Hi Sirjaj
You post reminded me of the days when I started teaching more than 30 years ago and it was with very difficult teenage classes who claimed that they had no interest in learning the language whatsoever. There were a lot of difficult and shameful situations that I was exposed to but although I felt disappointed with my job and miserable I knew that I had to stick to my demands and make them study .
Eventually I came to a very umportant conclusion that their misbehaviour was their way of fighting against more obligations and hard work and what �s even more important, their English was very poor indeed and they wanted it to stay that way and not to have to prepare for classes and look ridiculous because they can �t perform.
Well, to make the long story short as soon as I told them that my being a teacher meant that I was ready to help them and teach no matter what their level of English was, things started to change for the better. I went back to the basics and did the chain substitution drills that everyone could do provided that they heard what the previous person had said. This did a miracle. My students started paying attention to what had been said before and were able to face the challenge when it was their turn. I convinced them that there were no lost cases in learning and that they had to believe in me and in themselves. I showed them how they would be able to construct meaningful sentences with that little material we practiced that day. I acquired a huge respect from my students by showing them how to overcome their frustrations in learning and I can assure you that they felt really important because their teacher thought they could. And they really improved a lot...I am always happy to remember my most difficult students and how it changed.
Here is one example of the simple exercise, just to give you a hint:
Write a sentence on the board e.g.
I am a teacher.
Tell your students that you will say one word which they need to use, do the necessary alterations and repeat the new sentence
T.-she S1: She is a teacher.
T.- Mary S2: Mary is a teacher.
T.- a student S2: Mary is a student. etc.
Dear colleague, if you think that this could be the reason of your students � misbehaviour, send me a PM and I would be glad to help with more suggestions.
My final message, please don �t give up and don �t forget that you are in the lead.
Good luck,
pupa
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