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Managing a TEFL Class

Managing a TEFL Class

International TEFL InstituteDecember 5, 2016September 30, 2021 Classroom Management & TEFL Techniques, , , , , , ,

Managing a TEFL Class – Physical Environment, Rapport, Sense of Belonging 

Managing a TEFL Class – the TEFL teacher’s job is to create a productive learning atmosphere and to know the subject matter.

Vital in doing a good job are:

1. Planning i.e. Thinking out how you will manage the class as well as researching what you are teaching.

2. Sensitivity to what is happening in the classroom

Successful classroom management involves consideration of the physical environment, rapport with the students and the student’s individual sense of belonging to a group and their sense of progress. Asking oneself pertinent questions at the planning stage will enable a teacher to create a conducive learning environment.

The Physical Environment

1. Seating

  • How do you want the students to sit?
  • What choices are open to you?
  • What may influence your decision?
  • Are you going to give the students a chance to move around in your lesson? Why? Why not?
  • Where are you going to place yourself?
  • Are you going to stand, sit, kneel?
  • With the students? Apart from the students?
  • How will this affect the atmosphere of the room?

2. Voice Projection

  • How loudly are you going to speak? Why?
  • How important is it that the students hear and understand one another?
  • How can you ensure this?

3. Whiteboard

  • Can all students see the whiteboard?
  • Do they need to in your lesson?

Student-teacher Rapport

1. Physical Position

  • Where will you be?
  • How does distance and position (i.e. sitting and standing) affect your relationship with the students?

2. Eye Contact

  • How will the seating arrangements affect the ease of eye contact?
  • What must you guard against?

3. Using Student’s Names

  • How can you remember all the names quickly? This is important.
  • What should you do/ not do if you forget a name?
  • Do not nominate a student before you ask a question.

4. Personal Involvement and Enjoyment

  • Seeming personally involved and genuinely interested in what the students are saying not just how.

5. Self Confidence

  • Make positive comments and give reassurance.
  • How do you feel if something you think you have done well is not acknowledged?

6. Physical Position

  • If you are confident in yourself as a teacher and in what you are teaching then the students will trust you.
  • What gives you more self-confidence? (Think of planning etc.)

7. Clarity

  • How can you make your instructions/ explanations very clear so that students can understand what is expected of them?
  • How can you be sure that students have understood?
  • ‘Do you understand’ is not a good check of understanding.

Student’s Individual Sense of Belonging to a Group

1. Teacher involving all equally

  • What can you do to involve everyone equally in the class?
  • Have you ever felt left out of a class? Why?

2. Expressing their own Personalities

  • What aspects of your character, experience and opinions would you want to share with a group – initially? – with time and familiarity?
  • What would you never want to express?
  • How would you feel if you were never given a chance to express yourself personally?

3. Constitution of Groups in the Class

  • How can you prevent students from always sitting in the same seat?
  • What ways can you think of re-organising the group at the start of the class and for particular activities?

Student’s Sense of Progress

1. Knowing what they are going to do and why they are going to do it

  • Tell them your major aims at the beginning of the lesson, e.g. We are going to revise some grammar.

2. Timing

  • How long should each activity last?
  • How can you judge, before and during, how long it will last?

3. Correction

  • How important is it that students are made aware of their mistakes?
  • Do they expect to be corrected?
  • Is correction ever counterproductive?

4. Record of the Lesson