IN THE CLASSROOM Challenge

Teenagers, in most educational contexts,

are aged 11 to 17: the age of secondary

Aspoon u
education. This is a big group. Are all
ages equally difficult? Where are the
hotspots? All ages present their own
challenges, but in terms of the private
language school experience, most people
tend to divide ages up by saying that the

of sugar ...
younger teenagers are more like children
and so less problematic, and the older
ones tend to have made positive choices
about going to an English class or are at
least more comfortable in it. The
problems have, therefore, tended to be
identified as being with the middle
Simon pearlman hen we think about

thinks some timely treatment
with his teenagers helps the
medicine go down.
W
teenagers, many - often
conflicting - adjectives
come to mind: noisy,
cheeky, creative, grumpy, lively,
uncommunicative, annoying, fun. The
list could go on and on, but one thing
for certain is that teenagers make
challenging students.
My assumption is that all teachers
of teenagers have some issues around
discipline, and there are no easy
answers. However, talking to teachers
has helped me begin to understand that
we ali have similar problems, which is,
in itself, a reassuring message.
groups, the 13-15 year olds. However, is
this still the case? Nowadays youngsters
seem to be growing up quicker than
ever before; with boys, the pressure to
'be a man' seems to begin younger and
younger. I've had students as young as
12 talking confidentially about the peer
pressure to smoke, drink alcohol and
take drugs. These are worrying
developments indeed, and mirroring this
seems to be a tendency for younger
people to be more difficl;llt.

Change
Teenagers are by their very nature a
challenging group. The single word that
characterises this age group is change.
There are the obvious physical changes:
things growing, dropping and emerging
alarmingly. Then there are emotional
changes, often viewed as a veil of
confidence easily dislodged. There are
also cognitive changes, as our students
grapple with philosophical questions
and shape their world views. So some
challenging behaviour from them is
understandable, perhaps inevitable and
maybe even desirable.
Imagine a world where teenagers
didn't challenge usoIt just wouldn't be
right.
We've ali been teenagers ourselves,
and we need to remember what it was
like. We need to empathise, too.
However, we mustn't allow our
understanding to cloud our judgement.
Yes, we need to remember, and yes, we
need to empathise, but we mustn't allow
it to be an excuse; we mustn't forgive
poor behaviour based on hormones and
an understanding of change alone.
So is it society's fault, then? Or is it
ours? We try to create fun, creative and
communicative classes for groups of
students for whom it may be totally
inappropriate. Is the ELT profession
with its touchy-feely, communicative
approaches incompatible with most
teenage classes?
I firmly believe that encouraging
communicative competence is wholly
appropriate and allowing people to
enjoy their encounters with English is
essential, but it does create a number of
difficulties, too. Teenagers are rarely
given this freer space within a
classroom, and we as language teachers
also tend to lean away from tight reins
and strong discipline. Nevertheless,
these questions need to be asked.

34 . Issue 62 May 2009 • ENGLlSH TEACHING professional- www.etprofessional.com •

Treatment
So, that's the background. What can we
do? How can we have classes that are
well-behaved as well as productive and
communicative?
Let's base our work around three
medical sounding themes; prevention is
better than cure, a spoonful of sugar
helps the medicine go down and
amputation is the only way.
In Issue 61 of ETp (It works in
practice) we looked at some preventive
measures:
• Get the 'work' done early.
• Signpost the activities.
• Scaffold the activities.
• Make lessons relevant and interesting.
• Be realistic.
We as teachers need to take the lead,
interacting positively and building
rapport with our students. If students
like you, you can discipline them much
more effectively.
We need to take every opportunity
to build rapport whenever possible,
whether it be in the classroom, around
the school or even when we bump into
our students in the street. These people
are not our friends; we don't want to
socialise with them, nor perhaps should
we, but we should treat them with
respect, politeness and friendliness, and
the use of their name, a friendly pat on
the back and a smile can go a long way.
Returning to the medical theme,
doctors think about symptoms and the
underlying problem. OK, we may
perceive a class to be difficult as a
whole, but it's usually only one or two
bacteria that spread an infection. The
real problem tends to be individual
students. We need to identify the
bacteria and treat them specifically.
Se tactful
There are students who need special
attention. They need it for a number of
possible reasons; these can range from
the personal, the behavioural and, of
course, the academic. If we can get these
students on side, then we're well on the
way to success. Build bridges, engage
with them on a personallevel, talk to
them and get to know them a little.
It could work like this: if a student
has been particularly difficult, ask them
to stay behind after the class and then
the dialogue can begin out of the glare
of the peer spotlight. 'Why am I talking
to you now? How was your behaviour in
class today? How did it affect you? other
students? the lesson? me? Why do you do
it?' etc. By doing this, I'm not telling
them off, I'm guiding them towards
more reasonable behaviour. Hopefully,
through this some issues will come out:
'It's too easy, I'm bored, it's too difficult,
I don't understand, I don't really want to
be here', And you may finish with 'So
what's going to change?'
At the same time, try to find out
about them; ask them about their lives,
remember and ask about things they
mention the next week. These personal
touches are important and help those
people feel special, valued and respected.
This is a lengthy process; there's no
magic wand and it will take time, but we
owe it to the student, the class and
ourselves to keep trying ... and trying.
Se reasonable
Our teenage students are probably being
bombarded with exams and homework
at school and we're going to give them
more. And so we should: the more
homework, the better. If we start from
the position of homework every day,
then we can relax it and be the good
guys. We could do a deal: if the whole
class do the homework, then there is no
homework the next day. Or if they work
well through a long series of revision
exercises, then there won't be a test in
the next class. This negotiation can help
our students feel more in control and the
effect of peer pressure can be incredible.
Se positive
We talk about discipline and, as is
natural, we usually focus on the difficult
students. Why don't we think about
rewarding rather than punishing? Cynics
might say this is tantamount to bribery,
but it can also be thought of as positive
reinforcement. What kind of rewards are
we talking about? Ideas for rewards
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLlSH TEACHING
could include playing YouTube clips at
the end of the class, songs, teaching
magic tricks, a joke or maybe even the
teacher going for a full-on cultural
British experience by taking in a flask
of tea. Each teacher and each group of
students will have their own approach.
Amputate
Some situations do need stronger
tactics. It is essential that we are able to
deal with serious problems when they
arise. And arise they almost certainly
will from time to time, irrespective of
the spoonfuls of sugar and the
preventive measures we put in place.
What are the options when it appears
that ali else has failed?
• Use the chain of command: We may
feel that asking our Director of Studies
to step in is a sign of failure, but the
hierarchy is there to help usoUsed
occasionally, a word from a 'higher
authority' can have a remarkable effect.
Hopefully, the place where you work
has an effective, and maybe even
affective, disciplinary system which
could potentially lead to the expulsion
of a student who is really impossible
to work with, if such a student exists.
• Involve parents: A call to a student's
parents is potentially a make-or-break
moment. There is the danger that they
will react defensively, accusatorily or
in any number of unhelpful ways.
However, in my experience parents
are usually supportive and often
incredibly effective when it comes to
disciplining their own children.
We need to be up to the challenge and
we need to be in charge of our
classrooms. Only if we can control the
classroom, can we do our job. If we are
confident that we can manage the
classroom, we can relax and maybe even
enjoy ourselves. If we can feellike we're
doing a good job and enjoy ourselves,
then we can be pretty sure the students
are too. Everyone's a winner. <E>
Simon Pearlman is a
teacher, teacher trainer
and Director of Studies
at Active Language,
Cádiz, Spain. He taught
in Turkey, the UK and
Costa Rica before
settling in Spain. He
believes in an affective
approach to teaching.
simon@activelanguage.net
professional- Issue 62 May 2009 • 35