Chapter 5
EFL Classroom
Management
Definition
Classroom management refers to the ways in
which student behavior, movement and
interaction during a lesson are organized and
controlled by the teacher (Richards, 1990).
• It includes many elements that should be put
in mind when working inside the class
• Some of these ideas are dealt with in the
following slides.
1. Discipline
• It means to maintain order and to keep the group on
task and moving ahead, not to spot and punish
those students who are misbehaving. (Greenwood
and Parkay, 1989)
• The good teachers anticipate when misbehaviors
are likely to occur and intervene early to prevent
them.
• Ignoring and commenting.
• Punish in a constructive way.
• Don’t insult or call students by bad adjectives.
2. Class rules
• At the beginning of the school year, establish
the class rules.
• Discuss Classroom rules with the students and
consequences of misbehavior.
• Write them on a paper to be stuck on the
walls.
• The rules apply to everybody even yourself.
• Punish those who disobey the rules.
3. Giving instructions
• It is better to make your instructions for
students precise and concise.
• Compliment leadership in students to
motivate students.
• Use the target language to create an English
speaking environment.
4. Students‘ Names
• Students like being called by their names. (personalize)
• Create a friendly atmosphere.
• Use name tags.
• Create a list of names to remember them.
• Convey confidence in students‘ ability to do well and
maintain high expectations.
• Use names to maintain order or discipline.
5. Teacher talk & drawing attention
• Don't speak when students aren't listening
and ready.
• Wait until they all get silent and you have their
full attention.
• Establish a signal for getting the group's
attention, e.g. clap a pattern with your hands.
6. Arranging the class activities
There are four ways of arranging the class work:
• whole class
• Individual
• Pair work.
• Group work
* ability and mixed ability groups.
* small and large groups.
* homogeneous and heterogeneous groups.
* collaborative and cooperative groups.
Student Student
5 1
Student Student
5 1
Student Student
4 2
Student Student
Student 4 2
3
Student
Collaborative group 3
Cooperative group
7. Students‘ seating
• The way the students are seated in the classroom will
often determine the dynamics of the lesson.
• A simple change in the seating pattern can make an
incredible difference to group coherence and student
satisfaction.
• The seating has been a crucial element in the success
or failure of the lesson.
• Relate the seating arrangement to the activity used.
• Make sure students are seated at a comfortable
distance from each other.
• Think in advance about how you will organize
changing partners or changing groups.
Seating arrangements
8. Setting time limits
• set time to each activity when you plan the lesson
so that you would know if you would be able to
achieve the objectives or not.
• tell the students about the time assigned for each
activity when you give them a task to do in class.
• students should gradually be aware of the
importance of the time issue and respect it.
9. Tasks for early finishers
• This happens when students finish an
assignment while other students are still
working on it.
• an early finisher activity should be designed for
every assignment.
• Think in advance for possible activities,
including extension activities related to the
current topic, journal writing, silent reading,
and educational games
10. feedback
• A group of oral or written comments given by a
person to another about his/her performance
in order to enhance it.
• It can be given by:
T S
S S inside or outside the class
T T
T P
P T
S T
11. Using whiteboard
• Make sure students easily see the board.
• Have your lesson objectives clear for the
students. Write them on the board to allow
students to know what they are supposed to
learn.
• Handwriting.
• Colours.
• Organization.
• Summary.
• Posture.
• Reading/talking while writing.
12. A teaching persona
• Appearance.
• Personality.
• Posture.
• Body language.
• Voice.
• Facial expressions.
• Eye contact.
Fake it till you make it
13. Appropriate sequencing of activities
• give some thought to the sequencing of activities.
Think about the time of day your lessons are taking
place.
• Consider sequencing within the structure of your own
lessons, too. For example, it may not be the wisest
choice to schedule high paced games prior to
instructing the class to undertake a piece of extended
writing.
• Easy to hard, simple to complicated.
14. Smooth transitions
• To maximize teaching time, it is crucial that we find
effective strategies to transition between the distinct
parts of a lesson.
• Clumsy transitions can lead students to become
distracted and open up possibilities for misbehavior.
• This can be especially problematic in an ESL
classroom, where communication may already be
difficult.
15. Asking questions
• Variant types and levels of questions
• Distributed attention.
• Wait time.
• Reinforcement.
• Mistakes correction.
16. Employment of your students‘ mother
tongue
• Mixing languages.
• A student‘s mother tongue can be a very
effective classroom management tool.
17. Autonomy
• Self directed learner
• Activities
• Future implementation
18. A wider support network
• Every school will have its own school culture.
• Check to see whether your school has a whole-school
behavior policy.
• When possible, cultivate good working relationships with
your colleagues. They can often offer invaluable advice and
support.
• Parents can be helpful, too. It is important to approach all
discipline issues with the aim of maximizing learning for
each student.
Do not be like that
