International TEFL InstituteSeating, Communication & Control in the Classroom
Most seating arrangements designed for the TEFL classroom have two clear objectives – to help support communication and to help the teacher maintain control.
Objective 1- supporting communication
At the end of the day, we learn a language to be able to communicate in that language. Whether that is by reading, writing, speaking or listening, it still comes down to giving and receiving information.
In our classrooms, we teach new words and grammar but also, just as importantly, we want our students to practise their language skills so we set up our classroom to help support that. We need our students to be able to have eye contact with each other and the teacher.
Objective 2 – maintaining control
In any normal classroom maintaining control is important, but in a TEFL classroom, we often have the added difficulty that many of our exercises are communication exercises, which means giving away a little of the control to the students. To help manage such situations, it is easier for the teacher if they have set up the lesson where they are able to keep visual contact on the class so that they can quickly see any problems and be able to gain control back easily.
It is especially important to new teachers because, with so many new things to try and think about and all at the same time, having to fight to keep control or even get it back is one less stress we could do without. So with the classroom seating set up in the right way, you are just making your life easier!
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