Application of Teachers' Behavior in English Classroom Management

谭 萍 / 湖北三峡职业技术学院



Application of Teachers' Behavior in English Classroom Management

谭 萍 / 湖北三峡职业技术学院

【Abstract】In the practical teaching process, the teacher is not only a guide to teach students how to learn but also take a role as a classroom m anager.A good classroom m anager could give a lot of benefits for students.Approaches to behavior and classroom m anagem ent focuses on helping teachers to use a variety of approaches in behavior and classroom m anagem ent in order to m ake good decisions w hen they face w ith the challenge of creating positive classroom com m unities, to create a positive classroom atm osphere, to im prove the teaching com petences of teachers and to update the concept of classroom m anagem ent constantly.

Introduction

Teachers’ behavior takes an important role in the effective classroom management.First of all, teachers take a role as modeling.Secondly, teachers should be an excellent interpreter of the content through ways of both verbal and nonverbal communication.During the class, one of the teacher’s main conducts is to give directions and assignments.Thirdly, teachers, as an organizer of class, should be flexible enough to solve typical and sudden events in class.Fourthly, a teacher, sometimes performing as a friend or a guide for the students, should respect every student sincerely and should pay more attention to the equality of education.A good classroom conduct is always willing to accept students’ statements, feelings, and attitudes and encourages those who have a different idea.Also, the atmosphere of the effective classroom is always open and full of warmth; teachers have enthusiasm during the whole class.Thus, in this thesis, the author will analyze some practical problems occurring during teaching and give some advice to teachers’ behaviors in order to achieve effective classroom management.

1.Verbal communication

In the classroom, one of the teacher’s main conducts is to give directions and assignments.The directions and assignments the teacher conveys to learners need to be clear.Firstly, verify students understanding through one or more of the following:

a.Ask one or more students to repeat directions.

b.Ask if anyone has a question.

c.Monitor students’ initial efforts if they are to perform a task.

d.Rephrase directions if students do not understand.

Secondly, speak clearly and change tone and voice necessarily.Clarity makes a great importance in the teachers’ expression.Ifthe teacher has standard pronunciations, the students can have a better understanding of teachers’ directions.On the contrary, if the pronunciation is vague, the students may be confused with the directions and may the efficacy of listening be very low.Another important quality is the variety of teachers’ tone and voice.Sometimes tone referred to as paralinguistic, vocal intonation includes components such as rhythm, pitch, intensity, nasality and slurring.It is important to remember that if vocal intonation contradicts your words, the former will dominate.

Thirdly, Teachers should use a variety of vocal inflections when presenting material; otherwise students may feel boring for they just hear the continuous pitch of voice during the whole class and so the class is less effective.For example, when I listened to a teacher’s lesson before, I discovered that his delivery was so dull, lifeless and monotone that his students had been boring and stopped listening.No wonder that when he began asking questions, he had to keep asking, "Anyone ...anyone?" because of no responses from the students.Tone, pitch and speed affect how words are sent and received.Teachers should articulate words at a comfortable rate to maximize the potential for student comprehension.Speaking too slowly tends to aggravate students, while speaking too quickly makes it difficult for them to follow the presentation.So in the practical activities, for example, we can lower our voice to make students focus on what you are saying.And we can make our voice a little louder when we come across some important language points.

These checklists above are very helpful for the teacher to use as reference.The clarity of the teacher’s language directly influences the degree of students’ understanding of the teacher’s instruction.If the teacher uses unclear or imprecise language, students might get confused about what they are supposed to do or misunderstand what the teacher means.

2.Nonverbal communication

In the classroom, teachers and students--both consciously and unconsciously--send and receive nonverbal cues several hundred times a day.Teachers should be aware of nonverbal communication in the classroom for two basic reasons:to become better receivers of students' messages and to gain the ability to send positive signals that reinforces students' learning while simultaneously becoming more skilled at avoiding negative signals that stifle their learning.Students use smiles, frowns, nodding heads and other cues to tell teachers to slow down, speed up or in some other way modify the delivery of instructional material.To be a good receiver of student messages, a teacher must be attuned to many of the subtle nonverbal cues that their students send.

It is just as important for teachers to be good nonverbal communication senders as it is for them to be good receivers.Teachers express enthusiasm, warmth, assertiveness, confidence and displeasure through facial expressions, vocal intonation, gestures and use of space.However, when teacher’s exhibit verbal messages that conflict with nonverbal messages, students become confused, which in turn can affect their attitudes and learning.

Nonverbal communication has several of characteristics which can distinguish itself from verbal communication.First, verbal communication follows grammatical rules and has strict structure, while nonverbal communication does not have formal rules and forms.So if we want to understand the nonverbal communication behavior, we must analyze the surrounding situation before we make our judgments.Second, verbal communication uses certain signs, while nonverbal communication does not have a set of signs with definite meaning.Third, verbal communication usually happens with talking; it stops at the moment when the talk is over.So verbal is discontinuous, while nonverbal communication is continuous.Finally, verbal communication is not innate, but acquired after birth, while nonverbal communication is instinctive of human beings.For example, everyone knows how to smile and laugh and cry while none of us can speak English fluently unless we have studied.

3.Teacher’s Flexibility in dealing problems

Teacher's flexibility is another behavior which is significant for the achievement of the effective classroom management.During the class teaching, many sudden events might happen which make the teacher all in a fluster.For instance, just as the teacher is about to clinch a class, the bell begins to ring; during the group discussion ,two students get into violence and even hurt each other; Equipment breaks down and spoils the lesson; Or the knowledge that the teacher communicates to the students makes them totally confused but the teacher doesn’t realize it.Visitors, assemblies, the loudspeaker in the classroom, all may represent unplanned happenings that require flexibility and adjustments.There are a variety of reasons why some students habitually interrupt instructions or regular classes.Obvious causes include inattention to group instructions, extreme competitiveness, nervousness, insecurity, or impulsiveness.The teacher may have to deal with the actual causes of the undesired behavior, but usually this can occur only during an individual interaction with the students.

Through actions or statements, the vindictive, defiant student is begging for help.However, giving help or attempting to analyze what goes wrong while the student is putting on a performance for the rest of the class is not only an impossible talk but downright silly.The real need is to defuse the situation and end the “show time”.Therefore, teacher must focus on two acts simultaneously:getting the class back to work and quieting the student or separating the student from the classroom.

First, give the class an assignment if they do not have one.If they have a work assignment, then remind them:“ok, boys and girls, you have more than enough to keep you busy.Let’s continue our work now.” This will let the class know that you are confident, you can handle the situation and that you have not lost your cool.It is important to do this because defiant statements or vindictive actions frighten everyone, and the class will be worried about what will happen next.

The next step is to deal with the student causing the problem without expressing personal anger.This is difficult because defiant expressions are at the teacher.Obviously, there is personal involvement; in some way, the interaction between teacher and student has gone wrong.But the teacher’s calmness and lack of heat in this situation will reassure not only the class but the students as well.At this point, the teacher must make the judgment whether more than one class meeting will alleviate the problem or whether the student needs help from someone other than the teacher.

Conclusion The analysis of the thesis has given credence to the statement that a good classroom manager sets an excellent example and should be a model for students.He should be a respectful guide for students’ behavior and speech thereby generating respect from students.The guide should set a good example for students by taking attention both of their utterances and manners because the students are imitating the teacher subconsciously.These behaviors promote positive teacher-student relationships and help students appreciate the teacher as model, and each is dependent on the other in order to achieve the effective classroom management.Thus teacher efficacy behaviors are directly linked with the effective classroom management.Successful classroom management looked like magic shows because students in these classrooms seem to glide from one activity to the next.

Bibliography

Blanchare, Carew K.D, Eunice P.C.The One Minute Manager Builds High Performance Teams.New York William Morrow, 2000.

Johnson, K.An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching.Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002.

胡春洞.英语教学法 高等教育出版社, 1999.

邵璧华.教学与管理［J］.教学与管理杂志社, 1997.