Classroom Management for Teaching English as a Foreign Language - Giving Individual Attention
Our next main issue is going to be that of giving students individual attention. Here many classroom management and leaving potential discipline problems can be avoided by applying some simple rules to giving your students attention. The first one is to think about the way in which you ask questions. Don't ask questions in a predictable order. If you just go around the class asking questions from one person to the next then the person at the end of the class will know that it's going to be some time before you actually get to them. So try to mix up the way in which you're asking questions. In terms of answers to questions don't allow individual students to dominate all of the answers. One of the things that we can do to help this particular issue is to use the students names as mentioned before but remember, put those names at the end of the question. One of the things we need to do as the teacher is try to keep and note in our mind of who has actually answered various questions, so that we can be as inclusive as possible. However, one point that we should put on the end of this is that we try to include everyone to give us answers when they can but if they can't then don't force students to answer. This is particularly important in countries where actually giving a wrong answer could cause that person to lose face so don't force your students to answer it if they're not sure.
Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.
A teacher can use eyes,voice and gestures to manage the clas.
He/She can use eyes to hold attention, dissuade or give encouragement when something is correc.
He/she can use the tone to give instructions or informatio.
Gestures can be used to add to/convey meaning, add visual interest, reduce Teacher talking time or increase/decrease pace of the clas.
The class activities can be arranged broadly in 3 ways:group activity, individual activity or pair work.
Group activity provides a sense of belonging, good interaction with other students and good classroom contro.
But, it can reduce student talk time, difficult to manage activities and can put off shy student.
Individual activity is helpful in responding to individual students without disturbing other.
It also allows students to be self-relian.
It has its own disadvantages, such as, no/less student to student interaction and more pressure to produce their answer.
Pair work helps in increasing student talk time and provides safer environment for the students, but it can also create problems if the pair of the student don't go along wel.
Names can be used to acknowledge, indicate who should respond, help in organizing the class and can be used to ask the question to a specific student, but the name should be said at the end of the question so that it gives other students the time to thin.
Classroom can be arranged according to the students age, personalities, nationality, actual physical space availability and the material availabl.
The teacher can arrange the seating in Rows,Horseshoe/semi circle or individual des.
The teacher have good access to the entire room if the rows are arranged properl.
The students can see the teacher clearly and teacher is in dominating positio.
It gives a very formal feel to the students and sometimes it's very difficult to arrange group activitie.
A horseshoe/semi circle seating arrangement helps teachers to arrange pair work very easil.
The teacher appears to be less dominan.
It is disadvantageous because if the teacher enters the semi circle, the students are not able to watch and learn properl.
Individual desks is helpful in giving individual attention to students without disturbing other student.
It is helpful especially while giving lecture.
This arrangement reduces student to student interactio.
It is also difficult to maintain eye contact with all the student.
The teacher can encounter difficulties while writing on the board, giving instructions, building and maintaining rapport or maintaining discipline in the classroo.
The teacher should reduce Teacher talking time to minimu.
They should respond to the problem behaviors by keeping the instructions simple,using the non-verbal techniques first, should never shout, always be calm, engage students by personalizing, use humour wherever possibl.
