Teach English in Yipin Jiedao - Chongqing

Establishing RapportIt is a comfortable and functioning relationship between the teacher and the students of a class that facilitates an optimal learning atmosphere. Therefore establishing a good rapport with the students, as well as a good rapport of the students among themselves, is an absolute necessity if an instructor desires to have a learning environment that makes the students feel comfortable, reduces anxiety, and promotes active participation and motivation. This can be achieved through a variety of methods, and I will discuss some of these methods and how precisely they can positively influence the learning environment. The first thing that a teacher should do at the beginning of a new course is to break the ice with the students, put them at ease, and make an effort to get to know them. The students are going to feel much more comfortable and willing to participate in a class where they believe the teacher is making an effort to get to know them, and doesn?t appear so cold and distant. Learning the students? names, as well as getting them to learn about each other is critical in the first few days of the class, because if they don?t start establishing this relationship in the very beginning, then it?s likely that they will never develop this, or it will be something that is harder to change later on. This can be achieved through a variety of engaging games or activities such as ?ball tossing? where a student who makes the catch must say their name and something important about themselves before tossing the ball to a different student. Another activity idea is having the students say their name and something about themselves while sitting in a circle formation. Each student answering must say their own name and important fact, as well as repeat the answers of all the previous students before them. Of course the instructor would participate in these activities as well, because the student to teacher rapport is just as important or more than the student to student rapport, and it is also good practice for the teacher to begin learning their names which will be essential to memorize as quickly as possible. These are just two ideas, but the options are only as limited as the creativity, experience, and resources of the instructor. Once the rapport has been established during the first few classes, it will be necessary to maintain it for the rest of the course. Essentially what the instructor must keep in mind is that during every lesson, they must constantly be observing the students? and use their activity, expressions, and willingness to participate as feedback. They should be aware of various external stresses in the students? lives, and it would be unwise to ignore these. For example, if the pet dog of one of the students died the day before, the teacher should be aware of this, and they should show sympathy and concern. If the student shows signs of being reserved and inactive after a few classes, the teacher will have to change their approach to this student to re engage them. The solution to this may be as simple as just sitting with this student outside of class and listening to them. Often times people feel much better after they have the chance to talk to someone about their problem and then they will be more or less back to normal. The scenario in contrast to this, in a class setting where a good rapport is absent, the teacher may not even be aware of this problem in the student?s life, or if they are aware, they show no emotion and no change of attitude toward the student, and the student remains reserved and loses interest in continuing to learn. There are a myriad of things that will affect the classroom dynamics and how establishing this rapport will play out such as cultural differences, age, class size, and the like, but this is where the teacher will benefit from experience and consulting others such as colleagues, in order to gauge each class separately and learn which approaches work best under what conditions. With this in mind, the instructor must be flexible, and pay close attention to the feedback (often times non-verbal) that they receive from the students, adjusting their approach when necessary.