This document provides guidance for teachers on building relationships with students and creating an effective classroom environment. It discusses establishing trust between teachers and students by showing personal interest, sharing some personal information, and being tactful during corrections. It also recommends encouraging student participation by making topics student-centered, acknowledging contributions, and using engaging activities like role plays. The document outlines strategies for communicating with parents, setting high expectations, encouraging questioning, and managing common classroom issues like students talking in their native language or finishing work early.

1. TESOL MA Module
Language in the
Classroom
Ideas Book
Class of May 2010
Universidad de Alcalá

2. How can we build trust between teacher and student?
Relating to students as people
Showing interest in their issues
Ask about their life.
Showing interest in what they do
Share some personal information with them
Correction
Being tactful when we are correcting
Avoiding over correction in order to maintain a
good atmosphere
Opportunities to speak
Sharing time with them outside class (in out of class activities)
Being available to students
Teacher behaviour
Being natural and confident
Be consistent with what you ask/promise them
Using your sense of humour/irony
Listening actively to what students say
Positive body language – nodding and keeping eye contact
Giving them responsibility
Using student names
How can we create a collaborative relationship with parents/caregivers?
Communication
• Having meetings – where information is exchanged
• Keeping contact using new technologies
• Informing parents about our objectives/goals/important things
• Initiate communication wit h parents
Engaging the parent/caregiver
• Giving them a responsibility to
contribute to their child’s learning
• Provide different materials e.g. web
pages, TV channels, craft ideas, that
parents can use with children at home
• Involve them in homework tasks
• Offering them the opportunity to take
part in school activities
• Ask for parents’ assistance with certain
supportive tasks at home.
Making students aware of the relationship between parent and teacher

3. How can we encourage students to ask more questions in the
classroom?
Engaging students
• By providing interesting topics
• Making the topic more student -centered.
• Giving them the opportunity to choose the topic so they can feel
motivated.
• By getting students to participate in choosing topics and activities.
• Provide visuals that suggest ideas for conversation.
Teacher behaviour
Showing interest in what students have to say
By having their questions answered, either by
the teacher or by another student
Acknowledging contributions
Activities
Playing role games
We can tell the students they have to think of a
question to ask the teacher or anybody in the
class as the first activity we do to start the class.
Can be done everyday.
How can we demonstrate we have high expectations of students?
Challenge students
Demanding from our students more than they can
actually cope with (setting up difficult tasks.)
Giving them a higher initial mark and encourage them
to maintain it.
Give students an amount of freedom to carry out
difficult tasks
Give them an agreed goal for the activities.
Teacher role
Changing the role of traditional teacher to monitor.
Developing a personal relationship with our students.
Communication with students
• Remember the importance of listening to them.
• Provide them with (1:1) oral feedback.
• Showing empathy (achievement and failure)
• Monitoring them and giving them a chance to participate.
• Telling them what are expectations are.
• Making objectives clear and praising them if they are fulfilled
• Asking for critical and cultural information from them.
Highlighting the child’s achievements rather than mistakes.

4. How can we help students to take more turns in a conversation.
Learner training
• Use class rules to ensure that they respect turns.
• Making sure that they realise that they can learn from anyone – talk to
students about this.
• Teaching them not to hesitate to ask.
• Providing a pattern beforehand with suitable language (for questioning,
checking, understanding, repeating, encouraging.)
• Engage them in a topic they are interested in and familiar with.
• Linking the speaking activity to another one where multiple ideas about
the topic have been introduced.
Encourage all contributions so students not ashamed of participating
A gimmick
Using a “magic item” – only the person we pass it along to speak.
What classroom conditions encourage students to contribute
more/initiate speaking?
Classroom set-up
• The classroom arrangement of desks and chairs and the different
grouping of children in different activities.
• Arranging them in groups or pairs.
• Arranging the class in groups so that shy students feel more confident.
• Sitting the students in a circle, so they can all see each other (and not
each other’s backs!)
• The way they are sitting can contribute positively as it’s not the same to
sit in rows as in a circle.
• Positive atmosphere/well aired/ brightly lit/nicely arranged.
Group Dynamics Motivating students
Relaxed atmosphere Rewards;stickers,awards..
People respect each other Credit for participation/effort
Group work with roles Contributions appreciated praise
No over-correction.
Having a time just for discussing and sharing their opinions.

5. Communicative classroom dilemmas
If students talk in L1.....
Provide them with useful language forms such as, “Now, it’s your go”.
We can say “Sorry, I don’t understand you. I don’t speak Spanish.”
Organize mixed ability groups so that they help each other.
• Have a ‘police language’ monitor/’English spy’
in each group to check if the group speak in
English.
• Someone in each group could write down the
names of the one’s who are speaking in L1 and
those SS won’t get a prize at
the end of the activity (or
more positively, those who speak the most English)
• Give them extra credit /mark for using English
• Each student has got two medals-one with a smiley
face and the other with a grumpy face. When a
student doesn’t speak English they have to wear the
negative face. They can transfer the medal to
another student if they hear those speaking Spanish.
If students let their group mates do all the talking....
Make participation part of the mark for their informal assessment
Provide him/her with an active role and the required expressions to carry out
the task.
Introduce a student monitor to see that everyone is doing their share.
Shy students: individual contact (each time they participate they note it down
and they get a prize when they get to e,g three)
Require them to have at least one thing said by each member of the group.
Stop the activity in that group and let the others continue.

6. If students get over competitive.....
Have a paper traffic light to show them the noise level.
Change the activity if you see that the students are nearly finished
Monitor the group and give them extra work, set other tasks – use the energy
Promote cooperative learning.
• Ask strong pupils to help those who are weaker.
• Try to distribute the competitive students in different groups.
• Do some cooperative activities in order to help them to learn to be
collaborative.
• Include one set of rules at the beginning of the school year where one
may be” work together and not against each other.”
• Praise them for a good job but let them know that they should all get an
opportunity to participate.
• Make sure that they understand the rules that there are no winners or
losers; the only purpose is to learn.
If students finish early…..
They can pick up a book from the library.
Let them do some fun things.
Let them play a game in a group.
Provide them with a new different activity (fast
finisher tasks) as a motivating prize.
They can help others who may be having trouble
with the task.
Peer checking.
They can water the plants.
References
www.teachers.tv (Teaching with Bayley)
www.teachingenglish.org.uk British Council methodology, blogs, materials and
lesson plans
www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm Younger learners worksheets, lesson plans
and on-line activities

7. Peer Monitoring
Write down everything that is said in Spanish (in
Spanish) during this activity
ChecklistChecklistChecklistChecklist
Do all the people in the group speak equally?
Do all the people listen to others?
Do people use good body language e.g. eye
contact/nodding etc.?
Do people use English most of the time?
Do people take turns to speak?
Are people polite to each other?

8. Bayley’s Top Five Common Classroom Mistakes
Asking students “Why are you late?”
They will not give you the answer you want, (“because I am a poorly
organised inadequate student”) and it just makes a negative, uncomfortable
atmosphere. Instead, welcome them in and settle them down and deal with
their lateness later on. Some teachers have a few chairs by the door to cope
with late arrivals.
Talking too much
We all bang away at students too much under the happy illusion that they are
drinking it all in. They aren’t, because not many
people learn that way. Use some of the question and
answer and plenary techniques in the Key Stage 3
strategy to get them talking. Lesson starters are
often a good way to get students talking and to give
them an early chance to show you how clever they
are. The best bit of training you can give yourself is to tape record yourself
teaching – take some strong drink before you sit down to listen to yourself!
Telling students what not to do
“Too much noise”, “Stop talking”, “Leave that alone”. The basis of assertive
communication is focusing on the target behaviour – it is where all the
assertive training books start – so decide what you want and then tell them.
Starting sentences with, “I want you to”, or, “I need you to”, helps make us
clearer. “I want you to start working now.” “But Miss, they’ve got a video on
next door.” “I know, but I need you to get to work now.”
Not giving clear behaviour instructions to accompany work instructions
In most lessons we give a bravura all-singing all-dancing performance for the
first half hour (too long) and then ask them to do some work. This is often the
point at which the room gets chaotic and
students take a breather by chucking books
across the room. The way out is to tell students
nearer the start of the lesson what activities
they will be doing and ask them what behaviour
they will need to be successful: “What do I want
to see when people are getting the equipment
out?”
Teaching until the last minute, leaving no time for summing up
All over the country we teach at break-neck speed until the last two minutes
and then do a supersonic sum up followed by a quick scream about
homework. Use the last 15 minutes for plenary and homework. Often students
don’t know what they have learned until they have had a chance to sum it up
for themselves.