Effective Teaching Strategies for Language Classrooms

Foundational Principles in Foreign Language Education

Evolving FL Curricular Goals and Approaches

Traditionally, Foreign Language (FL) curricular goals focused on linguistic principles and concepts for students to learn and apply. At present, in consonance with the Common European Framework (CEFR), FL goals are oriented towards the development of not only concepts, but also principles and facts, encompassing a broader range of skills and knowledge.

Integrating Cross-Curricular Content in FL Teaching

The teaching and learning of a Foreign Language provides excellent opportunities to introduce other curricular contents, contributing to a more comprehensive education. Various areas can receive attention within the FL classroom.

Effective Classroom Management Strategies

Understanding Classroom Management

Your most important job as a teacher is perhaps to create the conditions in which learning can take place. The skills of creating and managing a successful class may be the key to the overall success of a course. An important part of this involves your attitude, intentions, personality, and your relationships with the learners.

Key Areas of Classroom Management

Common classroom management areas include:

• Activity Management:
  • Setting up activities
  • Giving instructions
  • Monitoring activities
  • Timing activities (and the lesson as a whole)
  • Bringing activities to an end
• Grouping and Seating:
  • Forming groupings (singles, pairs, groups, mingle, plenary)
  • Arranging and rearranging seating
  • Deciding where you will stand or sit
  • Reforming class as a whole group after activities
• Authority:
  • Gathering and holding attention
  • Deciding who does what (e.g., answer a question, make a decision)
  • Establishing or relinquishing authority as appropriate
  • Getting someone to do something
• Critical Moments:
  • Starting the lesson
  • Dealing with unexpected problems
  • Maintaining appropriate discipline
  • Finishing the lesson
• Tools and Techniques:
  • Using the board and other classroom equipment or aids
  • Using gestures to help clarity of instructions and explanations
  • Speaking clearly at an appropriate volume and speed
  • Use of silence
  • Grading complexity of language
  • Grading quantity of language
• Working with People:
  • Spreading your attention evenly and appropriately
  • Using intuition to gauge what students are feeling
  • Eliciting honest feedback from students
  • Really listening to students

Managing Off-Topic Discussions in the Classroom

When students talk about another topic in class, you can join the conversation using English and subtly manipulate the discussion so that students are involved in using the language items you were planning to work on in the first place. After a while, slip one or two examples of the planned language items into your conversation. Draw students’ attention to these items and slowly change the focus of the lesson so that students get involved in using the language items you were planning to work on.

Dynamic Seating Arrangements for Effective Learning

• Ask students to move seats when you create pairs or small groups. Don’t let students get stuck in unsuitable seating arrangements when a move is preferable.
• If it’s really too noisy, make the discussion of that (and the finding of a solution) part of the lesson.
• If students normally sit in rows, try forming a circle.
• Turn the classroom around so that the focus is on a different wall from normal.
• Make seating arrangements that reflect specific contexts, e.g., a train carriage, an airplane, a town center, or whatever.

Understanding Educational Competences

General (Transferable) Competences

General competences, also known as transferable competences, are not specific to language (though they include language activities) but are called upon for actions of all kinds. These include skills such as the ability to analyze and synthesize, general culture, the ability to work independently, awareness of the European and international context, skill in working together cooperatively, leadership, and the ability to organize and plan. That is, we are talking about skills which can be used in a variety of situations, not only those strictly related to the course of study in question. In general, these skills are developed by means of appropriate teaching and learning strategies. Apart from these general competences, each course of study will also develop specific ones.

Specific (Domain-Specific) Competences

Specific competences refer to theoretical and practical or experimental knowledge and skills specific to a particular area of study. The concept of specific competence may be considered in two ways:

• From a theoretical point of view, competence is conceived of as a cognitive structure which favors specific behaviors.
• From the operational perspective, the idea of competences covers a wide range of skills which enable us to function in complex situations; this implies knowledge, appropriate attitudes, and metacognitive and strategic thought-processes.

Competences therefore include representational and behavioral components.