Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Classroom management
The characteristic secondary school class is large (anything
upwards of twenty-five students), and because of its size, it
usually reflects a wide range of ability. Some would say that it
is also characteristically unmotivated for hard work in
learning a language, and it is certainly true that there are
situations in the world in which the reasons for learning
English are not self-evident, so that students may well feel less
commitment to language work than to—say—geography or
physics. The school cannot overcome single-handed problems
which arise from administrative decisions, and if the wrong
language is being taught to the wrong people in the wrong
size of class for the wrong periods of time, it is not the
teachers or the pupils who should be blamed for the failure of
the system to produce fluent English sneakers. But at the same
time there are many ways in which the teacher can make the
best of the situation that he is faced with, especially if he bears
in mind that there is no teacher in the world who is satisfied
with the conditions which he is asked to teach in.
The teacher’s duty is to make sure that his teaching is
appropriate to his class, that is organised systematically, and
that it is exciting.
These three features interlock with each other, but it is
worth noting that, while the first two are the easiest to attain,
they are probably less often pursued than excitement. Yet a
teacher who uses appropriate and well-organised materials
usually has little difficulty in generating enthusiasm in his
class. Let us examine each of these ideas in a little more
detail.
Appropriacy
There are two stages in producing appropriate teaching, first
in the preparation and selection of materials, (course books,
exercises, visuals, etc.) and second in classroom organisation
while the lesson is in progress. Materials used may, of course,
be selected by a Ministry of Education or a head of
department and be to some extent beyond the control of the
classroom teacher, but someone somewhere needs to make the

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Learning English in the Secondary School
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decisions. Whoever makes the initial selection of the material,
it is the duty of the teacher to adapt it to the needs of his
individual class as far as he can. First, the material must be
considered for level: is it appropriate for the class
linguistically (will the syntax, lexis, stylistic range be within
the class’s grasp without being so simple that they will be
bored)? Is the material appropriate culturally, or does it
demand that they know aspects of British or American life
which it would be unrealistic to expect? Is it appropriate
intellectually (and it is worth noting that much EFL teaching
material presupposes an intellectual level of about 5 years
old)? Is the material about the right length for the activities it
will be used for? Is it something which the students will find
interesting? And so on. If any part of the material is
unsatisfactory in any of these respects, the teacher will need to
make a decision, either to change the material and find
something more suitable, or to organise his class activities so
as to make the work appropriate by means of teaching
techniques. For example, material which is far too simple in
intellectual terms can be made exciting (and also demanding
on pupils’ thinking) when it is used as a game and gone
through at great speed. And this brings us to the second stage
of classroom organisation. All the time in the class the teacher
will have to decide how to introduce his material (indeed
whether to introduce his material), how much time to spend
on each stage, when to vary the activity, how serious he
should be at any one moment in the lesson, and so on. The
more experienced the teacher becomes, the more likely he is to
be able to anticipate the requirements of his class, particularly
when he knows them well, but no teacher can anticipate
everything, and all good teaching demands thinking on one’s
feet: the good teacher will always be sensitive to whether the
class is alert or sleepy, whether discussion is appropriate or
irrelevant, whether he is being ignored or listened to.
All of this applies to any teaching situation, but it is of