Classroom management - overcoming the challenges

EFL students need lots of practice using English, especially orally. Get them speaking in
the classroom, but also teach them where to find opportunities to practice speaking English
outside of class, and reward them for doing so. They can also use exposure to living English.
Never lead your students to believe that English is a set of rules and words to memorize. It is the
living, breathing creation of cultures and communities around the world. Do whatever you can to
reveal this depth.  Pen pals, non-traditional teaching materials and field trips are great ways to
make English come alive for your students. And another thing they cannot possibly do without is
a reason to learn English, and motivation to stick with it. English can be very theoretical when
you’re growing up in a village in Romania. Find out about each student’s other passions and tie
English into them. There are so many English communities online and off that it’s possible to
find a tie-in for almost any other area of interest. Social networks are powerful tools.
Classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers
use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. It
boils down to having a structured learning environment with clear rules that promote learning as
well as consequences that diminish or eliminate behaviors that get in the way of learning. This
can look different depending on which subject and age group you teach, how many students you
have, and most importantly, your core personality. What works for a highly organized, routine-
loving teacher may not work for a more laid back, roll-with-the-punches kind of teacher.
Of course, the ultimate goal for any teacher is an academically productive classroom with
focused, attentive, and on-task students. Unfortunately, any teacher can tell you this is way harder
than it sounds and usually takes years to accomplish. Even for teachers who consider themselves
relatively skilled managers, things often change depending on the new mix of students they teach
every year. So really, being skilled at management is an ongoing process, part of the lifelong
learning that makes teaching so interesting.
The bottom line is this: effective classroom management is an absolute must. It impacts
your ability to be an effective educator and enjoy your job, and it impacts your students’ success
as learners. If your classroom is out of control, it won’t matter how passionate you are about your
subject or how much you are truly dedicated to children, learning will be negatively impacted.
The perfect classroom is learner-centered, a place where students develop the
communication skills that will enable them to become increasingly more autonomous and less
dependent on the teacher. It has six to eight well-behaved students sitting around one big, long
table in a bright room with plenty of space for them to walk around in. But EFL classrooms are
not perfect. Instead of dreaming about the kind of classroom we’d love to have, let’s focus on the
one we do have and how to make it truly learner-centered. Here are some of the classroom
challenges you’ll likely face and some possible ways of overcoming them.
Seating Arrangement
The first day of school, you walk into your classroom and see three to four long rows of
desks. This may be a classic classroom seating arrangement, but it’s the worst kind to have for
EFL classes. EFL activities center on interactions between pairs and groups of students. If
possible, move the desks to form a circle or semicircle. Or group them together in clusters of
three to four desks. Make sure students who are working together in pairs or groups are facing
each other.
Time Constraints
You may have plenty of ideas for amazing, engaging activities, but you must make sure
you have plenty of time to carry them out. Do you have an hour and a half with your students? Or
40 minutes? Does it make sense to start a game you know you won’t have time to finish?
Consider first how much time you have for each class. Next, consider the goal, or what you hope
your students will have achieved by the end of the class. Plan activities that will help them
achieve this goal, but try to envision a time limit for each. If you’re planning a drilling session
you might not want to take more than five minutes for it. Also, you might want to consider giving
your class a time limit (you have 10 minutes for this discussion). But it’s also important to be
flexible. If your class is having a very productive discussion, you might want to give them a few
more minutes to wrap it up instead of ending it abruptly.
High Noise Levels
Young learners are notorious for being particularly rambunctious and loud, but a big class
of adult learners talking at the same time can also send the noise level through the roof. How can
you manage the noise levels when you have students working together in smaller groups? Here’s
where the seating arrangement comes in. Have students form small clusters with their desks
where they’re all facing each other. Encourage them to speak softly. Or have groups scattered
throughout the classroom in small clusters on the floor.
 Personality Clashes
EFL students come in different shapes and sizes, and may be very different personality-
wise. There is always the eager beaver, raising his/her hand and trying to answer every question.
Then there’s the quiet one who sits at the back and doesn’t say a thing unless you ask him/her a
direct question. But what happens when you divide your class into smaller groups or pairs? The
eager beavers will dominate the conversation with their enthusiasm, opinions and thoughts, while
the shy ones will simply sit back and let them. Put the eager beavers all in one group and allow
them to compete to dominate the conversation. Give shy students the chance to work with
different partners. Assign special roles to the eager beavers; they can be "helpers" or "facilitators"
with each group. Teach them expressions like, “That’s interesting. Why do you think that?” and
encourage them to get answers from their classmates instead of always providing them
themselves.

Different Levels
In an ideal EFL classroom, all students are on the same level. But we all know that this is
not necessarily so. Student placement is not an exact science, and more often than not, we have
students who are a bit more advanced or some that are behind their classmates. If you slow down,
the stronger students may get bored, but if you quicken the pace, your weakest students may not
be able to follow along. There is no exact science to managing students of different levels, either,
but you need to be aware of what each student's strengths and weaknesses are. Even your less
fluent student is better at something, like listening, for example. Divide the class based on these
strengths and weaknesses. In some cases, you'll want to have stronger students modeling the right
answers for the weaker ones. In other cases, it's better to have students with similar levels
together in the same group.

Class Size
The larger the class, the less each student gets to make individual contributions. So, if you
like to have drilling sessions, you must realize that each student may get to answer only once, if
at all. That’s not a whole lot of talking time for someone who needs to work on their English
communication skills. By dividing the class into groups, you increase each student’s talking time
exponentially.
 Monolingual Classes
Classrooms in which all of the students speak the same mother tongue pose a
special challenge. They tend to speak more of their native language amongst themselves
and less English. Some EFL teachers might not agree, but an efficient way to handle
monolingual classes is by enforcing the “English only” rule. The challenge is particularly
difficult if you have lots of smaller groups, and you are certain they are not speaking
English all the time. Some creative ways to handle this is offering incentives or rewards,
or using gamification as a way of helping them achieve their goal of speaking as much
English as they can.

EFL teachers face challenges on a daily basis. And each group of students brings its own
distinct set of characteristics. Accepting these challenges and meeting them head on is the first
step. The second step is finding a creative solution that will help your students develop the skills
they need to succeed.

Bibliography

Mulvahill, Elizabeth, 2018 https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-classroom-management

Oxford University Press, 2011 https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/07/12/how-esl-and-efl-

classrooms-differ

Pesce, Claudia, 2020 https://busyteacher.org/21386-7-classroom-management-challenges.html

Spencer, Bethany, 2018 https://blog.teamsatchel.com/the-impact-of-effective-classroom-

management