FL Classroom Management: Grouping, Space, Time, Methods
Variables in FL Classroom Management
Introduction
Nowadays, the main aim of foreign language teaching is developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on communication: the communicative approach. This consists of providing students with enough communicative practice to develop their ability to use the language in a variety of situations, which is the aim of the current educational law. The English teacher must ensure that the activities they organize aim at the students’ communicative competence. Knowledge of classroom management is essential to seek this success in language learning.
Student Grouping
The use of varied groupings in the English class will palliate the unfavorable conditions of the classroom and will improve our students’ communicative strategies. We will consider the following groupings:
Whole Class
The whole class is the traditional teaching situation in which all students work with the teacher. This is useful in the presentation and imitation stages when giving instructions, explanations, feedback, and so on. The teacher can easily monitor the students’ performance. Lockstep encourages the shyest students to speak.
Pair and Group Work
These groupings encourage pupil cooperation and learning autonomy. It is useful in the practice and production stages because it allows students to talk about their opinions, ideas, and interests.
Pair Work
This is similar to real life because of the face-to-face situation. This technique increases self-confidence because students feel more relaxed when speaking with a partner, thus achieving greater fluency. It improves personal relationships when they share their knowledge and experiences. Children have more practice because they spend more time speaking than if they had to speak one by one.
Problems: Noise, loss of time during organization, the impossibility of correcting all pairs, and the risk of students using their mother tongue.
Group Work
There are three or more participants involved in an activity. It is ideal for activities of freer production. Fluency is developed with this type of grouping. It increases the amount of student talking time. It gives students the sense of using the language communicatively. It increases self-confidence in the use of language, and it is very dynamic.
Disadvantage: The selection of group members, which should ideally mix weaker and stronger students together.
Group work can be used for:
- Oral practice
- Reading and listening tasks
- Cooperative writing
- Games
Organizing Pair and Group Work
To organize pair and group work, the teacher must explain to their students that the purpose of these techniques is to become more accurate and fluent in English. The teacher should give clear instructions and tell the students how they are expected to behave. They should demonstrate the speaking activity with a confident student. The teacher needs to have an agreed signal to start and end the activity. At the end of the activity, the teacher asks two groups to demonstrate what they have practiced. Then, they correct and give feedback to the pupils.
Individual Study
This is useful in tasks that require concentration and silence, such as reading and writing tasks. Students can relax from outside pressure. Working on their own makes them rely on themselves. It allows internalizing what has been learned orally. It respects the learning pace of each child.
Space and Time Management
From a communicative point of view, the classroom is not the best place to learn a language. It has space and time limitations.
Space Management
Careful arrangement of the classroom is important to create an organized and secure environment. The ideal classroom should be large enough to accommodate all the students’ desks, allow sufficient extra space for activities such as role-play and dramatization, and have “English corners”.
Classroom Layout
Options include:
- Rows: Traditional; students face the teacher and can easily see the blackboard.
- Horseshoe shape: Students face the teacher and can see each other.
- In pairs: Students sit in pairs facing the teacher.
- In groups of four.
Each layout has its own advantages and uses. What the teacher has to bear in mind is that the FL class is concerned with communication, and this implies a variety of interactions. They must find the best ways to meet this aim. It is also a good idea for the children to change position.
Classroom Corners
Whenever possible, the classroom should have particular areas or corners for different uses:
- Book corner: Allows pupils to look through books of their own choice and at their own pace. Borrowing books also provides an introduction to the written word in English (e.g., book corner librarian, comments about books).
- Classroom displays: Displays encourage a purposeful working atmosphere and lead to higher motivation because the students’ work is made public. The classroom will look more colorful and brighter.
Time Management
The teacher must work out the amount of time that will be devoted to each didactic unit and activity. The time will depend on the students’ age, the number of hours available, the type of contents, and the learners’ previous knowledge. Teachers have to learn how to vary the amount of time given to a particular activity when it takes much longer or shorter than planned.
Selection of Methodologies
The Communicative Approach
Its main principles focus on communicative competence, the contextualization of language, and cognitivism. Learners are considered the agents of their own language competence.
Activities
Should focus on the message. They should be interactive, unpredictable, within a context, and authentic.
Materials
We will use three types:
- Text-based (e.g., textbooks)
- Task-based (e.g., role-play, games)
- Realia (authentic materials like magazines, songs, videos, objects)
Aim
In Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the aim is the students’ communicative competence in the language. Students have to learn the language with accuracy, fluency, and appropriateness. Therefore, teaching procedures must aim at these basic elements.
Methodological Procedure
The procedure in a CLT classroom follows a sequence of activities: Presentation, Practice, and Production.
Errors
Errors must be analyzed by the teacher to help learners progress. They must be seen as something natural and logical, since they are positive evidence of the learning process.
The Natural Approach
Principles
Key hypotheses include the acquisition/learning hypothesis, the input hypothesis (input should be slightly beyond the students’ current level, i+1), and the affective filter hypothesis.
Methodological Implications
Emphasis on comprehensive input, allowing for a silent period, creating a pleasant classroom atmosphere, and developing oral skills before written ones.
Globalization
Principles
Children perceive globally, establishing associations between objects and events without prior analysis.
Teaching Implications
Activities gradually increase in complexity. Children must relate the English subject to other subjects.
Active Methodology
Principles
The learner has a higher degree of involvement in their learning process. Learners’ opinions, feelings, and motivation are taken into account. Higher autonomy from the teacher is encouraged.
Methodological Implications
Focus on motivation and teaching students how to learn (‘learning to learn’).
The Role of the Teacher
Teaching Roles
Nowadays, the teacher has a less dominant role than in traditional teaching. Their roles include:
- Organizer
- Participant
- Encourager
- Language consultant
- Monitor
Classroom Control and Discipline
Jeremy Harmer identifies three areas that can cause discipline problems:
- The teacher: Should be firm but kind and encouraging.
- The students: The teacher analyzes students’ attitudes and peer interactions.
- The institution: It is essential for the teacher to be supported by a coherent school policy. Usually, schools seek the help of the child’s parents.
Conclusion
There are many variables the teacher must be aware of to create the best learning conditions for students. Knowledge in classroom management will help avoid wasted time and disruptive behavior, making teaching more effective.