I was in charge of teaching the whole class in Arlington Reads again this afternoon. I also had my 2nd teaching demo recorded during the two hours of teaching. Today, I felt very frustrated about the classroom orders. Some of the students kept on talking loudly while I was teaching on the stage. My two co-workers also talked loudly with students when I was teaching. I knew some of the students concentrated on what I taught, but I must say that the classroom orders today were the worst in my whole teaching career so far.
Actually, I have never encountered that kind of problem in my life. In Taiwan, no student dares to talk privately in the class, even 6-year-old kids. Even if I got some students doing that in my class from time to time, as long as I told them to be quiet, they didn't dare to do that anymore. If someone was especially "out of order", it was perfectly OK to ask the student to get out of the classroom in Taiwan. However, in USA, when facing the adult ESL learners who are much older than me, I found it very hard to exercise the discipline in my classroom. I tried to remind the students to pay attention to what I said, but they kept on talking privately and loudly in Spanish while others really tried very hard to concentrate. I tried to control my temper because I was just a volunteer teacher (who paid US$2,000 in advance to teach them) and all I want is just my diploma. I would like to know whether anyone of you got any good ideas about how to control those kinds of situations in USA ESL settings or other academic settings like my Chinese classroom. I need your advice because I don't know your cultural convention about that kind of situations. Tks!
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As I posted last month when Kris described a similar situation......
ReplyDelete"As for the EO (English Only) rule, it really depends on a number of factors, including the (1) age of students, (2) total number of students in the class, and (3) their level of proficiency.
In your case Kris (and now Ruby!), I think I'd try the following: Have the students stand up while doing intensive pairwork. During this time, no languages other than English can be spoken. If they continue to speak in their native languages, ask them to leave the classroom.
I think you'd only need to do this once!
Looking forward to hearing from everyone else..."
P.S. Ruby, how many people were there (in total) were there in the class that you are describing?
In Taiwan, I was able to handle classes of 65+ college juniors--but it wasn't easy!!!
Ruby,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your Arlington Reads class was like every class I ever taught in Japan!
Students constantly talked in Japanese, and there was no system for me (or the native Japanese teacher) to punish them. I'm curious, were your studetns talking to each other in English, or their native language? If it was my class and they were speaking English, I would be tempted to let them be as long as they weren't disrupting others.
If they were speaking anouther language, I would stop whatever I was doing to go to the offending students and ask, "What? What? Is it English?" and draw attention to them. I realize that it's a volunteer class, but it's not fair for other students for them to go on in another language. I agree with Clint's advice, basically!
I'm wondering why other teachers would not help you to quiet the students down? You should bring this issue up during the after-class discussions.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, you ought to know that in the U.S.A, law and order are important part of the society. I would halt teaching and explain that you need to wait until the classroom comes back in order before continuing on to the next subject. You can be firm and serious, but in a good attitude. However, may be the root cause is that some students just couldn't follow-up what you teach in the class because they are so far behind the progress.
Guys, thank you very much for all your comments which are very precious to me.
ReplyDeleteTo Clint and Sean: There were 14 students on that day.
To Wei-Fan: Yes, it's odd that they didn't help me maintain the classroom orders when Yoko was not there on that day. Basically, the students were chatting in Spanish for fun. It's not about whether they understood me or not. I was kind of disappointed. I guess after I got Green Card or even citizenship, I will be more confident to ask them to quiet down. I don't know why; it's strange to me to ask Americans to quiet down as a foreigner. Do you understand my feeling?
Thank you guys very much again!!
I came across this quote in a book titles "Understanding Learning Styles in the Second Language Classroom" edited by Joy M. Reid...
ReplyDelete"predominantly Hispanic classes in the United States often function most successfully if the students are able to communicate with one another continually (even noisily at times)and to collaborate on work (perhaps even on tests) (Dunn and Griggs 1995). And in Navajo culture, observing, reflecting, cognitive rehearsal, and understanding precede performance (Ramasamy 1996)."
Any ideas on this?
Very funny, Clint!!
ReplyDeleteI empathize with your problem. Classroom management should be a required course for education majors as it is definitely a challenge in the U.S. Teaching an unruly group is discouraging and definitely penalizes not only the teacher but the students who are really interested in learning.
ReplyDeleteDuring times when you are the only one who should be speaking, there are a couple of techniques that might work. You can use the “pregnant pause” of waiting until everyone is quiet, regardless of how long it takes. Another technique is to ask the perpetrators to share their conversations with the entire class. If none of these is successful, then I agree with the recommendation that they be asked to leave the room.
Additionally, I concur with everyone else, why didn’t the other instructors pitch in to help quiet things down? At a minimum why didn’t they lead by example of quieting down themselves? It has always been my experience in an intern/student teaching situation that the teacher pitches in to help because he/she recognizes how difficult it is to maintain control.
Yes, I have had some similar kind of experience, but back home in Pakistan, when the language school I was working for decided to start a 'conversation club' which would be kind of an additional class for the ESL students(and an additional income for the school) and the worst part of it was that in the name of 'mixed ability' group students from all levels (1-6) could be part of it, sometimes the number of students would even cross 40 or 45, plus all that attitude between boys and girls.
ReplyDeleteTo cut short what I tried was to change students seats and instead of leaving a group of friends in one spot, spread them all over class and specially mix up or pair a serioius and non serious student togather, to discourage the noisy and disturbing students sitting in a group.
Another thing if you are doing any activity or exercise do not proceed from one student to another in a sequence so that each student knows when his turn is, rather do it randomly, picking any student any time from anywher in the class, this way all the students will be attentive as anyone may be next and they will not be able to engage in any disturbing activities.
And finally needless to say as most of us are already experienced teachers keep the lesson and class engaging and yourself mobile in the class this way students always expect that thier teacher would be sitting or walking next to them anytime.
By the way, I forgot to mention that after a couple of months as an incharge of conversation club, I divided that mixed ability group into three, level one and two, three and four and five and six,which was a relief(and ofcourse fair) for the advanced,intermediate and elementary students and ofcouse for the instructor conducting the class.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comments and again would like to state that as the teacher it would not be inappropriate for you to ask students kindly to either pay attention or talk somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteHowever, especially considering the quote Clint left and the fact that the hispanic culture is different, maybe you and your students would benefit from opening the class with 5 minutes of talking. Let them talk to each other, talk with them, ask them questions. Maybe letting them get it out of their system might help them stay more focused during the lesson. (I know this works with my junior highers so it might work with a bunch of talkative adults.) You could explain that there is a time to talk and a time to listen and that you will provide them with times to talk if they will quietly listen while you teach. Maybe they just need to learn the boundaries and limits in English-speaking classrooms.
As Clint pointed out, I have had the same kind of trouble. It is something I have struggled with, especially since it is a volunteer situation and student retention is important. Another teacher who has been doing this for a long time, pointed out it was a good class precisely because the class has become friends outside of class also. Also, the class has made a lot of progress and coming to class is an important component of that progress. If they aren’t talking in Spanish and becoming friends I am not sure they will want to keep coming and there are affective filter considerations. I think I have made some progress with my class with subtle improvements. That is, not cold turkey, only Speak English. But introducing sections when I am clear in requesting to “try only English on this” and “try not to look at the textbook on this”. It has seemed to be well received so far. I like the suggestion Clint made about standing to do an activity. I read in an article in Japan that standing right at the door and actively greeting/introducing at the door makes a difference also (although I have never tried this).
ReplyDelete