Today, I want to share my 'tools' to combat Challenges 2 & 3 as laid out in my first blog post. These problems might not be apparent, but they are legitimate in particular when dealing with superiors and participants that have been in the workforce for a long time.
Challenge 2: Adapting to Classroom Setting
This would be the set-up for a modern classroom although I mostly had glass 'whiteboards', and always a computer, a screen, and a projector in my company classrooms.
Challenge Number Two:
How to help participants to adapt to a classroom setting after some had not seen one in 10 years or more?
Nowadays, I can already see when students first enter my classroom which ones feel uneasy and hesitant.
Possible Fears of Participants:
1. General fear of not being able to cope
2. Losing face (i.e. respect) as a superior in front of employee(s) or vice versa
3. Not keeping up with others (see Challenge 3)
4. Making mistakes in front of others (see Challenge 4 / next post)
5. Not finding the time for class or homework
6. Not meeting own expectations
Teacher Support
After I had recognized this as a true problem being naïve enough at the start to believe that enrolled students would enjoy coming and participating in my classes, I dealt with this challenge in two areas: giving information and establishing a relaxed class atmosphere without the typical teacher-student hierarchy instead emphasizing the team. I explain my slight advantage of having learned the language once myself and use me regularly as a bad example because if you read my About page, you know that language learning is difficult for me.
Information
Class & Evaluation
1. I give comprehensive information right at the beginning about the class and evaluation / tests (see previous post). As mentioned, I take an ample amount of time for this task and part of the information is also covered in written form in my classroom rules (see Teacher Resources).
Important Information
2. I assure the students that they don't have to understand every single word I say and that I provide all important information in hand-outs and emails.
Scores
3. I tell them not to worry about scores as I will keep them informed (I do NOT tell them that the lowest score will be the coveted 80% at least in Taiwan).
Talk
4. I encourage students to talk to me or email me (which might be easier for some of them) if they have questions or concerns.
Hierarchy
Some teachers might be worried that a lack of distance between teacher and students leads to a lack of discipline in the classroom (I certainly was). Following this event at the beginning of my teaching life, I am not anymore.
It was my first job at a high school, and as a novice teacher, I was anxious to be successful.
In one of my classes with about 12-year old students, I had a pair of unusual twins (obviously fraternal twins): she was tall and blond, and he was short and dark. He called himself espresso after the small but strong Italian coffee, and he was disruptive from beginning to end of my math classes.
I was exhausted whenever I had to teach him and tried everything including asking other teachers of the class for advice.
One day, I had enough, and I was sure I had nothing else to lose. I called 'Espresso' to the front and told him to take my place. I showed him the answers to the homework and instructed him to check his classmates. He proudly took over, BUT after about 10 minutes, HE was exhausted and asked me to PLEASE take my role as teacher back. I never had any problems with him again...
Team Spirit
I emphasize the team spirit frequently mentioning that WE all learn better together and from mistakes even if others might have made them.
Mistakes
Furthermore, I point out that I used to make the same mistake to help the participants to feel at ease.
Relationship & Progress
I also use every opportunity to talk to students individually to build a relationship. I not only give advice on learning for that individual but also ask them about how they feel about their progress and whether they have ideas to improve themselves and the class. I don't hesitate to discuss the syllabus and class management with the participants seeking the opinion of the stronger ones in particular.
Discipline
I ask for discipline in regards to avoiding side-talk and using electronic devices unless I specifically ask for the use of computers e.g. in writing class. I admit that I have a very dim view on this, in particular, the electronics because they distract too much in my view.
Of course, when I have participants like the Director and Deputy Director of Customer Relations at an international company like the chipmaker tsmc, I have to allow that their phones are on vibration and that they even have to leave on short notice.
Challenge 3: Integrating Different Levels of English Proficiency
Different levels of English proficiency are a given in the company classroom as are different levels of hierarchy and mostly also different skill sets for different areas of responsibility in the company as most of the time participants come from different departments.
Challenge Number Three:
How to integrate the sometimes vastly different levels of English proficiency of the participants?
In the previous blog post, I explained that in the oral introduction I could gauge the English proficiency of the participants quite well already. This proved to be important knowledge for classroom management later on.
Furthermore, it is imperative for me to understand why students want to improve their English communication skills.
Motivation to Take an English Class
The motivation for the participants to come to the course and spend precious time and energy depends on the reason they sign up. Of course, the motivation is higher when they come of their own accord instead of being sent by either their superior or the HR Department.
Participants enroll for three main reasons:
1. To improve their job performance where they already use English (sometimes sent by their superior or HR)
2. To prepare for a different job with English communication
3. To learn the world's 'lingua franca' to widen their horizon (i.e. common language used to communicate between people with different mother tongues)
Students with reasons 2 or 3 are usually higher motivated and easier to engage in class.
Teacher Support
The problem of different levels is challenging and can even get worse during the class because human nature dictates that we like to do what we do well and avoid tasks that are difficult for us. The teacher needs to do everything to prevent the gap between participants to widen even further.
Over many years, I was part of the team that would interview applicants for our full-time program at ITI where we had on average 8 to 10 applications per study place.
I learned the probably most important lesson for me during those interviews.
I could have applicants with very strong English skills, and I would ask them in which English-speaking country they had acquired them. Often the answer was as simple as stunning for me: "I have never left Taiwan, but I just love English (or the connection to the world, etc.)".
On the other hand, I had candidates with abysmal language skills who it turned out had lived and worked for many years in an English-speaking country like the US.
The key to this seeming contradiction is self-motivation.
In my view, the challenge for the teacher is, therefore, to support students motivating themselves. In the type of environment I am teaching in, the key is to find out what it is that motivates students.
One crucial element I found is the fact that students need to understand why that particular communication skill is important for them. Therefore, I spend enough time to explain to the participants the importance of that skill e.g. how to reject a customer's claim without losing the customer (see my free guide to better writing skills). Of course, it helps me enormously, that I have about 2 decades of sound business experience myself.
I avoid the typical lecture style even in larger groups as I am now a strong believer in students' self-motivation. I have taught university classes of up to 70 students with the following method.
Whenever possible, my classroom management focuses on small teams (2 to 6 students) working together on a specific task that I first demonstrated e.g. through video or audio clips, samples, or role play and discussed with the students. After that, students get time in their teams to work through the task. Finally, the participants report the team results back in a whole class discussion (or larger groups) to exchange ideas. For this purpose, I mostly let the groups choose the students who will report back in order not to expose weaker participants.
This is more time consuming than the lecture style, but I find that students are far more engaged and the level of retention is higher than through lecturing.
Coming back to the integration of sometimes vastly different proficiency levels, I developed over the years the strategy to 'hire' the stronger students as teacher assistants. I carefully match the groups so that weaker and stronger students work together, and I ask the stronger ones to support the weaker participants. Throughout the process, I circle in the classroom to elicit ideas and give feedback.
The weaker students often feel more comfortable to learn from other participants, and for the stronger participants, the class becomes more interesting as they are student and teacher at the same time.
All this should put the weaker students at ease and encourage participation of all students.
Resources on Challenge 3
http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/download/adulted/multilevel_monograph.pdf
http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/SHANK.html
If you have encountered other challenges, please share them in the comment box.
Please also comment on whether you have other tips and like the blog post. As this is only my second blog post, I want every help from you to improve.
