Teach English in HongwAnsi Zhen - Zhangye Shi

Unit five spoke about the importance of classroom management. It explains the use of eye contact, gestures and voice in the classroom. Some ways of using eyes contact includes but not limited to checking to ensuring that everyone is participation in class, to indicate if someone is correct or incorrect and to indicate whose turn it is to speaker. Gestures reduces the need for verbal explanation, it is used to convey the meaning of the language and to manage the class. Gestures should only be used if there meanings are clear. Teachers need to be diverse when it comes on to their voice. The greater the variation of their voice, the greater its effectiveness. I leant that when using a student?s name to call on a particular person to answer a question, their names should be used as the end of the question, I thought this was quite interesting because it does keep the class alert. There are different ways of grouping students and each has pros and cons; Whole class grouping allows students to experience teamwork and create a sense of belonging, it also helps teachers to control the attention of the class, however this method can reduce opportunities for students to speak and may be intimidating for shy students. On one hand students working on their own increases teacher student interaction while on the other hand it reduces interaction between the students themselves. Another form of grouping is pair work, this allows more advanced students to help the slower students and is quick and easy to organize, however student may not like to interact with certain students or would much prefer to interact only with the teacher. Group work encourages student to student talking time, encourages students to cooperate and negotiate in English, however, in this case, dominant students may override the ideas and participation of the other students and can take much longer to organize and get started. This unit also discussed classroom arrangements, there are different ways to organize a classroom, such as, ?orderly rows? which is the most common style of classroom organization, ?circles and horseshoes? this is more effective with smaller groups and this allows students to have better eye contact with their fellow classmates. ?Separate table?, this is more informal and teachers will not be able to keep eye contact with everyone which may create disciplinary issues. The teachers? position also affects the learning process, if the teacher is standing, she will be able to see the entire classroom clearly especially is he or she is walking around the class. While sitting is more intimate and teachers have all the materials at hand. When writing on the board, there is no way to avoid turning your back to the students but one way to avoid this is by preparing the board before class. It is important to know every students? name and give them equal attention. When giving instructions it is important to use simple language, be consistent, use visual clues and checking the instructions to ensure that students understand. It is important to ensure that the teaching atmosphere is comfortable for learning, teachers can ensure this by being positive in what they do, not letting individual students dominate the class and by providing equal opportunities for each student and personalizing activities surrounding the students interest. When maintaining discipline in the classroom teachers needs to be consistent and fair, never lose their temper and always respect their students.