Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Cand. Sc. (History) O. Krichker

Cherkasy Institute of Fire Safety named after Chernobyl Heroes, Ukraine

Managing Challenges in EFL Classroom

One of the numerous challenges an EFL professor faces in the classroom is a college students’ fear of speaking foreign language whatever his primary level of knowledge is. It can be explained by several factors, such as lack of words to express their ideas, lack of self-confidence, fear of making mistakes or they may even be scared of being laughed at, for instance because of their bad pronunciation. So, I think a professor should try and fight all these fears of failure by creating a friendly atmosphere of trust and support.

In general, it is a question of an effective classroom management that may help cope with this problem and, what is significant, to develop in the students the desire to speak the English language.

In this paper we would like to consider the most often challenges and offer some tips to help in teaching process.

One of the biggest problems for an EFL professor is that students don’t take part in discussions during the class as they don’t want to make mistakes. Our idea is to offer them to translate a passage from the Ukrainian language into Russian and vice versa. Although they use both languages every day, they are sure to make some mistakes and use Surzhyk. This will show them that a man is prone to error in all senses.

The other problem is that some students get embarrassed if they do not know the translation of every word in the sentence. In such a case, you may offer them a text with an evident meaning or just give the title and ask them to guess what the text may be about; either change a familiar word for unknown and let them translate the whole sentence. Another way is to give them a passage with a nonexistent word and show them that it is possible to understand the situation without knowing one or two words but just drawing on the context. It will demonstrate them how one can get the drift without translating every single word and, hence raise their consciousness about the significance of context as a helper in the process of perception.

The next challenge I have faced recently on my own for the first time in my own teaching experience, refers to the desire of students to have each and every mistake corrected and, of course, explained. It took me several minutes to explain them that if I correct them every time they were wrong it would be like in the song “The World is not Enough”. Hence, the advice is to create at once a policy of correcting only those mistakes that refer to the studied material and not to be distracted by the non-relevant issues. It will help students concentrate on the context, without thinking about all the rules existing in the language. For example, if we work at dialogues, students may form their lines using offered patterns and word combinations not fearing any grammar mistakes because their oral skills are evaluated.

There is one more way to help students relax and feel free during a conversation. The idea is to involve them into the preparation process, which means that professor will talk less during the class and give more time and space for students’ speaking. They may be offered to make up one statement and several phrases and word combinations to support or confute it as their home task. Later on during the class each student will have a possibility to read the sentence and transform their notes into pro and contra ideas. It can be done in the form of a project or a Power Point presentation. As an example, the following statement may be given: The firefighter is always the first to arrive at the accident scene, where the supporting phrases such as firefighter is a hero/ rescuer; give the first aid; helps victims of emergencies; fight fires; skilled/qualified etc. may be later transformed into sentences.

To help students speak English, digital gadgets, tablets or smartphones can be of use, too, and what is important, they bring teaching process closer to reality. For example, Fire Safety Department students may be offered a 5-minute-surf on the net to find the news in English and discuss them at once, or search for natural disasters occurring on the planet at the moment (http://www.theguardian.com/international) or find out about the ones that already happened in the world (http://www.firstpost.com/tag/natural-disaster). The photos attached to the articles help to understand the contents to those students who have a low level of language and they may also use web-dictionaries to understand the idea of the article. Students should be asked just to scan the news to understand its main message, write at most three words on the blackboard, show the photo and tell the information to the group in 2-3 sentences. The idea is to give them opportunity to do what they like and got used to – Google-search – and at the same time to use the results of sitting on the Internet to develop their language skills and speak freely having the text in their hands. Creating a comfort zone in the classroom is a way out in fitting themselves into the English language surrounding. When they feel comfortable, don’t fear mistakes, they will enjoy participating in the activity that is their second nature.

In this paper it was on more than one occasion that the notion of comfort was used. We consider it one of the necessary characteristics helping professor in managing the overall situation in the classroom. Although physical and emotional climate does not have much to do with the language itself, it influences directly their desire to be a part of the whole and participate. You should support and assist students in fighting their anxiety of using a foreign language. Fears may be caused by a previous psychological trauma as, for instance, when the student was constantly corrected or mocked at for his mistakes or pronunciation by his/her school teacher. Professor should encourage and praise students for speaking - no matter if it is grammatically correct - and explain them that there is no need to doubt about every word because the most important is to convey or understand ideas in general and that it is better to make mistakes than keep silence.

They say where there is a will there is a way. Professors can complain much of the low initial language level of students and of the shortage of EFL classes in the curriculum of technical universities and colleges but it would be better to start acting instead of nagging: help your students speak instead of yourself, create an atmosphere of language confidence and comfort and you will soon see the fruit of your work.