Masum Billah :
Most language classrooms around the world are not ideal for effective communication. Classrooms typically contain rows of desks facing the teacher, students sitting individually or in pairs, with up to 50 students in the room for a lesson and in Bangladesh it crosses hundred in many institutions. This situation hardly allows communicative activities in the classroom. Teachers describe such classes as problematic because large classes generate lots of stress, increase work overload and make practically impossible to give equal opportunity to all learners. Most teachers agree that teaching a small group of students is easier, more enjoyable, and less time-consuming than teaching a large group. However, due to budget constraint, space or lack of teachers, most institutions have to hold large classes. Though the large classes may look more like a university lecture hall, teachers’ job is not to lecture. Just like teaching a small class, teachers must come up with engaging activities that will keep all of their students interested and participating with the goal of improving their communication skills.
Students in large classes might take full advantage of large classes to do other thing rather than learning. They can sit at the back of the class where they will not be seen and may spend some time there doing homework, chatting with peers, drawing pictures, disrupting the class. They might not get involved in classes because they haven’t heard the instructions clearly since large classes make listening instruction almost impossible. Students feel like the teacher is not focused on them and that he is only interested in those students who are seated in the front row.
Classroom management includes the general challenges of organizing the learning and the learners. Giving instructions, maintaining control and discipline, and organizing group work can all take more time and energy in a large class. We often find a wide range of abilities in large classes, from learners who learn quickly to those who need more help. This brings challenges, for example when one or two of the faster learners dominate group work, or get bored when we explain something they already know. Conversely, weaker learners may sometimes feel humiliated if they can’t answer a question, and sometimes misbehave out of frustration. Student might hesitate to communicate in large classes because the eyes of many people are on them. We all know that to learn a language, we need to use it. However, in large classes, it can be a real challenge just getting learners to speak English. Some may feel unwilling to talk together in a foreign language, others may need help deciding what to say, and once we get them started it can often be a challenge to manage the noise levels. To improve and learn from their mistakes, language learners need feedback, and this becomes more challenging in large classes.
Class should be started by giving the rules of participation so that the teacher can keep an atmosphere of respect regardless of the tasks students are going to complete during his/her lesson. The tasks should be tailored as per the level of the students. A teacher has to use a variety of activities to motivate and engage all learners and focus should be more in activities that students can do in pairs or in small groups. Questions are the simplest form of interactive teaching tool, particularly in large classes. They can help promote active learning and gauge students’ level of interest and comprehension. In communicative classes, have students switch places so they can go and interact with other classmates that will give a teacher the opportunities to move around classroom and listen to other group works. Feel good with communicative noise in the classroom, it is not very likely that large classes will keep quiet during the lesson.
‘Back translation’ or ‘reverse translation’, can be practiced in the large class. It does have four stages. First, learners study the features of a model text in English. The text can be as short or as long as the teacher likes. Then, they translate it into the mother tongue. Then, the original English text is hidden, and learners must translate their mother tongue text back to English. Finally, they compare this text with the original English text and can note differences, self- or peer-correct errors and even award marks if criteria are simple and clear.
Classes with many students may be noisy, but they are also fun and exciting. While it can get noisy, the energy in a large class can be motivating for students, and teachers rarely feel that time is moving slowly. Classes go by quickly in a large class. Teachers regularly find themselves with extra activities that they did not complete that they can save and use in their next class. There is always someone who is willing to answer questions even if they are just guessing. Make sure to take answers from a variety of students. Teachers have less need for fillers since core activities and lessons take longer to complete. Large classes offer the opportunity to implement creative, student-centered cooperative project work. And also more students mean more opinions and more opportunities for students to engage with different ideas. And a teacher gets opportunity to meet a huge gathering, public gathering when accustomed to dealing with a large class with many students.
Teaching English to a large number of students can be daunting, but it needs to be considered a challenge rather than an obstacle. Learning a language is very similar to learning how to ride a bicycle or how to swim. It cannot be done by just watching someone else do it. If a person is going to learn the language, they must practice it as often as possible. Make sure all the students get a chance to participate in the language class. Very often, the shy or quiet students can be ‘forgotten’ or can become invisible in large class settings because the more outspoken students are ready to volunteer their answers or ready to read out loud. Finally, you should take your time to be creative and develop effective lesson plans using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)!
(Masum Billah is Country Director-Voluntary Association for Bangladesh and President- English Teachers’ Association of Bangladesh).
