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COMMON PROBLEM SITUATIONS: FIRST LESSONS: Teacher faced with meeting new classes for first time. These vital for teacher to establish rapport with students & set tone. Two Categories: ?New group ? Students don?t know each other. Work needed to establish report between class members. Students unfamiliar with EFL methodology ?Existing Group ? Students already know/comfortable with each other & EFL teaching. Experienced teacher use activities that will achieve following: ?Establish report between students & between teacher & class ?Find out about the students. Allow teacher to, plan future lessons to cater to students interests. ?Find out about students? needs/aspirations with English. Enables teacher to tailor course to meet needs of class. ?Find out the English level of individual class members. Areas of difficulty with language can be built into course syllabus. Number of activities teacher can use for this purpose: ?Questions/Survey ?teacher can let students interview each other using pre-set questionnaire & then feed back to class. Allows students to get to know each other. Teacher also learns about student?s level of ability in English language. ??Tell us about? ? Board game in keep talking (Friederike Klippel) Students roll dice & move counter to corresponding square & tell class about topic in square. ?Pass the ball game ? teacher tosses ball to one of students& asks him/her question. Student answers question & tosses it to another student & asks that student question etc. Good idea for teacher to take part ? students finds out information about teacher & establishes rapport. ?Needs Analysis - Discussed unit 19 in relation to individual students & business English. WARMERS: Short, fun communicative activities to get students motivated using English. Typical Warmers: ?Hangman ?Pictionary ?Tongue twisters ?Memory Games etc. Important to make them fun & short. Set students mood for English. Useful if can be linked to Study Phase of lesson. DIFFERENT LEVELS: Problem when students at varying levels. If school has competence entrance level testing this usually is reduced but not prevented. Some students learn more quickly than others in classes started at same level & gaps start to appear. Ways for teacher to deal with this: ?Use different materials. ?Same material, different tasks ?Don?t do anything ?Pair stronger students with weaker ones LARGE CLASSES: Classroom control a problem. Difficult to involve al student?s equally. Techniques teacher use: ?Use Worksheets ?Pair/Group Work ?Clarity ?Choral Repetition ?Appoint Group Leaders ?Dynamics Some groups can be 30-100 students USE OF NATIVE TONGUE: Can be problematic in monolingual classes. This not ?malicious? just wanting to communicate something unable to express in English or wanting to explain something to help other student. Teachers job to have students practice & improve English language skills. Things teacher can do: ?Make sure activities used at appropriate level & that students have necessary language to cope. ?Make sure explanations are clear to all class members. Shouldn?t need to clarify in native language. ?Encourage use of English where appropriate. Not mean total ban on their language but for them to only use when necessary & never in speaking activity. ?Only respond to English. If students speak to you in in own language don?t respond. Students need to get used to trying to express themselves ? thoughts & ideas - in English even if isn?t grammatically perfect. ?Constantly remind the students. Over period of time teacher can use encouragement/cajoling/reminding to get students used to English in classroom. RELUCTANT STUDENTS: Some time or another teacher come s across students who don?t seem to want to talk/participate in class. For some it may be cultural, for others intimidation or confidence issues. In Productive Skills Unit 12, we looked at ways of encouraging students to speak. Here are some useful ideas: Use plenty of pair work This allows students to practice in safe environment with support of fellow students before having to contribute in open class discussion/feedback. Use controlled Practice. Ensure students are able to produce language in controlled way before expecting them to be able to produce it fluently. Use role-play. Some find it more comfortable to communicate when they are acting as somebody else than being themselves. Use tape recorder. Ask students to record what they would like to say outside the lesson. Allows students to express themselves in less threatening atmosphere. Teacher can listen to recording & point out errors. DIFFICULTIES WITH LISTENING TEXTS: Common problem to students of every nationality. As result many teachers avoid using cassettes. This is not acceptable as teacher must work with the students to improve their listening skills. Refer back to Receptive Skills Unit 11 for further tips on dealing with problem. Make sure it is a problem with listening & not just poor quality of tape or volume being too low. Etc. Another common problem is when one or two students have finished tasks, while others may be only halfway through. Do we go at quickest speed? The slowest? Teachers must use ?common sense? view that we should carry out a lesson at pace of majority of class. If we keep selection of extra activities/materials we can make sure faster students have something to do & don?t become bored. Also you can plan activities for same materials & if students finish early they can do extra work on it. Word searches are convenient & popular.
