Feature articles Ten tips for teaching large classes Maggie Swannock shares tried and trusted methods. Maggie D809 4 orshep for Chine for ames sch a eer an aan ea a Srramodk Eg Engioe err in Shang ertr ping ané tating eu wo. Studer ae more itch cones ee abe ovr the Te fo pee on wets o te lo of perma Tie Sane pieton of TOL methoseny nent encourages he tote todo mabng mates SAE ge doses. Thre wos 0 see Managesof that while mach of interesting 3 Get the students to make the resources the Engish in theory, itis largely practical, as Crea en anaite 4 many Chnese Englsh cies mt Gare the Asian Cato acomrariate 30 10 70 students in Arana tnouatee nee elatvely small cassooms, Photo- (eas of inetest indie: TESOL _copiabe activites that many teachers Imetrodoloy, ES? and EAP, of smal lasses rely on may rot be Get students to create vocabulary cards using index card These canbe used for games such as Memory, Describe and Guess and Vocab Grab (students write words from a lsten ing text on card, ther as they stn, race to grab the words [sk them to copy templates fom the boar ta be competed during letening or reading tasks. To avo students quickly ‘an option. Anather problem is the uration of lessons, which ae often onty 45 minutes lon, this means that full development tothe production of lan {guage soften unresisble. Ths typically esis in teachers abandoning ther traning and reverting back to lecture or ‘rarvmar-ranslation teaching modes. Here | offer ten tps far combating come of these problems and a leon plan ‘which used with a cass of 40 Chinese high school students, 1 Plan to produce in class ‘Mest traning courses emphasise the importance of develop ing students towards 2 languagedearning goal. Server (2011) suggests lesson planning take into consideration both achievement and procedural goals. We should ques. tion what we expect our students to be able to do by the fend ofthe lesson and how the actives that ve use in class wil allow them to achieve this goa. However, the aificuty in comeletng the steps needed to achive the learn becoming distracted in freer speaking acts, get them to brainstorm on paper cr mini-whiteboarcs or complete tables ‘or mind-maps with thei ideas 4 Use groups Tis is paramount in large clases. Pais can be easly made with the person a student i sitting next to, and groups of four can be made by tuning round, However, teachers of large dasses complain that its dificult to ensure all tue ents are involved and on-ask, cating rales can give all students a purpose within the group, and help encourage weaker students to patcipate. In 2 recent running dita- tion activty with 40 students | asked the students to pick the numbers A-D before reveaing that A was the runnet, was the wnter,C was the dictionary checeer and O ws the monitor, who made sure that eny English was spoken, These roles were realocated half way tough the task, Group work abo alows you to move around the classroom ‘and monitor students” progress and ewalvement. errand eae ing goa in a 45-minute lesson can result in production stages being lim- ited to. aquek one pai demonstration 5 Use the Li where appropriate eee ae PTE (2 0esking work, or writen produc Lage classes are often monasinguistic and, while this resents its own sat of problems, it can be a time-save. tion being given for hernework, To 7 us eed Providing inseuctions for new tasks and activites in the L1 ‘overcome this problem, try planning across mote than ane teaching ss sion, Do mare controled activites in an eater clas in the week and plan production activities into a folowing das. This allows students to receive help. {and support from bath you ard ther pees, and alws you to monitor students’ ability, preempting problems that they ‘may haven understanding and achieving the learning goa 2 Use mini-whiteboards Athough iti best to have one minivahiteboard for each student, in very large groups you can use one per group fof 3 or 4 students, These can be used in a numberof ways including: holding up group answers to get a quick idea of how many students have understood a question or exercise, IATEEFL Voices 240 allows students to understand quickly, 6 Try movement (re of the constraints in large classes is that there is rot ‘much room to move, or mening lage groups of students can be dificuit to manage and tire consuming. However, itis an essential component of lage classes. Shamim eta (2010) suggest moving students forward by row allowing those who are placed atthe back ofthe casraom to move into a better place within the ‘good action zone™—the area cloves ta the teacher where students particpate best and receive the most attention. Th reduces the “poor action zone’ at the back of the dasstoom which can be 2 wasteland of inacivty. Students can ao be numbered(otees) See and regrouped, oF asked to swap pas. Many teachers are concemed about the potential chaos that movement in the ‘casraom can ental which leads me to ry next tH Ups. 7 Be prepared for chaos Younger students can become a litle overexcted about Grcup Work, especially when t involves moving around, and time can be swallowed up inthe preparation for the task leaving litle time forthe task itself is best 10 embrace the fact that movement intially wil cause students to be chaotic. After a tme the novely of such movement will wear off—in the space of 2 lessons from what | cbserved in CChina—and then stents wil move around with relay tle fs 8 Establish stop signals It eavemely important that tse are clay established and practsed before attempting movement, Clapping oF raising hands, drawing a symbol on the board or using 2 ‘whistle ae all effective methods. The key Isto involve the students inthe decision making proces. 9 Not all production needs feedback Teachers often feel guily the longuage produced is nat supervised and comected. With large clases this can be incredibly time consuming, However, students can be trained to become excellent peer viewers. Encouraging student to share and correct each other's ork saves exter nal marking time. I you do chacee to mark it, pee review should reduce the number of enors and make the process Auickr. Further, peer corection encourages students to be less reliant onthe teacher and be more ative in developing their language sks 10 Ifat first you do not succeed ... A willingness to expetiment is ane of the most important tools a teacher can have. Changes to teaching styles are ‘ypicaly incremental teachers may become frustrated friew actives sem to fal in their objectives while students adapt te new pedagogic techniques. As teachers in tur, we have al enpereced reluctance in our own work to move beyond fstablshed teaching forms. However, from what | nave obser, it is ciffeut ta match the satisfaction that comes ‘tom teachers ‘sing 10 the challenge of procucng vated and interesting lessons. Sample lesson: Using guided wrtng tasks to encourage students to workin groups to produce a narative oats it was lose to Halloween, | used scary stories Step 1: Prewriting task 1—Vocabulary generation ‘Show the students pictures of Halloween to ei vocabulary and generate interest nthe topic. Students workin eroups fof 4 using a minkhteboars. Give 2 mioutes ta brarstorm “4x nounsverbsadjetves onthe topic of Halloween. Groups Ie A AMATO Le rite thee vocabulary on the boats so that all the class can see, lntoduce other useful vocabulary, using pictures anc cr tarsation Step 2: Pre-writing task 2—Example story To generate interest gve an example ofa story. This can be ane vebaly or by showing 2 poster oF wal for a sue able scary movie. Atertively, students could complete 3 running dictation as described in Tp 4 above with a sample story tx. Stop 3: Guided writing task 1 Complete the text Students compete a short gapped text. hich acts a5 3 model forthe text you would tke them to produce. This can be copied from the boar. Step 4: Guided writing task 2— Completed in the next session Show the students some new pictures to help them generate thei o4n story You could gue the students 2 basic Picture storyboard stuck to the mini: whiteboard, or ask them to copy a template from the board. Pars create the fist part af the story and then pass ‘the boar/paper back to the next pair 10 write the next pat Each pair does each step, soi you have 20 pats, you wil end up with 20 stories, rite te of story—pass back Write who the stor is about—pass back \what happens in the beginning ofthe story—pass back \What happens next—pass back \What happens after that—pass back \what happens in the enc—pass back In this way the groups build stories together Step 5: Follow-up freer writing task After all of the previous stages have been completed the ais take the gun work and write asa complete story. Step 6: Peer edit and rewrite Exchange completed stoves with another pai. Students then edt, covtectng any mistakes and ensuring thet target language is used. aly, thy write outa finshed version to be displayed on the walls ofthe classroom, Mergaretswannock@acu.edu.au Cer ee td Re a References Sena, J 201. earning Teaching: The Essential Guide {0 Englsh language Teaching (id edon,Oxfor Macmilan Edcaton. Shamim, FN. Negash C.Chuku and N. Demewor. 2007 ‘Maximzing Learning in Large Clsss: sues and Qptions. ‘ais Ababa: The Bish Counc. Rete from itp! ‘wn techingenalsh org uistesteachengflesELT-16- rcen pa) IATEEL Voices 240 nas Cae that comes from eet Ca Pearl Pets en °