Teaching English to Large Classes: Pedagogical Implications*

*I wrote this paper in 2015 to complete a master's course in Issues and Trends in Language Teaching

Dealing with a large class seems to be one of the main concerns an English teacher has. It is very common to teach English at any public school with a class made up of forty students. Time is another significant characteristic that requires special attention: the amount of hours per week devoted to English teaching at schools has been drastically condensed to three. Thus, it is not easy to develop skills in such a short period. Having this in mind, this paper is intended to critically examine the influence of a large group of students in the process of English language teaching and learning. For instance, the author will list and explain some of the current issues that language instructors face when teaching English in public schools. Hence, the lack of resources will be a crucial characteristic that will be discussed throughout the paper. Therefore, classroom management strategies for language instructors will be offered. Finally, activities and a possible methodology to develop oral skills, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary will be addressed to conclude.

Initially, Apart from the numerous group of students per class, this is also imperative to bear in mind individuals’ differences that according to Saville-Troike’s (2006) viewpoint have to do with age, sex, aptitude, motivation, cognitive styles, and learning strategies. Thus, the aforementioned aspects require to be taken into account when teaching English. However, this task is likely to be a tremendous job for a language instructor who is supposed to accompany the learning process of forty different students at the same time. Likewise, teachers have to manage to cope with students’ personalities that highly influence classroom management. Taking into account Escobar-Alméciga’s (2013) point of view, in Colombia there are no conditions of equality, especially in the area of English language education, because to obtain equality requires financial investment in teachers’ professional development and in physical and environmental resources such as good school facilities, books, media, and other materials. Escobar-Alméciga’s thoughts effectively compile the reality faced by Colombian public schools when it comes to teaching the English language at public schools.

Nowadays, the occasions for teachers to be trained in contemporary issues as well as in pedagogical implications and trends in language teaching are limited. Subsequently, language instructors in public schools lack the means to perform an active role as language facilitators. So, their teaching practices rely on the use of tedious worksheets to be completed and corrected in class.  Besides, internet access in most public schools has become a privilege. Accordingly, effective use of the limited ICT resources cannot be completed. In fact, there are computers and they are usually well equipped in terms of software and hardware. However, the internet connection is poor or nonexistent. Regarding this matter, Bax (2003) introduces the term normalization that refers to the stage when technology is invisible, hardly even recognized as a technology, taken for granted in everyday life. Following Bax’s statement, education in the English language at public schools is far from being recognized as technologically updated. Internet, projectors, computers, cd players and TV sets are still an award that a few public schools have. The abovementioned characteristics are probably the most significant explanations for having troubles at the time of dealing with large groups of learners in public schools from Colombia. 

On the subject of classroom management concerns, Sureda (1989) as cited in (Quintero-Corzo & Ramírez-Contreras, 2011) affirms that the lack of discipline in the classroom is a common factor around the world: what makes the difference is the teacher’s capability to maintain classroom management. Although, students’ misbehavior in class is an issue experienced all over the world, a large class is likely to request a serious teacher who manages to control all the positive and negative events that students daily present. Therefore, as teachers are not trained enough in the ultimate pedagogical issues and classroom management strategies, they tend to avoid speaking the target language in class. Teachers might feel afraid of not being understood or they want to save time. Teachers do not accomplish their role as linguistic models for students. This is evidenced in Viáfara’s (2011) research study. He concluded that the motivation and knowledge that teachers can inculcate in their students by speaking to them and promoting the use of English in classrooms can be substantial. In consequence, English is oriented and it is assumed by students as any other subject that they must accomplish.

In rural areas, the panorama of language teaching seems to be of poorer quality. Curricula have been organized in such form that the number of hours per week devoted to teaching English language has been reduced to two or three hours. Teachers should accommodate their daily teaching practices to short lessons in which they can only address grammar and vocabulary topics. Correspondingly, Bonilla & Cruz-Arcila (2013) believe that foreign language teachers of rural areas acknowledge that the socio-cultural and economic issues are the ones that affect more directly the way to give an account of their students’ achievements. The authors’ ideas express the real situation faced by rural communities in Colombia. Students are rarely provided with some money to invest in their school supplies that are reduced to notebooks and pens. In fact, it is the teacher who has to invest from their own salary in any cheap material for students. Furthermore, students’ absence to school is another notable aspect that requires to be further studied. As a result, students’ achievements are not equivalent to the goals accomplished by students in urban areas.

On the one hand, it is essential to analyze the possible strategies an English teacher should bear in mind to work with large classes. As it is suggested by Rojas’ (2003) research study, there are two general principles of action to cope with the problem of large groups: Being realistic and giving more responsibility to the learner. When she expresses the fact of being realistic, she means that certain activities or pieces of advice taken from principles or methodologies teachers were taught at the university are impossible to be implemented with large classes. Accordingly, it is a waste of time to try to apply them. Besides, the author claims that feeling guilty does not help at all. On the contrary, teachers should try to accommodate activities that to some extend fulfill the target group’s needs. About the second principle presented by Rojas, if a specific topic needs to be addressed in a session, the teacher needs to think about the best form this could be internalized by students. Having this in mind, cooperative learning and grouping seem to be the ideal strategies. Hence, the learner is being given more responsibility in his process. The teacher acts like an instructor who is in charge of giving instructions, illustrate with examples and provide feedback. A short of the possible activities teachers can conduct in the classroom will be presented as follows.

Concerning developing oral skills in the classroom, Shumin (2002) suggests that a possible way of stimulating learners to talk might be to provide them with extensive exposure to authentic language through audiovisual stimuli and with opportunities to use the language. Hereafter, teachers firstly should try to speak English during most of the lessons. Also, they should encourage their students to be aware of how prominent it is to accustom their ears to some extent to the target language. As there exist limited resources, it is necessary to emphasize the fact that teachers are the linguistic models that learners are supposed to follow. Students rarely have any contact with the target language outside the classroom. Mimics and body language are likely to be good strategies instructors may use to make themselves understood. Following Jacobs’ & Hall’s (2002) ideas on the area of cooperative learning, they claim that cooperative learning principles and techniques are tools that teachers use to encourage mutual helpfulness in the groups and the active participation of all members. In fact, teachers should manage to promote cooperative work, probably through the implementation of activities in a group of students who behave better. Additionally, students need to be guided toward achieving common goals. Therefore, they should feel they are essential and become active leaders instead of passive listeners.

Teachers use several resources in their teaching but are sometimes frustrated because the activities they introduce are not met with enthusiasm on the part of the students. (Touba, 2002). Accordingly, teachers may look for topics that students are used to. For instance, if it is a rural area where students live, the teacher may search for topics related to agriculture, such as the production or processing of coffee or sugar cane; environmental issues. In rural areas, there are breathtaking landscapes that are well-known by students. Thus, another speaking activity that could be applied in large classrooms could be short descriptions of the relevant places from hometown.  As students find them interesting and valuable, it is going to be particularly easy for teachers to provide students with vocabulary and structures to create simple speeches about the landmarks chosen. As well, kids and adolescents seem to be quite respectful of their traditions. Their identities have been shaped by their parents’ and relatives’ speeches about life, myths, and legends. Actually, the discourses in any community (urban or rural) is rich in storytelling. This is usually associated with experiences about life three or fourth decades ago. Hence, teachers could take advantage of this circumstance to invite learners to collect information and discuss it in small groups. Possibly, the quality of speech about the use of English will not be highly proficient. However, learners will undoubtedly use a couple of words learned. And, it can be assured that they will internalize expressions and useful vocabulary.

On the subject of teaching listening, Harmer (2007) speaks about the importance of providing learners with intensive and extensive listening. This is defined as especially important because they provide the perfect opportunity to hear voices other than the teachers. Likewise, this enables students to acquire good speaking habits as a result of the input they absorb and helps to improve their pronunciation. This could be understood as the right students have to be exposed to voices different from the teacher’s.  Wide exposure to American, British and global accents should be part of the curricula of schools. Undoubtedly, the three or four hours per week that English lessons are taught are not enough to successfully achieve goals. However, these short periods must be effectively used. In fact, as the lack of resources is being exposed throughout this paper, the teacher could manage to download videos or recordings from the internet. Hence, using a cd player or a computer, students could take turns to listen to or to watch it. Students could be asked to complete blanks with specific information from the video in a worksheet. Besides, learners may be asked to express their understanding of the audio they listen to, or about the video they watched. Thus, through this activity listening and oral skills can be developed at the same time.

About teaching grammar, Celce-Murcia (2001) asserts that this is not so much knowledge transmission as it is skill development. For instance, lessons are not supposed to be primarily devoted to the diffusion of grammar information. Having this in mind, many teachers have followed the tradition of focusing their lessons in grammar sessions that seek for learners to become experts in mechanical drill exercises. Eventually, students seem to find such lessons inadequate and monotonous. Students’ interest and motivation towards English language learning might start to gradually decrease. On the contrary, it is suggested that short presentations about grammar with clear examples and useful implications for real-life situations are sufficient. Then, long worksheets full of grammar exercises should be avoided. Instead, modest exercises with low grammatical content could be presented to students. Students need to be trained towards mastering grammar to some extent that they apply it when producing their own speeches in the target language. As a final point, it is necessary to raise awareness among students about the significance of becoming skilled at grammar as the only manner to produce accurate and fluent speeches able to be communicated and globally understood. Equally, the teachers’ role as a monitor and leader should still maintain.

Concerning vocabulary teaching, It is important that new vocabulary items be presented in contexts rich enough to provide clues to meaning and that students be given multiple exposures to items they should learn (Celce-Murcia, 2001). Following Celce-Murcia’s perspective, teaching vocabulary must be framed according to the context where students are immersed. The vocabulary chosen to be taught needs to be of extreme relevance to the learners. Almost certainly, aspects from another culture will be minimally internalized by learners as they will not be likely to find such aspects significant. Furthermore, teachers should be conscious of the importance of using visual aids as a tactic to present and relate new words with learners’ daily life. Frequently, students from public schools do not consider English as an important subject because their plans are far from traveling abroad. Besides, students’ socioeconomic strata do not permit them to visit a foreign country where English is spoken as a mother tongue. Therefore, the teacher should manage to present vocabulary that students find meaningful for their life. This means that the terms that students are offered should be related to the context that learners cohabit. For example, vocabulary related to school supplies, classroom objects, house objects, environment, plants, and autochthonous animals.  

As reading and writing involve meaning-making, they should be taught together (Shanaham, 1997), a description of suggested activities to address literacy in large classes will be presented as follows. Firstly, Cameron (2001) states that children should be encouraged to write pieces of writing about topics they find interesting. A pop star or a footballer might be chosen. Also, writing lessons should aim to provide learners with intensive training regarding syntax, accuracy, and coherence between sentences. Additionally, they should seek for developing fluency and use of English through writing activities. Besides, there are clear restrictions related to the time devoted to English lessons per week. For instance, teachers are required to guide learners to co-construct with the aid of classmates and their instructor sentences and then short paragraphs. Their instructor must provide constant feedback connected to grammar, syntax, and use of English. It can be assured that feedback and good instruction from the teacher are aspects that positively influence the development of writing skills in English learners. A good piece of advice to develop writing skills is suggested by Zúñiga (2005). She recommends a specific activity called “sending messages in the classroom”. This is intended to exchange messages within a class. According to her viewpoint, this is a very enriching activity as it stimulates communication and better friendships in the classroom meanwhile, students have the opportunity to know one another. Secondly, from Allington’s & Cunnigham’s (1996) perspective, for much of the century, it has been assumed that once children have learned to decode, they can read. Thus, comprehension would follow after pronouncing words, almost automatically (Zúñiga, 2005). Reading comprehension requires training and time to be developed as a skill. Therefore, short texts can be introduced to the classrooms, students could cooperatively analyze them. The teacher will encourage learners to provide information through short questions about the text.

All in all, public schools in urban and rural areas count on large classes, limited resources, misbehavior issues and short periods of language lessons. Besides, teachers are supposed to develop language skills regardless of the aforesaid restrictions. Additionally, it was discussed that teachers need to be realistic regarding their current teaching atmosphere and the knowledge they absorbed when they were trained. Moreover, it is suggested that another fact to deal with large classes relies on the idea of giving more responsibility to learners. Thus, cooperative work strategies appeared to be a good form to raise awareness among learners. In sum, the context, traditions, and learners’ identities are remarkable features that require special attention when teaching English.

References

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