QU Xiufen

No 1 High School in Shanghe Jinan, Shandong Province

[Abstract]: It is widely admitted that teaching English to a large class has certain disadvantages over a small class. But in most primary and secondary schools in China, large class teaching is still a common practice. Some latest research shows that English teachers in many schools in China often have to face special difficulties in achieving the aims set by the new English Curriculum Standard for Primary and Secondary Schools. Therefore, it is necessary for those teachers to understand the main principles and learn some basic strategies for large class English teaching in order to improve their teaching. This paper aims to analyze common factors and special difficulties in large class situation, followed by some guidelines for large class EFL teachers, with each guideline underpinned by certain educational theory and principles. The argumentation will be stated in seven aspects: (i) Teacher’s good understanding of individual learners; (ii) Clarifying learning goals to inspire the motivation and interest of the learners;(iii) Different learning materials and assessment criteria for different learners according to their levels;(iv) Use of group work and collaborative learning;(v) Improving drilling techniques to accelerate the transformation of English knowledge to language competence;(vi). Foster the students’ independent learning abilities and reduce their dependence on teacher, and (vii) Personal communication between teachers and students.

[Key words]: EFL teaching  big class teaching  teaching strategies  new Curriculum Standard

The curriculum reform for primary and secondary education in China, which began at the end of last century, has put forward new requirement both for teachers and students in schools at all levels. The new Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education, which was issued in 2001, also calls for betterment both in learning process and teaching concept. The main characteristics of this reform can be summarized in two propositions. One is more importance being attached to the learning process and learning strategies of learners instead of only just focusing on results of learning. The other is transformation from teacher-centred tradition to the learner-centred learning, i.e., more attention to the individuality of learners, such as their self-discipline, their self-dependence, and their self-determination. On the other hand, since in most part of China large classed are still a reality and they poses particular challenges for EFL teachers in the course of fulfilling of their duties suggested in the Curriculum Standard. Therefore, it is necessary to suggest ways for large class EFL teachers to cope with the special problems in large class English teaching in order help them improve their teaching.

Before giving any suggestions, we should first consider the many challenges that large class EFL teachers may encounter in their work:

In large class situation, teachers have more students to know and more names to remember.

In large class situation, it seems that students' attention wandering happens more easily.

In large class situation, each student is more easily influenced by others and it is more difficult to keep good discipline going in class.

In large class situation, teachers have much more to prepare for students of different abilities, wanting to learn different things at different speed and in different ways.

In large class situation, teachers cannot easily give each student the individual attention they need.

In large class situation, teachers may not have enough teaching and learning aids.

In large class situation, teachers have to spend more time checking students' works.

In large class situation, teacher may have to spare more efforts to prepare a multi-level assessment for different students, etc.

As inexperienced teachers may feel discouraged while facing all these difficulties, it's also necessary for them to know that although large class EFL teaching has its disadvantages, it also has some advantage compared with small class teaching. When there are many students in a class:

They can share many different ideas and interesting life experiences.

They can discuss and learn from each other.

They can learn to share responsibilities and help each other when doing group work.

More students can makes the group work and collaborative learning more effective,.

More students may bring up variety and speeds up the work, etc.

Therefore, it is not the number of students that is the determinant of success in EFL teaching. Teachers’ management and administration of the classroom activities is of key importance. In the following parts we will give some suggestion to large class EFL teachers.

1. Good understanding of individual learners in large class English teaching

Good understanding of every student in a large class is the very beginning of a successful teaching. The feeling of being cared by teacher may lead to interest and passion in learning, while the feeling of being neglected may depress the learners from the beginning. In a large class situation, as the opportunity for contact between students and teacher is significantly reduced, which results in less individual attention for the students, if teachers only gives general instructions to all the students at the same time, they may fail to help the individual students efficiently in their learning. The students who cannot get enough care and help may be discouraged and become less interested in learning. So, the overall understanding of each student in the class is a must for the teachers. Only by knowing the individual student better can it be possible for the teacher to serve specific help for them in their language learning and thus make the teaching more pertinent. Useful skills for teachers to get better understanding of their students include:

Get to know the students by learning and remember each student's names. (This is very important for teachers. Although remembering all the names in a very short time is a real challenge for any large class teacher, they must try their best to manage it.)

Try to know more about the students' personalities.

Get to know as much as possible about the students' learning experience.

Get to know something about the students' hobbies, and their special talents.

Give the students a well-prepared language test to know their English levels.

Try to know more about the students' grade of other subjects.

These are far more information that teachers could know than these suggested items. In fact, a teacher can never know his/her students too well. Any information about the students may prove to be valuable in the course of teaching English to them.

2. Clarifying learning goals to inspire the motivation and interest of the students

Knowing clearly what to do and why to do it is always helpful for students learning any subject. It is also the case in large class English teaching. To stimulate and sustain the students' interest in learning is a priority in large class teaching. Students who have more interests in English learning are often ready to take greater effort in their study and thus get a better understanding of the language they learn. Study shows that those who have more clear structure and set of goals to guide their learning in class often get better results than their fellow classmate. Being aware of the goals they are expected to achieve also helps the students to monitor their own learning and check their understanding against the stated objects. As a result of all this, learners' who has interests and passion in English learning can always save much of the teacher's effort. So it is important for the teacher in large class English teaching to clarify learning goals for the students.

How should a large class teacher arouse the students' interest then? Before answering that question, we also need to know what will reduce the students' interest in learning. Study shows that the following factors are common killers of the learner's interests:

Students do not know the importance of English learning.

Students are not prepared for the possible difficulties in the course of learning.

Students do not have effective learning strategies.

Students do not get timely help when having difficulties.

Students do not get encouragement and praise when they make progress in learning.

Students do not like the English teacher.

Students do not like the activities in English class.

Understanding of these common negative factors that affect the quality of learning may help teachers in protecting students' interests. The following are commonly used strategies for this purpose:

Help the students to know clearly what they are going to learn in English class.

Help the students to know why they need to learn all these things.

Give the students a clear, detailed syllabus and refer to it frequently.

(This can help all students to keep up.)

Help the students to identify the key concepts to be taught in each class, illustrating each main point.

Ask the students to write down the main points at the end of each lesson.

Improve classroom activities to grasp the students' attention.

Join the students as a group member when doing group work.

Give the students timely help when needed.

Praise the students whenever necessary.

Use models to arouse the students' intimation.

Needless to say, teacher may find some ways especially helpful than others. That is the most natural thing, for no students in any two classed are exactly the same. And further more, with teaching going on, skilled teachers can always find new intact to attract interests of children in his/her class.

3. Different learning materials and assessment criteria for different learners according to their levels

The more students there are in a class, the more needs they have. Different students have different language levels and different learning styles in large class. Some students prefer to learn by listening, others may like visual representations；still others like to learn by doing. So teacher should collect as much learning aids as he/she could to meet the different needs of students in a large class.

Since students are at different levels, the language they are supposed to master and the learning aids for them to use also need to be divided into deferent levels. Beside that, a teacher also needs to plan his/her lesson in a student-centered manner. The explanation of the text and grammar, the practice of the conversation, the different training in listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all need to classified in to different levels to suit the students in hi/her class. Assignment and assessment are also need to carry out at different levels.

Presenting of the language should be based on the lower level.

Explanation of the target language should also be based on the lower level.

Practice of the targets language can be divided into different groups, with each group having its own task and destination.

Product and presentation of different group can be given in different forms.

All these efforts are for providing opportunities for learners to access and consolidate information.

The following examples may help to understand the nature of this method. When training the students listening skills, teacher may hand out readings of different levels to students in different groups. Or they may hand out the same readings to students in different groups. As in the latter case, the teacher can ask students in different groups to finish different tasks when the same listening script is used in a large class. For example, ask the A-level students to take notes while they are listening to a dialogue and retell the dialogue in his/her own words based on their notes after listening. For the B-level students, teacher can also ask them to take notes, but they only need to answer some questions or tell the class the main idea of what they have listened to. The C-level students may be encouraged if only they can catch any word or phrase when listening. If they can tell who is speaking and where the conversation is taking place, they should be well praised for this.

Finally, it must be emphasized that no matter what method a teacher may use in a large class, the instruction for different groups of students must be very clear to make sure that every student know what he/she is expected to do, how to do it and why. Never puzzle the students with misleading instructions.

4. Use of group work and collaborative learning

Pair work and group work are frequently used by large class teachers. A well-planned group work with each group given clear, defined and achievable goals, can promote deeper and broader learning outcomes for all students. It not only helps students develop language and communication skills but also give the students' opportunities to experience cooperated learning. Pair work and group work make it easier for students to be involved in various classroom activities. The positive and pleasant atmosphere will help to realize the notion of learner-centred language teaching. What is more, group work turns the competition between individual students into a race of different groups. It turns the possible frustration when an individual student makes language mistakes into self-respect of the whole team. In a large class EFL teaching, the advantage of group work may be doubled. On the one hand, too many students make it impossible for the teacher to give proper directions to each of them; on the other hand, the many students make it easier to share their ideas. With all these merits, group work and pair work are no doubt a very reasonable choice in large class EFL teaching.

When planning a group work, teachers should know clearly what the students are supposed to achieve and outline expectation and provide guidance on how to coordinate the group object. Other points for teachers to know when carrying out a group work are listed below.

Decide what kind of group the students will form, mixed-ability group or same-ability group.

Think carefully on the classification of groups.

Set the language goals for each group.

List each member in each group.

Choose the faster, more able one as the group leader

Give each group a task.

Prepare before class the materials needed.

Make sure each one in the group can contribute to the fulfilment of the task.

Monitor the work of each group.

Move around the classroom to see what progress learners are making and what problems are coming up.

Give advice, encouragement and extra individual help when needed.

Assess each group's work with proposals.

5. Improving the drilling techniques to accelerate the transformation of English knowledge to language competence

English is a language. Any language in nature is a tool for communication and at the same time, a complex set of rules. If we want to communicate with others using a language, we first need to have a good command of the many rules ruling the language. In China recently, more and more emphasis is put on the communication side of language learning. However, that dose not means that knowledge on the language structure rules and mechanical drills and practice focused on structures could be neglected. As most students in China do not have the opportunity to use English in their daily life as people in English speaking nations do, classroom learning and training is still the preferable approach for them to master the language. Therefore, sufficient and effective training in class is still indispensable for most English learners in China.

The attractiveness of the lectures lies in the variety of the classroom activities, for the students are not always self-motivated and exited about learning. Unless students are interested and engaged in the learning activities, the quality of their learning cannot be guaranteed. Even the most exciting and engaging learning activity will quickly loose its impact if it is used again and again in the class.

It is not whether the students have done some exercise or how much practice they have done that is important. What is important is how they did the exercise and what have they learnt from it. In order to get every students involved in the classroom activities, large class teachers often need to prepare suitable activities and exercises for students of different levels. By devising challenging, surprising, amusing, or realistic dilemmas or tasks for the students to undertake, the teacher will engage their interest and attention for a longer period of time and will enhance the quality of their learning. Teachers should plan a variety of learning activities for the students to undertake. In planning their lessons, if teachers can put more attention to the following details, they may get a better result in their large class teaching.

Plan a group project in which each group member will have their own special task that is connected to the others.

Each group member sign a contract in which they each agree to do their own task and finish it.

Use role-play to get the students involved in learning.

Check that the pair work and group work have specific target.

Make proper use some traditional activities, such as dictation, reading in groups, reciting

Make sure the writing on the blackboard is clear for everyone.

Adjust voice for all the students to hear clearly.

If recordings are used, adjust the volume of the speaker so that everyone can hear clearly.

Ask the students to speak or read loud enough for others to hear him/her, etc.

Beside all these tactics, teacher may also use code to save time in a large class. Establish a code of behavior that is created by teachers and learners together. It should state clear basic rules of conduct that learners understand, such as: No talking.

Listen quietly.

Let's have a dictation.

Self-reading.

Read aloud.

Follow the tape sentence by sentence.

Talk in English with your partner.

The students can write the code point on a paper. Put this paper in a visible place.

As has mentioned in group works, before any activity, teacher should take time before an activity to explain clearly the how it is to be conducted, what the students are supposed to do and how to do it.

6. Foster the students' independent learning abilities and reduce their dependence on teacher

Good learning strategy is important to anyone in learning. Part of teacher's role is to teach their students strategies that are more effective and appropriate to their learning need. As opportunities for large class students to get timely help from their teacher is much less than students in small classes, large class teachers, therefore, should spend more time to help their students to find their own “best” method.

Once they have formed their own learning system, the students will be less dependent on their teachers, and reduces reliance on teacher as the only source of information. The following are some good qualities that good English learners have.

Be willing to listen to English carefully.

Be sensitive about sound and meaning.

Be willing to speak English in public.

Have interests in reading.

Like to ask for help from teacher, friends or parents, when have problems.

Be able to find opportunities to learn English outside classroom and beside textbooks.

Understand when to use a dictionary and how to use it.

Be willing to practice using anything learnt in real life.

Teachers can take measures to cultivate these qualities that will help the large class English learners by:

Give mini-lectures on such topic as how to stud English, how to improve your reading, etc;

Encourage the students to form learning clubs and share their learning experiences.

Develop more learning resources, such as pictures, photos, newspapers, or recordings from radio and TV programmes

Use tapes to supply authentic language for the students to read after.

Set up a small English library. Collect newspapers, magazines, story books and other English reading for it.

Use computers and internet to help is possible.

Organize after-class activities, such as English corner, English party, English wallpaper, and reading clubs, to create English surroundings for the students.

7. A welcoming and engaging learning environment

A welcoming and engaging learning environment will make the study easy and happy. But in large classes, teacher often neglect some of the students unconsciously. These neglected students are those who are not good at English and need more help from their teacher. Lack of attention in the long ran will become negative stimulus and cause the students loose their interest and be unwilling to cooperate with the teachers in class. What is more, their negative feeling may spread to others, and make more students feel depressed, so large class teachers should often take some measures in their class to avoid this happening.

Many ideas mentioned in part 1 will help the teachers to be in good relationship with their students.

There are also other tactics, such as, have private talks with individual student after class, finding their problems and understanding their feelings, be prepared to become the students’ friend, understand the students with true love, knowing their need, including need for English learning as well as other needs. In fact, most students are easily moved by their teacher’s love and care or their devotion in work. Because of this, they will always have more passion and put more effort in the subject that the teacher is teaching and the teacher can therefore get twice the result with half the effort.

To sum up, the number of students in a class is not the last determinant of success in EFL teaching. Much room is left for teachers to take advantages of large class EFL teaching to get a better result. Among all the notions and strategies mentioned above, love and understanding of each student, diversities of classroom activities for different individuals to catch and maintain their attention, and effective organization and monitor of the students classroom behavior are the three most important factors that needs teacher’s special efforts.

References

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Nolasco, R and Arthur, L. 1988. Teaching Large Class. [M]. Macmillan.

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