Ask Headmaster Ken

Hi Ken,

I'm having some difficulty with moral and motivation among my teenage students. I can tell that they are seriously stressed out with their school work and often do homework during English class. Most of the time when I ask them questions they won't answer me. It wouldn't be so bad but the classes are two hours long, that's a long time to keep a conversation going, I'm struggling to get through every class. The other teachers in my school have similar problems. About the only way I can get them to talk is give them something to read out loud. The girls seem to be worse than the boys. Any advice would be appreciated.

Wuxi

You are facing some high hurdles.

First, your students are prioritizing what is important in their immediate lives. They know your class is essentially a penalty free, easy ride. The consequences of poor participation in your class are overshadowed by the consequences of poor work in their other classes.

Second, at some level, students probably believe that learning English is probably not essential to their future career or lives.

That doesn't mean the cause is lost.

First, keep your classes moving at a fast pace. Plan no longer than seven to fourteen minutes per segment. If you need longer, come back after a different seven to fourteen minute block and hit it again.

Next, use a little TPR. Even if is nothing more than having students stand up, try to touch the ceiling and turn around. Or turn around and speak a set phrase to their classmate.

Also, the proper use of group work. Start small and fast. For example a pair exercise "buss group". Have them write down every word they can think of relating to transportation, for example, in two minutes.

If students perform well,l gradually expand the scope and size of group work. For example, have them agree or disagree with a statement and give the reasons why. My rule is everybody in the group must speak and present in front of the class. Even twelve year old students can do this.

Group work is an excellent tool and students enjoy it. Insist on full participation and keep the times short so they are focused under pressure.

For reading aloud, change it up. You read the prescribed passage aloud to the class and make deliberate mistakes. The first student from one of the two teams you divided the class into get a point. After three points, they get a "shot" at the other team's tank drawn on the board. You have never seen so many students glued to every word in a passage.

Use competition as much as possible. Give Olympic scoring to those who read aloud for team points.

Your best tools are speed, group work, competition.

I wish you the best.

At the Senior High School where I work at, in the beginning, some of the students tried to pull the "I am working on other stuff" trick on me. I just went up to them and took away whatever they were working on and threw it on my desk. After a couple of weeks they stopped working on those other things and concentrated on my class. The boys are a little more stubborn, so I made some of them write on the chalkboard "I will not (fill in the blank) in class," sleep, throw things, not do work, etc. Most of that behavior stopped. Now, in class it is a cat and mouse game with a couple of students, but 2 out of maybe 10 as before in a 60 person class is alright in my book. I was tough in the beginning, and now it is smooth sailing in class. Maybe this is not your personality, but even walking around and asking students to politely put away things also helps. Always keep circulating around class. After a while, the students get tired of hiding things so they just do not take them out.

Headmaster Ken is right on his advice. Keep it short and sweet and always changing. I also found that making the lessons concentrated on ways to express their personalities and likes helps. I had them draw a Mandala, a Tibetan drawing, where in pictures they expressed their personalities and had them present those in class. That was very successful. Also look into the Freire technique. This shows them slides, or pictures from say school life in America, baseball games, etc. and then you have them discuss questions in English in their small groups starting from simple yes and no answers to having them apply other questions to their lives. For example, I showed them pictures from the subway system in New York city. The first few questions related to describing the people, the last were about if every Chinese city needed a subway. I hope these suggestions help.