5 Ways How Teacher Can Benefit From Teaching a Large Classroom
How people living in extended families cannot choose whether it is good or bad to live with that many people, teaching and learning in a large class are equally controversial. However, there are just a few disadvantages as opposed to countless advantages to be taught in a large class for students.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nalan F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
1. Communication
First of all, stress is a hindering factor in learning especially in an ESL class. The more stress a learner feels, the less s/he will learn or the longer it will take for her/him to gather the information given. A student who mostly speaks to an instructor will inevitably be stressed. The first and most important benefit of teaching a large group is that the students will have a chance to work with their peers more than they practice with their teacher. They will do more pair or group work. This will give both the students and the teacher some more flexibility and cooperative skills, in addition, help them reduce stress.
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2. Seating Arrangement
Furthermore, when there are many students in a classroom, the teacher will be able to set the seating arrangement more frequently than in a classroom with few students. The students will have the opportunity to practice with as many and various people as possible in a language class. This will benefit them in many ways; they will be exposed to a lifelike situation where there will be many people to talk to and different topics to talk about. The more people there are, the more the answers to a single question will change. Then, the students will also be exposed to different sentence structure and vocabulary use. As a result, each individual in a group can evaluate whether their pronunciation of a specific word or use of a specific noun is correct or not. This will also help them to be more confident in their speaking skills which affect the learning experience greatly.
3. Chances to Observe
From time to time, students in a small class feel under pressure because they might not get enough input by the time it is their turn and this can be frightening. Being in a class full of students will give those frightened students a bigger chance to observe more people and react better when it is their turn. Being the first to answer a question might not be as easy as it is in real life; on the other hand, the teacher can choose strong students to answer the question first and let the weaker ones observe and learn by the time they are supposed to give an answer.
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4. Choice of Activities
In addition to the benefits mentioned, there are many activities that can be better done with a group rather than one-on-one. That being the case, when there are more students in a group, it will be more fun. Even a simple activity such as “find someone who” will have a better result. Some students who are more competitive than others might not cooperate in the activities; however, this does not have to be a downside. Those students will thrive on the competition that will arise in the atmosphere leading them to learn equally well.
5. Excitement
Even though it is a fact that many large classes are louder and noisier environments, it is always a reality that the language classes will be noisier and more active than any other class. Noise does not necessarily mean that the students are not working, sometimes it means that the students are reacting and producing to what they have been taught. An experienced enough teacher will be able to use this chaos to her/his advantage. For example, when a student does not want to answer, it does not mean that s/he does not know the answer or does not want to be attentive, it sometimes means that the student is afraid of making mistakes and made fun of. In an acting class where there are many mistakes made and words uttered, the shy students will not be under pressure to be on the spot.
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Do you want to teach English abroad?
To conclude, similar to many situations and places, in a large class with many students, not only the students but also the teacher will thrive. I personally strongly believe that the advantages far more outweigh the disadvantages.
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