocabulary, students can express themselves more fully and with more confidence. Conversely, having a limited vocabulary can negatively affect how students are able to communicate.
Teaching vocabulary should go beyond a focus on the direct teaching of vocabulary through common methods such as using word searches, crosswords, gap-fills, and vocabulary journals where students write definitions of new words. While these have their place, other approaches such as exposure to target vocabulary in context can be more effective. It is also useful to focus on practice that requires students to use target vocabulary through the productive skills of speaking and writing. This aids deeper and more permanent acquisition.
Teaching vocabulary is a broad and complex topic. This article aims to introduce some useful and practical ideas to help make this important area of language teaching a little easier. The article begins by introducing some simple but effective exercises for teaching vocabulary, and then continues by discussing the issue of vocabulary acquisition, the needs of learners according to level, learning through context, and the use of two well known word lists.
What are some useful approaches to teaching vocabulary?
A good place to start is by using some simple but effective ideas suggested by Paul Nation, a widely respected expert on the subject of vocabulary teaching. Below, he suggests some useful vocabulary learning exercises that require little or no preparation. Before using these exercises, he offers some advice on how to select target words for these exercises.
Choosing the words
1. On a rotational basis, appoint a special vocabulary secretary whose job is to identify difficult words encountered in class for future attention.
2. Select words that have appeared in classwork and materials in the last week or two.
3. Select words that you believe are important for students to know.
Once target words have been identified, employ a combination of the exercises below which are grouped according to some of the key criteria for what it means to 'know' a word.
Exercises that focus on word meaning
Find the fundamental meaning: Students read through dictionary entries and find the common meaning of the different uses of the word.
Word card testing: In pairs, students give their cards to their partner who tests them on their recall of the meaning by saying the word and asking for a translation of the word in return. This process can also be done in reverse i.e., saying the word in the first language and asking for it in the target language in return.
Using the dictionary: When a target word occurs in a text, the teacher trains students in the correct use of a dictionary to locate the meaning of that specific usage.
Guessing meaning from context: Whenever a guessable word occurs in a reading text, the teacher trains the students to employ the various strategies of inferring the meaning from context.
Exercises that focus on word form
Spelling dictation: The teacher calls out words or phrases for students to write down as accurately as possible.
Pronunciation: The teacher writes words on the board and asks students to choose a word and attempt the correct pronunciation. The teacher then gives feedback and/or models the correct pronunciation.
Word parts: The teacher writes words on pieces of paper and students cut them into parts and give the meanings of the parts. This is obviously useful for teaching prefixes and suffixes.
Exercises that focus on word use
Suggest collocations: The students work together in pairs or small groups to list collocations for a given word.
Word detectives: A student reports on an unfamiliar word they have found in their reading. They then give a mini-presentation about the meaning, spelling, pronunciation, word parts, origin, collocations, and grammar of the word.
Now that you have been presented with some simple and practical ideas for teaching vocabulary, it may be useful to delve a little deeper into vocabulary learning and teaching.
It is not always the case that students need to resort to specific vocabulary study books to learn new words. Many people who possess an extended vocabulary do not report having acquired it through direct learning activities and commercial coursebooks.
A common approach to vocabulary teaching starts with a list of words found in a reading or listening activity accompanied by translations in the students' first language and vocabulary exercises. Often, not much attention is given to approaches that ask students to build vocabulary from reading and listening through context, which presents a missed opportunity.
How does successful vocabulary acquisition take place?
For successful vocabulary acquisition to occur, students require a considerable amount of exposure to new words. The process of acquisition should follow a similar path to first language vocabulary acquisition: through context, associations, and constant exposure.
Students must be provided with opportunities for using vocabulary in memorable and meaningful situations. Selecting vocabulary learning activities should be guided by key factors such as how often the words are likely to be encountered and how necessary they are for producing effective communication.
Learning new words involves building up vocabulary from repertoire - that is, relating new words to previously acquired language. Try to imagine building blocks and stacking one layer over the other to consolidate vocabulary and build a strong foundation for future communication.
Teaching vocabulary should also take flexibility and creativity into account. The teacher should avoid approaching words as isolated and independent objects and preferably expose students to the way they are used in sentences and how they can group with other words to form collocations. As an example, apart from simply working out the meaning of the word 'go', it would also be effective to associate it with the preposition 'to' and present it as 'go to' - preferably in a sentence.
With lessons that focus on the receptive skills of reading and listening, it is useful to identify which words are most likely to be unfamiliar to students and do some pre-teaching. The idea is to make sure the students find the activity not only interesting but also meaningful and comprehensible. After students have read or listened to a text, the new vocabulary can be reinforced in other ways such as using flashcards or asking students to use the words in short writing or speaking activities.
Vocabulary learning needs according to proficiency level
Students' level of proficiency is another key consideration when approaching vocabulary learning activities.
Beginners benefit through direct vocabulary teaching as it fosters quick expansion in the number of words they know. Relevant activities might include using flashcards and illustrated handouts along with other memorisation strategies. This is a stage of early development, so it is important that the teacher also focuses on building confidence and a sense of self-accomplishment.
The approach with intermediate students should focus on expanding on already acquired vocabulary. For instance, students can explore the fact that the same word can have multiple meanings. This might involve students discovering how many different contexts they can use words like 'head' or 'park' for example. In addition, it is also valuable for intermediate students to work with affixes such as in-, un-, -less, -ly, and word families as in 'beauty, 'beautiful' and 'beautifully' as a way of expanding vocabulary range.
To build learner autonomy, encourage students to use their imagination so they can come up with their own ways of memorizing words based on their repertoire to consolidate the way they link new words to familiar ones.
Advanced students sometimes become frustrated because they feel that their vocabulary learning has plateaued. This often happens because they may already be familiar with the most frequent general words in the language. Therefore, consider increasing their exposure to academic vocabulary, which is likely to be far less familiar, but more likely to be encountered in future academic and professional life.
Learning vocabulary through context
Regardless of the level, activities requiring students to guess the meaning of a word from context are useful. This invites them to develop their self-sufficiency in contrast to a dependency on the teacher or dictionaries.
It is not only through reading that students can guess meaning from context but also through listening to stories, music, podcasts, and also from watching TV series, and films. Using the same principle of building vocabulary through repertoire, they provide audio and visual context clues.
An example activity would be to choose a story that students are familiar with in their first language such as the story of "The Three Little Pigs". This will make it easier for them to guess the meaning of keywords as they should be able to relate them to an already known context. Students would likely already be familiar with many of the words in the story from their mother tongue. They would also be very familiar with the plot, so there is a rich and accessible context for them to guess the meaning of vocabulary.
Teaching strategies that can help students understand the meaning of unfamiliar words from context is important for their development as independent learners. To do this, they should be looking for context clues such as synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples, and explanations.
For example, students should become aware that when encountering an unfamiliar word in a text, they should look for words in the sentence or surrounding sentences that help them deduce what the unknown word is. In the example below, we can see that the second sentence offers an 'antonym' that should if the student is aware of the strategy, help them decipher the meaning of 'distraught'.
The English supporters were distraught after losing the final. They were not happy losing another penalty shootout.
Let's use 'definition' as another example. Below, we can see that the second sentence essentially defines the word synthesise. Students should be made aware that phrases such as 'in other words' often signal the clarification of a key term or concept.
Academic writing often requires students to synthesise the ideas of multiple authors. In other words, take key ideas from texts and combine them to produce an original text.
It is important to realize that these context clues may not always be so obvious. Hence, teachers need to carefully evaluate if the activity is suited to students' proficiency level and current vocabulary range.
Learning vocabulary from context is effective, but it should not exclude direct teaching, especially if used as a way of increasing students' awareness and speeding up the development of specific language. By using context, it encourages students to identify and acquire new vocabulary independently because they are equipped with practical strategies. In addition, this approach should be directed to useful vocabulary which will not only enhance their comprehension of listening and reading texts but boost their ability to communicate in spoken and written English.
Word lists for vocabulary learning and teaching
Just as important as understanding what constitutes effective vocabulary teaching, it is also important to be clear on which vocabulary to target. It may not always be obvious for teachers to decide which vocabulary to teach. A good starting point is to consider established and recognised word lists such as the New General Service List (NGSL).
What is the NGSL?
The NGSL is a list comprised of words considered to be the most common and frequently occurring in English - roughly 2,000 headwords. These headwords define word families, for example: 'with: within, without', or 'day: daily, daylight'. It is estimated that the list covers 80% of all words found in general reading texts and 90% of the words used in spoken English.
As previously mentioned, advanced students should already be familiar with a wide range of general words so working with the NGSL might not be a priority for them. Instead, the Academic Word List (AWL) is a better alternative as it focuses on academic vocabulary. Students at this level are often entering universities where English is the medium of instruction, so the AWL provides not only a more challenging and rewarding set of target vocabulary but also one that is highly relevant.
What is the AWL?
The AWL consists of 570 word families of which 90% are not found in the NGSL. They cover 10% of words in academic texts and are often the most challenging. The list is divided into 10 sub-lists in line with the frequency they appear in academic texts, with sub-list 1 being the most frequent and sub-list 10 the least frequent.
For advanced students, both lists are important as when combined, they are estimated to cover 90% of the words found in academic texts.
How can word-lists be used in vocabulary teaching?
Teachers must consider a variety of ways and approaches when selecting vocabulary learning activities, especially regarding students' proficiency level. While beginners can benefit more from direct teaching and activities such as flashcards, intermediate students would be suited to more challenging activities such as guessing meaning from familiar and rich contexts.
Advanced students with a greater familiarity with words in the NGSL can take advantage of the sub-lists in the AWL, especially through reading activities. But it is important to keep in mind that it can be a rather tedious activity if planned for the duration of a whole class. At this level, students are most likely expecting practice in improving their speaking skills in more dynamic tasks such as peer and group interactions.
Therefore, it is better to approach the AWL as a self-study exercise through activities such as reading, matching, and writing exercises. These can be assigned as homework and later checked during class. This way both teacher and students can optimize class time by focusing on the practiced use of specific vocabulary rather than in direct learning.
To illustrate, the teacher could highlight AWL words in a reading passage. Students could then be asked to match these words with their correct definitions or work out their meanings from context, or even use a dictionary (if needed). After working with definitions, students could then match the target words with synonyms. Additionally, students could complete a chart of word families as a way of increasing exposure to their corresponding variations.
In summary, teachers need to deal with vocabulary as a long-term goal and be constantly aware that vocabulary acquisition can be a slow process that requires repetition. Simply presenting new words to students and expecting them to memorise their meaning is an ineffective practice. It is important to link vocabulary to previously acquired language. Meaningful, continuous, and thoughtful exposure to vocabulary is the key. Ultimately, teachers should not only seek to employ effective vocabulary learning activities, but also remember to be patient, attentive, and empathic.
As an ESL teacher at a school or university, there are times when you will have to teach large classes. Many teachers think that because the class size is so big, they are limited in what they can do. However, by following the advice below, you will find your large classes a lot more enjoyable and manageable.
What are some advantages of teaching large classes?
There are many advantages to teaching large ESL classes. For example, when you teach a large class time goes a lot quicker. Activities take a longer time to set up and run. Rarely will you find yourself using all the activities you have planned. This means you can use them in the next class, which saves time on preparation. In a large class, you will constantly have a variety of personalities to contend with. There will always be students keen to ask and respond to questions. There will also be students who are funny and bring laughter to the class, so large classes are never dull.
What are some disadvantages of teaching large classes?
It is more difficult for teachers to work with students in classes larger than 25 or 30 students. Large classrooms make discussion and group work more difficult. Research has found that in larger classes, students engagement tends to be less than optimal. Added to this is the alarming fact that students who disengage the most are struggling students. To make matters worse, teachers in larger classes have more negative behaviours to deal with especially from those students finding the class a challenge. Therefore, it is useful to consider how and why there is less student engagement in large classes and what can be done to boost participation.
What causes students to not participate?
Attaining optimal student participation can be a challenge in a small class let alone a large one. To effectively raise participation in large classes, it helps to be aware of some factors that discourage student involvement. First, how students perceive their teacher develops through interactions in and outside of the class and can impact significantly on student participation. Secondly, many students choose not to participate fully in class because of fears of peer judgment.
How to build rapport with a large class of students
Cultivating a perception of the teacher that makes students more comfortable to participate actively in class can be a challenge in large classes. This is because it is more difficult to have meaningful interactions with each student. However, by deliberately working to project a certain demeanour, teachers can have a positive impact on student participation.
Teachers need to make it a priority to learn and use students’ names from the first lesson. One effective approach is to use cards that have students’ pictures and names. The teacher simply picks a card at random to call on students to answer a question or share an idea. By doing this, the teacher ensures that they are always using students’ names, and it helps guarantee that all students are being called on to contribute, which makes them less likely to disengage during class. This is also an effective tool for learning students’ names.
Teachers should also think of creative ways to establish a rapport between themselves and the class. At the beginning of each course, ask students to complete note cards that describe some of their interests. By reviewing the note cards and memorizing student names, you can get to know your students and attempt to greet them by name and speak with them as they enter the classroom. Approaches like this help build a better rapport between the instructor and students, which results in a more engaged class.
Be patient and positive when interacting with students in and out of class. By doing this, you show the students they are a welcome and valued member of the class, which can boost student confidence, and more confident students are much more likely to participate in class. Some students can shut down in a class if they perceive the teacher as being harsh or unapproachable.
If your situation allows it, think of ways to encourage students to visit you during office hours to discuss feedback, assignments, projects, etc. To make this more efficient in large classes, students don't need to meet you individually. Students can meet with you in groups of four over the duration of the course. When meeting your students, try to project your willingness to talk with them and answer questions. This provides an opportunity for brief social interaction between the teacher and students that helps build rapport. Meeting students in small groups also minimizes the number of times you have to answer the same questions.
If you don't have an office and are not able to set up office hours, set up a group chat in WhatsApp Line or WeChat so that if students need to ask you something or you need to pass on some important information quickly, contact is made easy. Students can also use the online group to practice their English by interacting with one another, so make the group chat English only.
How can peer judgment be discouraged in class?
Fear of peer judgment is a source of anxiety for many students that is more pronounced in large classes where students fear potential embarrassment in front of dozens of their peers. To best deal with the fear associated with peer judgment, it is crucial to encourage an environment of trust and mutual respect from the very first lesson. In this environment, students are more likely to feel secure enough to participate more freely in class. Using pair work and group activities is a good way to build personal connections as they help individuals become better acquainted. This helps build a sense of community where students are supportive and encouraging of one another. Finally, try to ensure that all students feel that they have a voice in class by not allowing some students to dominate discussions and making it clear that interrupting other students is not tolerated.
How to promote an active learning environment
It can be easy for teachers to fall into a more traditional and teacher-centred approach when teaching large classes as it seems easier to manage. However, it is worth making the effort to incorporate a variety of teaching methods such as student-led seminars or team assignments into your lessons as a way of boosting motivation, engagement, and participation. It also pays to plan activities and tasks in such a way that discourages students from becoming easily distracted.
Incorporate intermittent energy shifts into the lesson. This relates to the fact that learners of different ages having varying optimal attention spans. For example, the average attention span of a 6-year-old averages between 12 and 24 minutes whereas the attention span of a 12-year-old tends to be from 24 to 60 minutes. Therefore, consider how you might switch gears in the lesson to help maintain student attention and focus. This can be done in a few ways such as simply changing from direct instruction to pair work, or from individual writing to sharing work completed so far within a small group. For activities with a duration beyond the average attention span of your class, it is helpful to plan them in such a way that asks students to complete a series of steps that require different types of thinking or learning.
In certain lessons, teachers may be required to give mini-lectures to explain an important concept, process, or procedure. Rather than delivering an extended monologue, try to make these tasks more interactive. For example, you could try a think-pair-share activity that poses a question to students that they must consider alone and then discuss with a partner before deciding on a final answer. This can motivate students and promote higher-level thinking. A think-pair-share activity does not need to last more than three minutes and helps students remain attentive. How to promote increased participation in large classes.
How to promote increased participation in large classes
As it is easier for students to fade into the background in larger classes, always seek opportunities to elicit more participation. Some simple ways of doing this include asking questions that require a show of hands or asking a direct question to an individual student. Rather than just checking the register by calling out each name, tell the students you will check attendance and participation by asking each student a question or by getting them to speak English. Make sure you tell the students you will do this in a random order. So, as you teach the class, the students are always paying attention, because they don't know whose name is going to be called next. This helps to keep the students on their toes. By speaking to every student in the class, you will soon remember their names. Asking each student to contribute is easy, as within a lesson you have things like book exercises, activities, eliciting, modelling, concept checking, role-plays, readings, etc.
Additionally, when possible, try to have students work in pairs or small groups. When working in groups, each member should be assigned a role so that activities are more productive and communicative. For example, assign one student the role of leader whose responsibility is to ensure that the group stays on task and meets their objectives. Another could be nominated as a secretary to take notes and summarise the group’s efforts. There could also be a presenter who reports the group's findings to the rest of the class.
When a class is split up into teams or groups encouraging competition is easy. This creates a fun atmosphere within the class. For younger students, you can assign team points or small rewards throughout the lesson. You'll find that doing this helps increase the students' motivation quite dramatically.
Another important reason for having teams or groups in a large class is that the students can help each other learn. Stronger students and weaker students can work together. The students can build friendships and help each other understand what they are learning.
Some general advice for teaching large classes
Think about the practicalities of how you will perform formative assessment and provide feedback to students. You don't want to be constantly bogged down marking pages of homework each week. When reviewing students’ work, don't correct everything, but simply return it to them with personalized comments, suggestions, or general feedback on how they can improve or correct some of the more serious errors they have made. You can do a lot of informal assessments in class through monitoring participation in such things as activities and presentations.
Stick to your rules! If you have rules about lateness or behaviour, enforce them. This is very important in the first few weeks of class. Show the students you are strict about your rules, and they will conform. Once the students know what they can and cannot get away with, the class runs a lot smoother.
Make sure you have something to drink handy. You will find even with a microphone that you naturally speak louder, which takes a toll on your throat.
Always have a backup activity in case the class doesn't go as planned.
Final thoughts
For teaching a language, having a large class is generally considered a major disadvantage. Although large classes can often lend themselves to making a fun and dynamic learning atmosphere, this is not always the case, particularly if the teacher is under-prepared or the group struggles to gel. The main trap to avoid in large classes is for student participation to wain as this not only impacts learning but can also lead to behaviours that are unfavourable for both the teacher and the students. However, by reading this article, it is hoped that you not only have some awareness of how to better meet some of the key challenges of large classroom teaching but also how it is possible to establish and maintain an enjoyable and effective teaching and learning environment.
Have you ever opened a textbook, only to find a lesson that is uninteresting and unrelatable to your group of students? While it may not always be possible or practical for teachers to personalize lessons to a group of 20+ learners, there is always the option of adjusting or adapting materials to make them relevant to your students’ learning experience. This article will outline the importance of using relevant materials and activities in the classroom and will also shed some light on how teachers can apply this knowledge to make use of the resources they have.
The problem with most textbooks
The truth is that not all textbooks are made equally when it comes to the quality of content. While textbooks serve as a great resource for foundational concepts such as grammar rules, there are instances where the scenarios in readings or examples are unrealistic and difficult to relate to. As teachers, we have the responsibility to be selective when it comes to choosing the resources we use. It is up to the teacher’s discretion to handpick the material that could be used to facilitate an engaging lesson or activity. As a result, this begs the following question: how can teachers adapt their materials to make them more relevant to the ESL classroom?
The importance of relevancy in the classroom
Several studies have supported the fact that relevant materials help to keep students engaged in a lesson because they give the target language real meaning. This is especially true in teaching contexts where English is not the official language. The use of relevant materials and activities has also been shown to have an effect on increased memory of vocabulary and grammar. Choosing relevant materials means choosing materials that encourage students to start talking about themselves. Since relevance is a huge part of the communicative approach, it is important that teachers take relevance into consideration. When students can relate to the target language, it makes it easier for them to express their own opinions, ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
What should be considered before choosing what is relevant and what is not?
The first step would be to conduct a needs analysis of the students in your class. Observe your students. What motivates them? How do your students learn best? What are their interests? What do they do outside of the classroom? For more specific details, you can ask them to conduct a survey individually or amongst their peers, or even have them write a journal reflection. You can use the following journal prompts or questions:
• What are your goals for learning English?
• Why do you need to learn English?
• What do you want to learn about?
• What are your interests outside of the class?
• What are some things that don’t interest you?
This works especially well for higher levels or mature learners. For lower levels or younger learners, you can have them share their likes and dislikes with their peers or have them draw pictures to get an idea of how to make your future lessons more relatable and to create a more dynamic learning experience.
Doing a simple needs analysis can help you choose appropriate materials or activities that suit your classes best. Of course, the authenticity of the materials you choose will vary based on the context such as where you are teaching or even who you are teaching. It is up to you to decide which materials to use whether it be from the textbook or authentic sources such as newspapers or even video clips.
How to adapt materials to make them relevant
Let’s now move on to discuss the application of relevant materials in the ESL classroom. After conducting a needs analysis, you may notice some patterns in your students' answers. Using this information, try to adapt materials or activities that will help the majority or the class as a whole. For example, if you know that a majority of the students have an active lifestyle or enjoy doing extracurricular activities, you can use this information to create meaningful examples to explain a variety of grammar concepts such as the present simple or present continuous. Students are more likely to pay attention when they can make a more personal connection to the content.
Many teachers also like to include cultural references to make their lessons more relatable for their students. Depending on where you are and your students’ backgrounds, you can allude to different cultural references such as holidays, traditions and customs, national symbols, traditional food, and so on. For instance, you could adapt the students’ knowledge and love for traditional food to teach verbs like ‘to have’ or even in practicing descriptive writing or in developing presentation skills. Some questions you could ask are: What kind of food does your country have? Does your country have spicy food? What do people usually have for breakfast? What kind of food do you have in your fridge? As you can see, basically any activity can be adapted using cultural references to provide your students with more opportunities to use English. It has been proven time and again that familiar topics help students to better identify with the language and help to promote interaction with the use of the target language, so try to implement it when teaching all the skills.
However, there is one small caveat when it comes to cultural references. Steer clear of any topics that may be taboo or sensitive in the local culture. These usually relate to politics, religion, or social mores. Apart from the fact that you may risk causing offence, the consequences can, in some cases, be very severe indeed and lead to either deportation, arrest, or both. Therefore, it pays to understand as much as possible about the local culture in which you are teaching.
The adaptation of materials does not end with cultural references. You can also make materials relevant by helping your students to make personal connections with what they read, hear, write, or discuss. Say for instance you are teaching students studying English in Thailand, and the text that your students have to read talks about what John did in New York last week. If we want to make this scenario more relevant, we can approach it in two ways. First, you could substitute John for the subject ‘you’ or ‘I’ and then change the information to be relevant to where the students live. By doing this you would get something like ‘What I did in Bangkok last week.’ Depending on what is included in the text, you can also work together as a class to create an entirely new story by adapting the reading into a gap-fill activity.
The example above is one way to personalize the material; however, you could use the original reading about John’s week in New York to get your students to use their critical thinking skills to make connections to the text. Although the context of the story might seem to be far removed from what the students might know, a closer look at the similarities would suggest otherwise. If students compare Bangkok and New York, both are big cities, and this could also be an opportune moment to talk about globalization. Potentially, Thai students could also relate to John in New York if his day includes riding the subway, going to school, and then meeting a friend at a café. If there are any differences in routine, it is also a great topic for discussion.
Similarly, if you are teaching learners who are immigrants to Canada, you might want to include activities that focus on the Canadian way of life or the local culture. You could also create lessons that focus on helpful language that allows them to perform essential daily tasks which include but is not limited to going to the bank, grocery shopping, and ordering at a restaurant. Likewise, if you are teaching senior high school students in China, relevance could be on more academic English as many of them would be studying abroad or entering an international program at home.
By adapting our materials to make them more relevant, our students can start to make connections with what they learn, and this is the key to helping them acquire and understand what is taught in class. So, from now on, whenever you open a textbook, ask yourself the following question, “Can my students identify with this material in any way?”
Relevance is an important aspect of teaching English or any language for that matter. Teachers ensure that their activities and materials are relevant when their lessons provide opportunities for their students to communicate real information about themselves which they can potentially use in their day-to-day lives. Use what students know to teach the target language and change or adapt your resources to fit your students’ needs. Changing up your lesson plans in this way can help to break the monotonous learning routine and will help to make English something that your students look forward to learning each day.
The aim of this article is to give insight into the important cultural considerations you need to think about when teaching students from other countries. The article begins by briefly discussing some general cultural factors that impact on teaching and then takes a closer look at teaching in both culturally diverse and mono-cultural classes.
Why consider cultural awareness in your classes?
As a second language teacher, you should give some thought to cultural awareness to ensure that you are delivering language instruction without bias, discrimination, or prejudice. Being culturally aware helps you to meet the needs of your students and create an environment where students feel comfortable and ready to learn.
So, how do you go about being culturally aware?
Cultural awareness begins with developing sensitivity and understanding of your students' beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and values. Be proactive when it comes to learning about the different cultural backgrounds of your students. Learn about the cultural characteristics, history, and customs of your students' native countries. Also, talk to your colleagues as they may have invaluable information that helps you get a better understanding of cultural issues that may arise in the classroom.
Cultural taboos
Find out which topics and actions are taboo. Each culture is different, and there will be certain topics that are off limits such as politics, religion, money, or on-going conflicts. Also, be aware of your own actions. Actions that may be acceptable in your culture might be taboo in another. You do not want to embarrass or upset students through ignorant actions such as pointing, touching, or holding eye contact. If you are teaching in your home country, inform your students about your own culture and share information about which topics and actions are appropriate and which are not. This will not only help your students in the classroom, but also as they interact outside in a new culture.
Diversity and teacher assumptions
The diverse range of backgrounds and experiences students bring to the classroom offer many rewards and challenges. In many countries, students are brought up to be more passive and reserved when interacting with adults. Students in some cultures may often come across as less driven, less knowledgeable in certain topics, or less ambitious than the students you are used to. However, this is very rarely the case. Take the time to get to know your students and their abilities, and do not rely on your own cultural assumptions.
Learning styles
It is important to remember that someone's cultural background often affects the way they interact in the classroom, and how they learn English. Being sensitive to cultural ways of learning is a key step towards developing an understanding of your students' culture. Research online to familiarize yourself with how your students learn in their native country. Common learning methods that are used in classrooms across many cultures are games, storytelling, puzzle-solving, repetition, and visuals.
Cultural references
When teaching, you need to understand that students engage more in learning when the language is presented within the students' cultural frames of reference. If you continually reference a culture or nationality that is different from your students' in your material or teaching, your students may feel that their cultural background is being sidelined. Consequently, they may feel disengaged from learning. Therefore, it is important to adapt your teaching resources or techniques to prevent this. When possible, your lessons should incorporate content that reflects the different cultures of your students to help them learn more effectively and connect with the teaching content.
What are some activities for culturally diverse classrooms?
With multicultural classes, you can encourage cultural awareness by having the students explore and share one another's culture. For example, ask students to give presentations on their home countries or include cultural celebrations, such as Chinese New Year, Songkran, etc. Students can also share their culture by decorating the classroom with maps, flags, descriptions and pictures of traditional festivals, food, music, or sports. Group activities, such as discussing current events or comparing holidays across cultures also help promote cultural awareness.
In which ways can classrooms be culturally diverse?
Many teachers often find themselves teaching in culturally diverse situations. Many of us assume cultural diversity is generally limited to ethnicity and religion, but in fact, culture encompasses a broad range of categories. To promote cultural awareness, teachers need to account for all the different aspects of culture that can influence a student's perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours. These cultural categories include:
Race
Students who differ in skin colour and other physical attributes typical of the majority culture may be dealing with negative feelings connected to their own self-perceptions, or how their classmates may perceive them. It's important for teachers to be aware of this and factor it into their observations.
Religious persuasion
Many students may come from families where there is a tradition of religious adherence. Thus, it is useful for teachers to familiarize themselves with the ways religious traditions and requirements can impact their students' actions inside and outside the classroom.
Ethnic background
Ethnicity is not defined by physical appearance as much as it is by such things as culture, ancestry, language, or religion. Ethnic groups can differ in such things as values, rituals, and communication styles. Understanding these differences can help teachers become familiar with their students' interests and how they see the world.
Sexual orientation and gender identity
A student's sexual orientation and/or gender identity can often subject them to unwelcome attention outside of the class. This is often in the form of bullying or discrimination. This is something that they should not have to deal with in class. Therefore, if teachers find they have members of this community among their students, they should seek information and advice on how best to accommodate their learning needs.
Socio-economic status
A student's learning achievement can be influenced by their economic background. Teachers should be aware of how a student's financial circumstances can lead to classroom pressure and diminish their ability to find adequate time or a suitable place to study, not to mention accessing important learning resources.
How can you create a more inclusive classroom environment?
Lead by example
Teachers should play a leading role in fostering a culturally inclusive classroom by demonstrating their own desire to be culturally aware. This can be achieved by inviting students to share their stories and relate their cultural experiences in the classroom.
Be conscious of the impact of cultural differences
Not all students are openly expressive of their cultural differences, so teachers should respect certain boundaries while being accommodative. Sometimes, cultural differences might be influencing a student's learning progress, so try to be sensitive to this and avoid superficial assumptions. If you suspect issues related to their cultural background are impacting the student, be supportive and consider adjusting your approach.
Cultural differences do not equate to different expectations
Although students may have different needs, they must all have the same expectations. Maintain the same high expectations for all students. Maintaining different expectations for different students can incorrectly send the message that cultural differences determine educational outcomes.
Incorporate cultural diversity into your teaching
In the past, our respective educational systems were ethnocentric and made few concessions to cultural diversity. Try to cater to diversity in your lessons and teaching materials. In this way, you are telling your students that their culture is respected, and their needs are important.
Teaching mono-cultural classes that differ greatly from your own.
In many instances, teachers may find themselves teaching in a foreign country where all the students share the same national culture. This culture may be very different from the teacher's own and can present a unique set of issues.
What issues could these differences manifest?
How can teachers navigate their way through these issues?
One way to deal with these questions is to familiarise oneself with a framework of culture such as Geert Hofstede's Dimensions of National Culture.
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory is a framework for understanding cultural differences, and to determine the ways these differences affect behaviour. This framework can be applied to any inter-cultural situation such as a language class.
Hofstede's framework identifies six categories that define culture, which can be seen in the chart below that compares two divergent cultures, Australia, and Japan.
Power distance - In high power distance cultures, social structures are more hierarchical and there is more respect for authority. In low power distance countries, people question authority and attempt to distribute power more equally.
Power distance can affect classroom communication. For instance, because Australia is a low power distance society, the communication style can be described as informal, direct, and participative. Conversely, Japanese communication is more indirect and less chatty than the style more common in Australia.
What are the possible classroom implications of power distance?
In this example, an Australian teaching English in Japan, the teacher should accept the different communication style of their students and employ strategies to accommodate it. This might mean creating an environment where students feel more comfortable communicating amongst themselves in smaller groups and to the class. Therefore, regularly incorporating group work activities and regularly switching students between groups should encourage more participative communication with students.
Individualism - Individualistic societies have looser interpersonal links outside of the immediate family or inner circle of friends. In contrast, collectivist societies have more tightly connected relationship links with extended families and other in-groups such as those at school or work. Australia scores very highly on this dimension, so Australians tend to be self-reliant and act independently. In contrast, the Japanese are more inclined to put the harmony of the group above the expression of individual opinions and people have a strong sense of shame for losing face.
What are the possible classroom implications of individualism?
As the risk of losing face may be a source of anxiety for students, try to avoid situations in which students may perceive such a risk. This could be as simple as avoiding singling out students to express their personal opinions to the whole class. Instead, have students discuss the issue in groups, and then ask one student to report back their group's findings to the class. In this way, a 'wrong' answer is not attributed to a particular student.
Masculinity - High masculinity countries value achievement, and material success. However, low masculinity countries tend to value cooperation, modesty, and quality of life over success and achievement.
Australia is moderately masculine, so people strive to be and do their best and individual success is celebrated. While Japan ranks higher in this dimension, competition to succeed is more between groups than individuals.
What are the possible classroom implications of masculinity?
This seems to suggest that the teacher should give priority to activities and tasks that are group focused. Where students may be required to work individually, it could be for the purpose of making a group or class-wide contribution. Also, it is likely students would respond positively to activities that require them to compete or work in teams.
Uncertainty Avoidance - In high uncertainty avoidance cultures, people seek predictability and try to avoid unstructured situations. This often manifests in strict laws and rules. In low uncertainty avoidance countries, people tend to have a more relaxed, open, or inclusive attitude. In general, social conventions are not as strict.
Australia is a moderate uncertainty avoidance society, so people tend to cope with ambiguous or unknown situations. However, Japan shows high uncertainty avoidance, which can mean there is a tendency to not go against social norms and conventions.
What are the possible classroom implications of uncertainty avoidance?
This indicates that Japanese students prefer a more structured environment. This can mean communicating expectations, the course content, and assessment details from the outset. It would also help to ensure students always have easy access to this information. Furthermore, lesson aims should be made clear at the start of each class, and instructions and student roles for activities explained clearly.
Long-term Orientation - Countries with a long-term orientation tend to be pragmatic, modest, and thriftier. In short-term oriented countries, people tend to place more focus on principles, consistency, and truth.
Australia scores low on this dimension and so there tends to be more focus on short-term planning and results, and people are more tolerant of boastfulness. In Japan, there is more emphasis on long-term planning, and an immediate result is not as important as the long-term goal. There is an expectation of more modest behaviour.
What are the possible classroom implications of long-term orientation?
The findings here could suggest that as a way of motivating students, it may be helpful to make it clear how a certain lesson or activity fits in with a long-term goal. For example, most students do not enjoy giving class presentations. However, by reminding them that this is an important skill for university and future professional life, it may motivate them to prepare and perform better.
Indulgence - In high indulgence cultures, making time for leisure and enjoying life are valued and looser standards of behaviour exist. In low indulgence societies, more value is placed in the suppression of gratification and the regulation of people's conduct and behaviour. There is also a stricter expectation to adhere to social norms.
With Australia being high in indulgence, there is a tendency for people to act on impulses and desires, and place importance on leisure and fun. Japan, on the other hand, is a more restrained, society, putting less emphasis on leisure time. Actions are restrained by social norms and there is a common feeling that indulging oneself is somewhat wrong.
What are the possible classroom implications of indulgence?
Games and fun activities are a mainstay of the second language learning classroom, and they are, without question, effective ways to teach the language. However, it may be the case, that a Japanese student may question the validity of such activities. They may view games as being frivolous.
Another implication of indulgence is the way the teacher communicates in the class. Showing and expressing excessive emotions and talking openly and freely about oneself may be perceived by some as foolish and unprofessional.
Hopefully, this article has given you some new and useful insights into the important role culture plays in the classroom, and you feel better positioned to explore the topic more with the aim of making classes more culturally inclusive, making classes where intercultural misunderstandings are less frequent, and making the classroom a more comfortable and fulfilling experience for both the students and the teacher.
Effective classroom management is important because it has a very positive impact on your ability to teach and your students’ ability to learn. Without good classroom management, a negative learning environment can emerge where students are demotivated and distracted, and teachers are stressed and eventually feel burnt out. Proper classroom management, on the other hand, results in a situation where a teacher’s time and energy are primarily focused on teaching with less time wasted on dealing with behaviour management.
While successful classroom management requires planning, preparation, and effort in the early stages of a course, it does make teaching easier in the end. It also results in improved student progress because they are learning in an environment where expectations are clear and there are minimal interruptions. Students can just get on with the business of learning. This article will cover some of the key areas to consider when developing an effective classroom management plan.
Arranging the Physical Environment
The physical setup of your classroom is perhaps the most obvious place to start. This can have a significant impact on the way your classes run. Some thought is required for how furniture and materials are arranged within the classroom. There is no one size fits all answer for this aspect of classroom management as teachers find themselves in a variety of situations and circumstances. For example, classes often vary in terms of size. If you are teaching a small class, perhaps using a horseshoe arrangement might work best, but for large classes, arranging the tables in groups may work better. You might have classes in which students are required to access certain materials, so you may need to think about where the materials are kept and how students can easily access them without causing too much disruption to the lesson. Not all classrooms are designed well so when thinking about how to arrange desks, make sure all students are in clear view. This ensures that you can easily check that all students are on task and that they can clearly see anything you are explaining or demonstrating.
As the course progresses and you get to know your students better, you may want to play around with your seating arrangements. You could develop a seating plan to manage certain unwanted behaviours. You can decide to seat disruptive students at the front of the class, separate pairs who are continuously talking in their first language, or you can arrange the class so that groups contain a mix of weaker and stronger students. Do what you can to ensure a suitable physical environment for learning. Reorganizing classroom seating also allows for easier movement from student-to-student or group-to-group and this has the benefit of preventing time wasting.
Establishing and Maintaining Appropriate Authority
While it is appropriate and beneficial for teachers to have a friendly relationship with students, language classes require a certain amount of structure and discipline that ensures that classes are productive and meeting learning outcomes to at least a satisfactory level.
Authority begins with teachers having the necessary self-confidence in their teaching ability and their capacity to lead a group of learners. For some new teachers, confidence may be in short supply, but rest assured in the knowledge that all teachers feel slightly nervous before a new class. It is normal and very human. You may feel nervous, but your students do not need to know this. As far as they are concerned, you are a hardy professional. The key is to present yourself with confidence.
It helps if you have prepared thoroughly for the lesson as this will give you some reassurance that things are likely to go to plan. It also helps to project a sense of professionalism to your students by dressing the part and arriving early to set up the classroom and greet students as they arrive. If you are lacking a sense of confidence and feeling anxious, simply fake it. By not coming across as hesitant and unsure, you are more likely to get a sense that your students have a good initial impression of you. This is something you can take to your next class and build from there. In a short time, any insecurities you may be feeling about your teaching abilities will subside, and you will find your classes becoming increasingly more rewarding. With a sense of confidence, establishing authority in the classroom becomes easier.
Creating a Balance between Friendliness and Authority
While maintaining a friendly relationship with students is required to build a positive learning environment, it should not be forgotten that the teacher has a certain responsibility to maintain an orderly, safe, and respectful classroom environment. For this to be achieved, teachers need to establish a certain level of authority. Authority is not something that is automatically bestowed upon the teacher and is something that needs to be developed and earned. Building authority is fairly straightforward and common sense. First, establish clearly defined rules and boundaries. When there is a clear and easy to understand set of academic and behavioural expectations, students are less likely to make transgressions. Get the students involved in creating a set of rules and corresponding penalties as this helps ensure more buy in and compliance. It is also important to enforce class rules with consistency and fairness.
Take time to listen and get to know your students. When students feel heard and respected, they are more inclined to act in a reciprocal manner as they will not want to disappoint someone who they respect. Also, if you are seen as open and approachable students are more likely to open up about any issues they may be experiencing in the classroom. In getting to know your students, you will build empathy for them and will be less likely to disparage them, embarrass them, or talk down to them.
A positive learning environment often stems from the teacher’s energy and demeanour. Projecting enthusiasm for a lesson or topic sets a model for students to emulate. Students are less likely to be motivated if they sense the teacher does not believe in what they are teaching. Using appropriate humour is also a good way to reduce anxiety among students and shared laughter helps bring the class together.
It is also important that you do not unconsciously undermine the authority you have worked hard to establish. Often as teachers, we may share aspects of our personal lives as a way of building bonds with our students or to even illustrate a teaching point. However, show discretion in what you decide to share as this could weaken your authority. For example, refrain from sharing anything controversial as this may impact negatively on the way certain students view you, especially if what you share relates to any prevailing cultural or societal taboos. A situation like this could also result in a teacher being disciplined by the school authorities, which if made known to students, may harm your ability to control the class.
Getting Classes off to a Good Start
Thinking about the way we begin our classes is important as the beginning stages can set clear signals about the general tone of the class and what is expected of students. It is often the case that classes do not start on time. It is very difficult for teachers to get the class underway as soon as the bell rings as students arriving late eventually disrupt the first activity. To deal with this, it may be a good idea to set the students a task that is productive and academic as soon as they arrive at their desks. This could be as simple as having students read independently until all students are present. By assigning specific tasks for students as they enter class, the teacher is establishing a routine that helps instill in the students the right mindset for successful language learning.
Activities
A language lesson is essentially a simple collection of related activities designed to meet a set of clearly defined learning outcomes. Thus, the way activities are managed is a crucial area of consideration. When setting up an activity, make the learning objectives of the task clear from the outset as this imparts a sense of purpose and provides a focal point for the lesson. In addition, it is important to preview content and highlight and examine any important or challenging language or concepts, which if followed up with some concept checking, gives you and the students confidence in completing learning tasks.
When giving instructions, use clear and precise language. Repeat or rephrase your directions if necessary as it is often the case not all students are paying attention or were able to comprehend. Take time to explain the purpose of the task and make sure your students understand. Use an appropriate tone. If you use an enthusiastic tone, this will project onto the students and contribute towards building their enthusiasm for the task. It is important to describe the specifics of the task as this gives students a clear idea of what your expectations are and what the challenges involved include. This helps learners prepare appropriately. Where possible, provide examples of the end product. Especially for complex tasks, break them down into manageable chunks. So, this might require taking the time to pause and review at various critical stages.
Dealing with Critical Moments
No matter how good your class is, there is always the chance of inappropriate behaviour raising its head. The way inappropriate behaviour is dealt with can determine how disruptive the behaviour ultimately becomes and how likely it is to be repeated. Whatever the circumstances, it is always best to remain as calm as possible. A teacher who handles inappropriate behaviour with a certain amount of grace can gain empathy from the remainder of the class who can then exert some positive peer pressure on the disruptive student. Depending on the nature of the incident, the teacher may wish to deal with the issue after class to avoid disrupting the class or the teacher can also decide to deal with it immediately in the presence of the class as a way to ensure that the behaviour is not replicated by others. As a rule, it is recommended that if you deem the incident serious, you should consult with a supervisor as they can provide advice, assistance, or inform you of any necessary school disciplinary protocols.
Monitoring
Another key element of classroom management is monitoring. Monitoring involves teachers moving around the classroom, observing how well or poorly students are progressing through a task and working with students one-on-one as required. Most successful teachers have systematic procedures for supervising and encouraging students while they work. Monitoring allows teachers to assess the progress of individuals and the class as a whole and informs what needs to be re-taught or practiced further.
There are some reasons why monitoring is a powerful classroom management tool. Firstly, it helps you to become aware of whole class dynamics. You can ascertain whether the pace of the lesson is too fast or too slow, and which students may need individual attention. This helps shift the focus from simply following the lesson plan to focusing on the needs of the learners themselves. While monitoring, teachers can listen for errors in the target language and address these immediately or in subsequent teaching. Monitoring allows teachers to intervene and address problems such as helping individuals or pairs who have clearly not grasped the aim of the task, or the language point being taught. Continual and consistent monitoring also provides a type of formative assessment for both individuals and the whole class, which becomes a good source of information for end-of-course reporting and feedback.
Monitoring also allows you to assess a task. We all know that some activities are more successful than others. Through monitoring, a teacher can evaluate the task and then decide whether to make future modifications or decide to replace it.
Monitoring can help maintain discipline as it helps ensure that learners, simply through the teacher’s presence, stay focused and on task. Also, large classes can become restless and bored when some students finish a task early. In this case, the teacher can provide some short backup activities for early finishers or could use these faster learners to assist weaker students.
Using Rewards
The use of rewards as a classroom management tool is somewhat controversial. On the positive side, reward systems make behavioural expectations clear to students and make it easy for them to conform to those expectations. Rewards can have an immediate positive impact on motivation with students showing more interest, participating more, and acting more responsibly to receive rewards. However, according to some, rewards are a form of bribery and manipulation and do not result in the more valued intrinsic form of motivation. Children, it is argued, are more focused on the reward and less so on their learning and developing good behavioural habits. However, if we shift the intention of using rewards from one that seeks to control behaviour to one that aims to provide positive feedback, rewards can help foster intrinsic motivation. For this to happen, it is important to highlight a student’s specific skills or achievement and their hard work when giving a reward. Instead of saying, “Well done! You completed the task. Now take this sticker.”, say something like, “Wow! You worked really hard, and now you are writing very clear paragraphs that always begin with a topic sentence. Here’s a little reward for your achievement.” In this way, the student becomes aware of what they did well, which helps them become a more reflective and independent learner more capable of repeating that success.
If you do decide to implement a reward system in your class, there are three simple approaches you can choose from.
A token-based system: with the individual student, set a shortlist of achievable goals which are rewarded with things like stickers or points when they are achieved.
Group points: based on a class-wide set of learning and behavioural goals, groups or tables collectively earn rewards competing against other groups or tables.
Class points: The entire class earns rewards together for meeting previously identified goals.
You can decide to use a combination of the three approaches as this ensures that all students, at some point, have a realistic opportunity of receiving a reward.
To sum up, classroom management is a fairly broad topic, and this article has discussed just some of the more important areas to consider when looking at ways to help your classes to run more smoothly and effectively. It is an area where all teachers, no matter their level of experience, can improve, and develop. Hopefully, this article has provided you with some useful tips and information which can be used as a springboard for further reading and discussion with colleagues.
Of the four main language skills, listening is perhaps the most crucial. This is because it is the skill most frequently used. Therefore, it is important to provide sufficient opportunities for students to learn and practice effective listening skills. This is especially the case for beginners, but still important for learners at all levels. This article begins by introducing a few general principles to think about when approaching the teaching of listening, it then delves into the processes required for successful comprehension and associated activity types, discusses the importance of a scaffolded approach to instruction, and ends by looking at strategies that learners can employ to develop their listening abilities and tackle various listening tasks.
General Considerations
When thinking about developing your students’ listening skills, the first place to start is to consider the way you speak to them in the classroom. Try to maintain as much of your natural way of speaking as possible, but especially for lower-level students, consider slowing the pace, simplifying your vocabulary, using shorter and simpler sentences, and using slightly more and longer pauses.
For weaker students, many listening games and activities can be used that do not require a verbal response in English. Learners can simply respond physically to instructions such as in a game of ‘Simon says…’ or complete an activity that requires them to choose a picture or an object or complete a chart.
It is important in listening activities to give students a compelling reason to listen. Creating a more authentic purpose for listening encourages active listening. This can be achieved by having students discuss the general topic of the text before listening and generating a list of questions they hope to have answered by the text. Integrating listening with other skills can also be a useful way of encouraging more active and purposeful listening. If students are aware that content within the listening text is going to be used in a subsequent writing task, students have a very immediate and real motivation to employ active listening.
Many of the listening tasks we set students in the classroom ask them to focus on the very minute details of the text. However, this type of listening does not always reflect the real-life type of listening they will need to perform outside of the classroom. The type of listening required for taking accurate notes in a lecture is very different from that required in an everyday conversation. Therefore, it is useful to give students the opportunity to practice different listening styles for different situations and tasks.
Bottom-up and Top-down Processing
As in reading, bottom-up and top-down processing play crucial roles in listening comprehension. There can be a tendency for teachers to favour activities that are more top-down focused such as comprehension questions, predicting, or listing. However, bottom-up focused activities that allow students to focus on language features such as pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary also require special attention. The value of bottom-up processing is that it helps students to comprehend a text more easily by recognising lexical and pronunciation features. For this reason, bottom-up listening activities are particularly suited to lower-level learners as it helps build their language range. With consistent exposure to bottom-up activities, students should, over time, process messages received as aural input with increased speed and accuracy.
Activity types that help improve bottom-up processing include identifying individual sounds and stressed words and syllables, distinguishing between thought groups, paying attention to grammar forms and functions, and recognising linking words and phrases.
Top-down processing relies on activating the prior knowledge and experience that students bring to the task as a way of utilising the informational input derived from bottom-up processing. To extract meaning from a text, students match what they know about the topic in terms of the context, speakers, subjects, and the wider world to the comprehensible input they receive.
Listening activity types that help improve top-down processing include listening for macro features such as the gist, central topic, and main ideas, listening for specific details, ordering key ideas, and making predictions and inferences.
Teach Listening with a Scaffolded Approach
Listening can present a particular challenge for language learners because of the linguistic and cognitive processing it requires and because unlike a reading text, students do not have the convenience of skimming and scanning through the content. Consequently, many learners, particularly weaker ones, find listening intimidating and approach listening tasks with a lack of confidence.
Therefore, to help students tackle listening tasks with more confidence, a scaffolded approach is recommended. Scaffolding is the use of a variety of instructional techniques designed to move students toward a better understanding and greater independence in the learning process. For listening, this might include exposing students initially to more simple listening texts before gradually increasing the complexity of texts as the course progresses. It may also involve the teacher describing or illustrating a concept or process in several ways to ensure understanding. Students could also be exposed, in the first few classes, to the types of listening tasks they will encounter in the course. A scaffolding technique teachers often use in lessons is to preview key or difficult vocabulary before tackling a listening task. Scaffolding should also involve teachers making the purpose of a listening activity clear, providing simple and easy-to-follow directions, and ensuring that learners are aware of the learning goals they are expected to achieve. Students should also be helped to understand how the current lesson builds on the knowledge and skills covered in previous lessons.
Every listening lesson should begin with a pre-listening stage in which students are properly prepared to engage in the task. In most cases, pre-teaching vocabulary is crucial to this stage. In addition, students should be familiarised with who is speaking and what the context of the listening is. Knowing that the text is an academic lecture will set up different expectations in the learners’ minds versus knowing that it is a telephone conversation between a customer and a travel agent.
Before the first listening, set a clear task for students to perform. For example, if listening to an academic lecture, have the students take note of any language that introduces a main idea or examples that illustrate a point. This helps students make valid predictions about the language and information they will hear and gives them a clear purpose for listening.
Simply playing an audio track one time from beginning to end does not serve students well. A better approach is to provide multiple opportunities to listen and to bring focus to particular sections or features of the text. It may be useful to, as a first listening, to play the audio all the way through from the beginning and focus on general and gist level questions. During a second listening, questions can focus on more specific details. Depending on the aim of the lesson, a follow-up could be to focus on specific sections to draw attention to language features such as keywords or the use of signposting language.
Many listening activities simply ask students to test their comprehension of specific detail in the text such as a date or a name. However, this ignores much of what else students can gather from a listening. It might be of more value to engage students in tasks that require them to pay attention to the context, or the emotions and motivations of the speaker. “What did the professor say was the most serious effect of global warming?” involves a lower level of processing than a question such as “Why did the teacher stress or emphasise the word ‘serious’? Context-related questions allow students to delve into deeper layers of meaning than standard comprehension questions allow.
Listening Strategies
English language learners who exhibit a high level of listening proficiency can be distinguished by the strategies they employ. Strategies can simply be thought of as the ways a listener approaches and manages a listening task.
Listening strategies can be classified into two simple categories. The first of these is cognitive strategies which involve understanding messages and processing associated input so that it can be stored and retrieved in memory. The second is meta-cognitive strategies which involve conscious or subconscious thinking about selecting and applying cognitive strategies. This may include evaluating the requirements of the task, monitoring how effectively one is completing the task, self-evaluating performance post-task, and self-testing to assess the effectiveness of one’s strategy use.
Teachers can provide opportunities in the classroom for students to practice and develop meta-cognitive strategies for listening. The first of these is planning. This is important as it helps students become more independent learners. Planning encourages students to set learning objectives and figure out ways to meet them. These objectives can focus on two broad areas – general listening development and specific listening tasks. General listening development objectives could be as simple as expanding topic vocabulary range or increasing exposure to different genres of listening texts. Specific learning task objectives might include previewing the topic through discussion, brainstorming, or paying attention to signposting language during a listening.
For the second meta-cognitive strategy, monitoring, teachers can provide opportunities for students to gauge their learning progress. In terms of general listening development, students can be encouraged to reflect on their progress against certain criteria such as descriptors for proficiency scales (CEFR or IELTS) or syllabus learning outcomes. Students can also be helped to set personal learning objectives against which to measure progress. Monitoring can also be employed by students during the completion of a listening task by checking their understanding while listening or trying to determine the source of a specific comprehension difficulty, which may be something like unfamiliarity with the topic vocabulary.
A final meta-cognitive strategy is evaluating the success of meeting a learning objective or completing a learning activity. For general listening development, measuring progress against specific criteria can also be used as an evaluation tool. However, where evaluation brings particular value is in having students try to assess the effectiveness of strategies employed in their learning and practice and reflecting on the appropriateness and utility of personal learning objectives. As for specific learning tasks, evaluating can be particularly useful for students to assess the success of the particular strategies used in completing a task.
In contexts where meta-cognitive strategies have been used, students tend to demonstrate real improvements in their listening ability. Through the use of meta-cognitive strategies, learners develop a clearer understanding of the requirements and demands of typical listening tasks, develop an increased sense of competence in being able to successfully complete tasks, and develop a set of strategies that allow them to cope with more challenging listening texts.
Sequencing a Lesson to Practice Meta-cognitive Strategies
An activity that incorporates many of the meta-cognitive strategies described above could have the following sequence.
Pre-listening: in groups or pairs, students brainstorm words, phrases, or key points that they might expect to be mentioned in the text.
First listening: While listening, students mark all the items generated during the brainstorming they were able to predict. They should also note any new information they hear that they think might be important for comprehending the text.
Follow-up discussion: in pairs or small groups, students discuss and compare what they have understood from an initial listening and any strategies they used to best comprehend the listening. They then note down any parts of the text which caused disagreement or confusion so that they can focus on these for the next listening.
Second listening: students listen and pay close attention to the parts where there was disagreement and confusion and revise their notes by making corrections and adding new detail that was missed the first time.
Post listening discussion: as a whole class and led by the teacher, students share the content of their notes verbally to confirm comprehension and discuss the various strategies used among the group.
As the article has shown, there are many factors to consider and approaches that can be utilised to make listening lessons more engaging and effective. Listening tasks can be very stressful and intimidating for students. However, by having a better understanding of how the comprehension process works, knowing how to make tasks more manageable, and giving students the tools to become more independent and conscientious learners, teachers can help them to alleviate these anxieties and become more self-assured and competent listeners.
For English language learners, reading in English presents a significant challenge for several reasons. Perhaps most obviously it is simply because they lack the vocabulary range required for successful comprehension and the reading process is constantly interrupted by having to look up the meanings of unfamiliar words. Even when learners can recognize most of the words in a text, they still struggle to grasp the essential message. This often results in learners associating reading with feelings of frustration and failure and as a result, their motivation to read of their own accord diminishes. This article aims to introduce teachers to some approaches that will help make reading in English less frustrating and more interesting for students and some key concepts that underpin the reading process along with some activities that help improve students’ reading skills.
Comprehensible Input
A key concept in language acquisition put forward by Stephen Krashen, a key figure in second language acquisition theory, is comprehensible input. Comprehensible input simply means texts that can be understood by a reader even if they do not understand every word or sentence on the page. Comprehensible input is ideally just a level above the learners’ current level but still able to be mostly understood. By exposing learners to texts that consist of comprehensible input, students are able to acquire language naturally, rather than learn it consciously. The reason for this more natural acquisition is that it promotes the use of strategies such as using context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary or making inferences. This can help ease the frustration learners experience when reading in a foreign language.
The teacher needs to keep in mind when providing opportunities for students to engage with reading texts that are considered comprehensible input that they have a good understanding of their learners’ actual level and can determine the level of the input text. Also, in a mixed levels class, the teacher should provide texts that cater to each of the various levels.
A Narrow Reading Approach
Krashen also promotes a narrow reading approach to help boost language development. This narrow approach involves reading several books by one author or several books on a single topic of interest. It is believed that narrow reading facilitates the acquisition of both structure and vocabulary by exposing students to new language in a comprehensible context. In other words, learners acquire new structures and words when they understand messages that they encode.
Some ways teachers can encourage students to adopt narrow reading are to not set high standards for themselves and only read materials that they find fun and engaging. These materials can include many forms such as comics, magazines, or romance novels. Through reading for pleasure rather than for self-improvement, students gain constant exposure to language that can prepare them for tackling more demanding texts. Students should not be too concerned about graduating to more serious or demanding texts within a certain time. It is better to move from one closely related topic or theme to another in a gradual manner. This allows students to exploit certain overlaps in language and context. Students should be choosing texts that require no self-discipline to read. Thus, if they find a text that is too difficult or uninteresting, they should choose a new text. Students must find what they read compelling.
Graded Readers
Graded readers can be used as an effective source of comprehensible input and provide an opportunity to engage in narrow reading. Graded readers are adapted versions of various authentic texts such as novels, films, biographies, or travel books. They are produced with particular reading levels in mind, with the complexity of the vocabulary and grammatical structures limited so that they are appropriate for the target level. Graded readers support the extensive reading approach to teaching English. As they are quite extensive in terms of genres and topics, students can access reading material that is not only level appropriate but also inherently interesting. Most textbook publishers produce a line of graded readers, so implementing an extensive reading program in your courses can be a practical way to help develop your students’ reading ability.
The most effective texts for learners to engage with and develop their reading ability are those that are highly interesting to the reader. The key idea here is that these texts provide optimal input for the learner. Input is considered optimal when the content is compelling or so interesting that the reader forgets that they are reading in a foreign language. This is similar to what many of us experience when we are so totally engrossed in a book that we are hardly conscious of the fact that we are reading from the page.
Bottom-up and Top-down Reading Approaches
To boost their reading ability, learners should be encouraged to use both bottom-up and top-down strategies to help them comprehend a text. For example, they can use their knowledge of prefixes and suffixes to help to guess the meaning of a new word which is bottom-up processing. Alternatively, by using their previous knowledge of a topic or theme, students can make predictions about the content of the text – top-down processing.
Bottom-up processing occurs when the reader attempts to understand a text by examining individual meanings of words or grammatical features of the most basic units of the text and moves gradually from these to try to gain an understanding of the complete text. In this understanding of the reading process, comprehension begins with individual words - their pronunciation, definitions, spelling, etc. From this, a reader’s focus gradually broadens to wider features of the text from collocations, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and finally to understanding the complete text. Thus, the central main idea of a text can be thought of as the total of the information in each paragraph. The comprehension of each paragraph is affected by the prior understanding of each sentence which is a result of decoding each word, and so on.
As the name suggests, top-down processing is the complete opposite approach. Rather than focusing on individual words, phrases, or sentences to aid comprehension, learners attempt to speculate the content of the text and confirm or reject their predictions as they read. With top-down processing, comprehension begins with the broader aspects of a text - the title, sub-headings, the basic idea of each paragraph, etc. Later in the process, the reader focuses on smaller language features. Because of this, top-down processing is mainly associated with the activation of the reader’s prior knowledge and understanding of the topic or theme of the text. To understand a message, the reader starts by gleaning the meaning of a paragraph or larger chunks of text and later narrows their attention to the sentences and words that make up the message. As a consequence, top-down processing enables readers to comprehend more complex texts because it activates mental representations that guide the reading process. In this way, using prior knowledge and making predictions become vital components in the comprehension process. In other words, a learner’s previous experience leads the comprehension process.
Because top-down processing takes advantage of what students are already able to bring to a reading situation, it is often seen as a more effective and efficient approach. However, there seems to be some consensus that effective reading is an interaction between both bottom-up and top-down processing. Both top-down and bottom-up processes are required for students to recognize, problem-solve, and comprehend. Without bottom-up processing, learners cannot receive and process messages. However, accurate processing is not possible without the framework of prior knowledge that top-down processing helps activate.
Bottom-Up Reading Activities
A reading activity that promotes bottom-up processing and that can be used at all levels is referencing within the text. This type of activity might ask students to underline pronouns such as ‘it’ or ‘they’ or demonstratives such as ‘this’ or ‘these’ within a text and then figure out the word to which they refer. A similar activity might involve preparing a text by deleting the conjunctions and having the students complete a gap-fill by selecting suitable conjunctions. In this activity, it is recommended to ask students to justify their choice as this requires them to establish the relationship between key ideas in the text.
Activities that are more suited for lower-level learners focus on word recognition and the spelling and phonetic features of words such as the various pronunciation of the suffix -ough.
Students at a more intermediate level could engage in activities such as identifying missing words in sentences. Students at this level can also practice activities that require them to focus on paraphrasing and varied word usage in the text.
A useful type of activity for more advanced students, particularly those using English in academic settings, involves breaking down and decoding complex sentences. This may involve identifying the verb and the object and their relationship or determining the relationship between clauses through examining the use of conjunctions. Students can also be asked to identify words and phrases that show the writer’s stance towards the ideas they are communicating. This could involve making notes of reporting verbs used in the text and interpreting them such as examining the difference in meaning between the verbs ‘claim’ and ‘demonstrate’.
Top-Down Reading Activities
Prediction is perhaps the most common of the top-down reading activities. Through making predictions, readers are being asked to anticipate the content of the text which may include key concepts or answers to certain questions. This anticipation helps readers give some order to the content and recognize its significance. Prediction can be thought of as students asking questions and having them answered through their comprehension of the text. Prediction is a key element of reading as it allows readers to employ prior knowledge of places, people, and situations, and previous reading experience to predict what they will read and therefore comprehend and enjoy it.
Another common top-down reading activity is previewing. This asks students to look at titles, headings, and pictures, and read the first few paragraphs and the last paragraph. This helps students get an initial understanding of the text by activating their prior language and content knowledge before they undertake an in-depth reading.
Semantic mapping is another useful top-down reading activity that is an effective way to pre-teach vocabulary and for the teacher to ascertain the students’ prior knowledge of the topic. Semantic mapping requires students to brainstorm on the reading topic with the ideas generated being displayed as a mind map. As students make more connections to the topic, the map should evolve into a useful summary of the concepts and vocabulary that they can expect to encounter in the text. This process can also help students extend their language and content knowledge. To ensure the success of this type of activity, teachers need to be familiar enough with their students so that they are confident that the texts being selected are both familiar and interesting.
A less common but interesting top-down reading activity is reconciled reading. This reverses the standard reading sequence of students reading the text and subsequently answering comprehension questions. With reconciled reading, the teacher adapts the end of text comprehension questions and presents them to students as pre-reading questions. By doing this, students are given the opportunity to activate prior content and language knowledge.
This article has hopefully introduced you to some useful and practical ideas that you can apply in your courses to help students become more engaged and effective readers. Reading is perhaps one of the most accessible and effective vehicles for successful language acquisition outside of the classroom. Therefore, anything teachers can do to promote an interest in reading in English among students is strongly encouraged.