English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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170 JACK C. RICHARDSClassroom managementClassroom management refers to the ways <strong>in</strong> which student behavior, movement, and<strong>in</strong>teraction dur<strong>in</strong>g a lesson are organized and controlled by the teacher to enable teach<strong>in</strong>gto take place most effectively. Good managerial skills on the part of the teacher are anessential component of good teach<strong>in</strong>g. In a well-managed class, discipl<strong>in</strong>e problems are few,and learners are actively engaged <strong>in</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g tasks and activities; this contributes to highmotivation and expectations for success. Evertson, Anderson, and Brophy (1 978) found thatit was possible to identify teachers with managerial problems <strong>in</strong> the first few days of theschool year, that such problems cont<strong>in</strong>ued throughout the year, and that managerial skills<strong>in</strong> the classroom were related to levels of student <strong>in</strong>volvement.Structur<strong>in</strong>gA lesson reflects the concept of structur<strong>in</strong>g when the teacher’s <strong>in</strong>tentions are clear and<strong>in</strong>structional activities are sequenced accord<strong>in</strong>g to a logic that students can perceive.Classroom observations and studies of lesson protocols <strong>in</strong>dicate that sometimes neither theteacher nor the learners understood what the <strong>in</strong>tentions of an activity were, why an activityoccurred when it did, what directions they were supposed to follow, or what the relationshipbetween one activity and another was. Hence, it may not have been clcar what studentsneeded to focus on to complete a task successfully. Fisher et a1. (1 980) conclude that students“pay attention more when the teacher spends time discuss<strong>in</strong>g the goals or structures of thelesson and/or giv<strong>in</strong>g directions about what the students are to do” (p. 26). Berl<strong>in</strong>er (1 984)likewise suggests that “structur<strong>in</strong>g affects attention rate: it is sometimes not done at all,sometimes it is done only m<strong>in</strong>imally, and sometimes it is overdone”(p. 63).Tasks, or activity structures, refer to activities that teachers assign to atta<strong>in</strong> particular learn<strong>in</strong>gobjectives. For any given subject at any given level, a teacher uses a limited repertoire oftasks that essentially def<strong>in</strong>e that teacher’s methodology of teach<strong>in</strong>g. These might <strong>in</strong>cludecomplet<strong>in</strong>g worksheets, read<strong>in</strong>g aloud, dictation, quickwrit<strong>in</strong>g, and practic<strong>in</strong>g dialogues.Accord<strong>in</strong>g to Tikunoff (I 985) , class tasks vary accord<strong>in</strong>g to three types of demands theymake on learners: response mode demands (the k<strong>in</strong>d of skills they demand, such as knowledge,comprehcnsion, application, analysis/synthesis, evaluation); <strong>in</strong>teractional mode demands (therules govern<strong>in</strong>g how classroom tasks are accomplished, such as <strong>in</strong>dividually, <strong>in</strong> a group, orwith the help of the teacher); and task complexity demands (how difficult the learner perceivesthe task to be).Teachers have to make decisions not only about the appropriate k<strong>in</strong>ds of tasks to assignto learners, but also about the order of tasks (the sequence <strong>in</strong> which tasks should be<strong>in</strong>troduced); pac<strong>in</strong>g (how much time learners should spend on tasks); products (whether theproduct or result of a task is expected to he the same for all students); learn<strong>in</strong>g strategies(what learn<strong>in</strong>g strategies will be recommended for particular tasks); and materials (whatsources and materials to use <strong>in</strong> complet<strong>in</strong>g a task) (Tikunoff 198s).The concept of tasks has been central to studies of effective teach<strong>in</strong>g. The amount oftime students spend actively engaged on learn<strong>in</strong>g tasks is directly related to learn<strong>in</strong>g (Goodand Beckerman 1978). For example,Teacher A andTeacher B are both teach<strong>in</strong>g the sameread<strong>in</strong>g lesson. InTeacher A’s class, learners are actively engaged <strong>in</strong> read<strong>in</strong>g tasks for 75%of the lesson, the rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g time be<strong>in</strong>g occupied with non<strong>in</strong>structional activities such as