Welcome back!
As promised, this post will
be about solutions to anticipated problems in the English language classroom in
relation to:
·
topic/theme/context
·
classroom management / learners / resources
More posts will follow on suggested solutions to anticipated problems related to other areas of teaching, e.g. reading/listening, grammar, speaking, etc.
You must remember that the two lists below are not exhaustive, and each
solution can and should be adapted to the learners’ needs and, obviously, your own teaching
context.
The solutions in these two tables below
are pro-active; in other words, they
are part of your lesson planning and preparation. However, there are solutions
that cannot be prepared beforehand;
this is simply because there are problems that cannot be foreseen. But, that’s
expected! (excuse the pun)
NOTE: If you have any specific anticipated problems
in mind which have not been listed below and you have not been able to solve so
far, feel free to leave your comment and I’ll do my best to help!
So, without further ado...
Problems & Solutions related to the theme/topic
|
Problem
|
Solution(s)
|
|
It is not interesting to the learners.
|
· If you cannot change/skip the text/unit, add
some sort of authentic material, e.g. a
short video, a short newspaper article, etc to give it an interesting
twist.
|
|
The learners do not know much/anything about it.
|
· Build on the learners’ knowledge by giving
them the information they need to deal with the tasks in the lesson; again,
this could be done through short exercises based on topic-related texts,
videos, news stories, etc followed by interesting discussion activities
|
|
It is outdated.
|
· Change the parts which are outdated replacing
them with something current, e.g.
different visuals, etc
· Create activities for the learners to
practise their speaking by talking about how this outdated topic is different
presently, whether this change has been good or not, etc.
|
Problems & Solutions related to class management / the students /
resources
|
Problem
|
Solution(s)
|
|
There are disruptive students.
|
· Give these learners a goal/responsibility, e.g. the ‘group secretary’ responsible for
reporting to the rest of the class, collecting answers from the rest of the
groups, etc.
|
|
There are shy students.
|
· Ask these learners to work in groups/pairs so
that they have a chance to participate with their peers rather than with the
teacher.
|
|
The instructions to an activity are complicated /
long / confusing.
|
· Break the instructions down into meaningful
chunks by eliciting rather than telling
· Break the activity down into different parts,
i.e. first writing a set of questions and, then, participating in an
interview using these questions.
· Ask simple questions to check the learners
are following and have understood
· Demonstrate what the learners need to do
· Give examples
|
|
Classroom equipment, e.g. IWb, laptop, speakers, etc
might not work.
|
· Arrive earlier to double-check everything
works
· Have print-outs and additional handouts to
give the learners, e.g. the slides you were planning to show during the
lesson
· Have a copy of the transcript of the
listening text you would be using so that you can read it out loud yourself
|
|
Odd number of learners
|
· Avoid participating in the activity as a
student; instead, prepare more role-cards to facilitate a group of 3, or
· If you have a pairwork activity of Students A
and B, create a group of 3 so that 1 learner can be A and 2 students can be B
in that group.
|
|
Lack of a homogenous group in terms of level, e.g.
very strong students for the level and very weak students for the level in
the same group
|
· Vary the kinds of practice activities; for example,
give weaker learners more prompts in speaking/writing tasks.
· Vary your feedback and correction, e.g. give
more information to weaker learners, less info to stronger ones.
· In speaking/writing tasks, pair weaker
students with stronger ones so that they can help one another
|
great thanks
ReplyDeleteVery helpful.Thanks
ReplyDelete