Who manages the class - the teacher or the students ?

Class management, especially in English language classes, has always been a topic of discussion in online and on-site forums, workshops, and conferences. But this management depends on whether the students’ English is a first language or a second language.

Teachers must be cognizant of this issue when they design their lesson plans. Teachers dealing with with ESFLLs (English as a Second/Foreign Language Learners) have to anticipate that the students might easily get distracted if the class activities are not engaging enough. Accordingly, the students will get bored after some time. Hence, their levels of concentration will fall. On the other hand, teachers guarantee their EFLs (English as as First Language) students’ high concentration as long as the class content is explicitly explained without any incomprehensible vagueness. This means that the ESL /EFL (English as a Second /Foreign Language) teachers must assure that they select their class materials by harmonizing the cultural and academic environment of their classes. Otherwise, the teachers might encounter problems related to the inactive participation of their students. 

Some ESL / EFL teachers strictly follow all the activities and exercises of the coursebook without considering that some materials are inconvenient due to cultural discrepancies. For instance, these materials could introduce ideas and concepts that are unfamiliar to the students. Therefore, the students could not respond to these materials. Moreover, some materials bear ideologies that are societally rejected. Consequently, the teachers will be reprehended. Hence, they are to adapt the coursebook materials to attain the objectives of the or lesson plans successfully. 

The ESL / EFL teachers must have clear and distinct pronunciation, because may ESFLLs misunderstand much information due to their teachers’ pronunciation. Sometimes, teachers may not realize their speedy pronunciation. This would lead to the failure of some activities handled by the students, since the instructions are not totally comprehended. 

ESL / EFL teachers have to let the students prepare particular activities at home, especially speaking activities. The students need to have an opportunity to make up the ideas of the speaking activity. The teachers do not have to look forward to having spontaneous positive responses from the students if the activities are prepared. The students can be grouped to come up with exchanging ideas that enrich the minutes of the class. At this point, the teachers will just be a facilitator, as they grant an outlet for the students to extract all the matured ideas after grouping discussions. Afterwards, the teachers provide constructive feedback to their students. At the same time, the teachers do not have to halt to correct every single slip for the students, since that could frustrate them, and dishearten them to proceed with their assignment.

The success of any teacher is judged by his / her ability to deal with class management. In addition to this, the room of the students’ involvement into speaking activities must be considerable to really attain meaningful objectives of any lesson plans.

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