PRACTICALITY

OF THE

CONGRUENT
COMMUNICATION
THEORY
IN THE LOCAL ESL
CLASSROOM

A modern teacher educates children to

value their emotions
The social and emotional growth process among students
causes them to face daily dilemmas which causes stress.
Students face social challenges- peer relationship struggles,
bullying, fights with peers, fights with parents.

Therefore, teachers must respond to these outburst

in a PROFESSIONAL MANNER.

First day of school

MOST students choose to engage in a
mutually respected relationship when
they discover that their teacher does care
about them.
Each student studies the facial
expressions, tone of voice, body
language and comments that emanate
from their teacher.
Deciding whether this teacher cares about
them personally.

 Trust begins to develop when teachers

establish an environment of mutual
respect.
Students become willing participants in
the learning process.
The teacher can maintain a comfortable
classroom management environment.
How you communicate determines your
effectiveness as a teacher
(Charles 2000, 48-49)

How can teachers communicate

congruently.
Using active listening techniques;
Demonstrating body language and facial
expressions that match verbal messages;
Avoiding
traditional
communication
roadblocks;
Responding with empathy to students
anxiety and frustration.
Charles 1999, 57

According to McCarthy..
Children have spent at least a
decade as listeners in most
situations
Students have the need to speak to
teachers, and teachers must actively listen
to them when this need exists.
At the age of twelve, children want and need
the chance to share their feelings and ideas.

The 13 destructive whys

Why cant you be good for a change?

Why are you so selfish?
Why do you have to fight with everybody?
Why cant you be like other children?
Why must you interrupt everybody?
Why cant you keep your mouth shut once in a
while?
Why are you so slow?
Why are you always late?
Why must you be such a pest?
Why are you so disorganized?
Why are you such a busybody?
Why do you forget everything I tell you?
Why are you so stupid?

To children why stands for

disapproval, disappointment and
displeasure..
Even a simple why did you do that? may
evoke the memory of Why in the world did
you ever do something as stupid as that?
Ginott says: Once upon a time why was a
term of inquiry, now its a term of inquisition.
Its original meaning has long vanished and
corrupted by the misuse of why as a coin of
criticism, judgment and attack.

Some teachers work too hard. They spend time and wasted energy on battles that can be
avoided and wars that can be prevented.
In each school, there is a gigantic waste of human resources. Time and talent are
devoured by needless conflicts and useless quarrels.
Between teacher and child, chapter 3

Haim Ginotts most famous quote

I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life
miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.