When I was asked to start a low level afternoon class I was a little concerned about the materials that would be appropriate. For some time I’ve been teaching FCE and CAE afternoon classes. I greatly enjoy teaching exam classes as there’s a clear goal, which is the exam. I have built up a wealth of experience and materials for the two exams and usually feel quite relaxed about teaching them. However with General English afternoon classes, which run for two hours, finding light-hearted, exciting and educational materials can be quite taxing.
When the class opened it had a very mixed ability group of students. I used bright materials to keep the students’ interest but also kept them quite simple in order to not confound learners after three hours of morning lessons. The fact that the class was multi-level meant that I had to adapt a lot of materials. Although the materials were successful many of the students were under pressure to learn English for work and were distracted by weaker students. It was agreed that one student who was very hard working would move up a level to the middle level General English afternoon class and use his move as an opportunity to practice a higher level of English and therefore progress. The class still remained mixed level. One student was learning English for the first time and would have to work extremely hard to keep up. One young learner had a decent level of English but was always exhausted after morning lessons. One lady who had lived in England for some time had a wide vocabulary and good understanding of English but her writing was extremely inaccurate. Another student was putting himself under a lot of pressure to do well but he was tired from three hours of morning classes and possibly had unrealistic expectations.
All these factors combined made the class difficult to teach and there was also the possibility that they could have a detrimental effect on the students’ progress. I was the only teacher available for the class and failure with the student’s success would have had far-reaching connotations. Firstly if the students were not progressing they were likely to move to another school and secondly as the school in question is a specialized Christian school student’s failure could lead to the school gaining a bad reputation.
After discussing my concerns with the director of studies and him with the students an observation was organised. It became a critical incident as my director of studies only told me at lunch time that he would like to observe me after the lunch break. He stated that the observation was in order to ascertain how the class could be improved to suit the variety of learners it contained. I was a little taken aback as observations are usually arranged in advance giving the teacher time to prepare, not just materials put also a full and comprehensive lesson plan. I had my materials planned in advance but took time over the lunch break to prepare my board plan and check that I had everything I needed. The class was a success but my director of studies noted that the classroom layout was unsuitable for the current class and he would organise for a room change.
We moved classrooms and the dynamics of the class started to change. When one of the students finished her course she was extremely complimentary about the school and my teaching in particular. Two of the students returned home and new students arrived. The class did not become any easier to teach and so followed another critical incident. As the new class began to fill up I started to use new materials. I tried to keep the materials as exciting and lighthearted as possible to contrast with morning grammar heavy lessons.
The class was between pre-intermediate and elementary and I tried to keep the activities to a level that meant that everyone would progress but no-one would be defeated. One of the students who was pre-intermediate level had come to England to study for five weeks and was keen to learn as much as possible. However she was often very giggly in class which meant that she was not always working. Further she had a very strong accent and found pronunciation quite difficult. The critical incident happened when she approached her agent before approaching me or the director of studies to say that she found the classes boring, not snappy enough and that we repeated things. My director of studies approached me to tell me what the agent had been told. I explained to him that the small amount of repetition was to ensure that the students not only understood what they were being taught but also to be able to use it again in future. My director of studies was very understanding but felt a little concerned as the complaint had come from the agent who supplies the majority of students to that school.
Although I had some very good resources I supplemented them with extra resources that would allow the students to quickly understand vocabulary and themes. I took a considerable amount of time to adapt the materials for the lessons. The lessons did go well because the students were willing to work, they were also very appreciative of the materials they were given and responded quickly and accurately. As at least one of the students in the small class was learning English to work in this country and the other students were open minded I adapted a idioms and phrasal verb board game. The game meant that whenever a student landed on a phrasal verb square they had to answer a question about an English phrasal verbs and the same for idioms if they landed on a idiom square: Please see below;
As the questions might be too taxing without an image I created some cards with images to aid the students understanding. The students thoroughly enjoyed the game and I could notice a marked improve in their English from the beginning to the end of the the general English lesson. I will definitely use these cards again, they are ideal for a small group: Please see below;
I think this critical incident offered me a lesson as a teacher that sometimes the materials available are not enough and if you are prepared to produce tailor made lessons you can raise the level of the class significantly.
