PL 6
PL 6
PL 6
Qualification Paper
Bachelor’s Level
Theme: WAYS OF DEALING WITH STUDENTS’ UNPROPER
BEHAVIOR IN EFL CLASSROOM
Uman – 2020
Table of contents
Lead-in……………………………………………………………………………3
Rationale………………………………………………………………………….6
Methodology and Procedure……………………………………………………...9
Findings………………………………………………………………………….14
Interpretations and Conclusions…………………………………………………23
References……………………………………………………………………….27
Appendices………………………………………………………………………28
3
Lead-in
Ways of dealing with students’ improper behavior in the EFL classroom has
become a central issue for investigating, because it plays a significant role in the
teaching process. Being able to stimulate learners’ engagement and cooperation in
classroom activities and to establish surroundings is an important element of the
productive learning environment. It conceptualises the classroom as a workplace
inhabited by a teacher and a large number of students, some of whom are ready,
willing and capable of learning, others of whom are not. Harmer, an acclaimed and
esteemed ELT expert, author of many books, practitioner, trainer and singer
(1983), states that the effectiveness of the teacher and instruction is dependent
upon how successfully a classroom is managed. With reference to this, positive
intercorrelations between effective classroom management and students’
achievements have been found. However, at the present day relatively high levels
of derogatory behavior in schools is the evidence of poor results in acquiring skills
and English achievements. According to the problem, I target at researching the
reasons of students’ improper behavior in the English classroom and discovering
the effective ways of dealing with them.
Among all the activities that involve the role of a teacher, classroom
behavior is one of the most essential and is really of concern to many teachers and
especially parents. This importance relies on two aspects. Firstly, without the
discipline provided in the EFL classroom there is very small opportunity for
teachers to control and instruct students in acquiring language skills and
knowledge. Secondly, the space of classroom discipline is entirely related to the
problem of inculcating a sense of responsibility in students. The researchers in the
area of second/foreign language (L2) teaching believe that there is no particular
explanation for the increase in improper (disruptive) behavior in the classroom.
Studies have indicated that misbehavior, aggressiveness, and cruelty are
conditioned by factors at home, in society, and in school.
Desired behaviour in the EFL classroom is a behaviour where both teacher
and students know and respect their rights and duties so that it makes possible to
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attain the aims of the lesson. To resolve problems with improper behaviour
teachers should employ methods, techniques and activities that in a particular
situation seem to be the most effective. Above all, a well-developed knowledge
based on classroom management provides ways of dealing with disruptive
students. Unless behavioral issues can be solved, the best teaching is wasted, thus
making it possibly the most significant challenge facing teachers. These issues are
undoubtedly need be subjected for research.
Thus, classroom management encircles a wide range of steps and activities
to establish a welcoming atmosphere of learning, ensure smooth running of
lessons, and minimize the misbehaviors and disruptions. I am deeply concerned
with students’ being unable to behave properly in the EFL classroom. During my
school experience, I have observed that naughty students break behavior rules,
make noise, create disruption and mess in the seating arrangement, bully one
another, etc. To my mind, it is a bad experience as they will not be able to perform
effective learning process. What is more, these disturbing behaviors in the
classroom are intolerable and stress-provoking, and teachers have to spend a great
deal of time and energy to manage the classroom.
That is why, my main reason for choosing the topic ‘‘Ways of dealing with
students’ improper behavior in the EFL classroom’’ is my personal interest. As
this problem is not resolved yet, I want to help teachers to find out the ways of
dealing with such kind of behavior and the ways of preventing it. So, one more
reason for selecting this problem is improving teaching and learning, and
producing guidelines for effective practices.
Data collection followed the appropriate ethical procedures and received
approval from Uman Secondary School № 4 where the research was done. The
participants in the research were 13 students of the 5th grade. They are 10-11 year-
old students with Elementary level of English. These learners can understand
simple information in texts and audio/video, which is based on the topics that are
familiar to them. In addition, they can understand and use in their communication
common and ordinary information. Like in every group of learners, there are those
5
who behave and perform better than others do and vice versa. This class is not the
exception.
In Table 1, you can find a short profile of the class I have been working
with.
Table 1
Class profile
Name of a Age Hobby In-class activities
student
Anna 10 Art Playing games
Oleksandra 10 Dancing Tests
Tymofii 11 Football Playing games
Kostiantyn 10 Football Roleplaying
dialogues
Bohdan 10 Reading books Discussions
Ivan 11 Music Tests
Oleksii 10 Music Listening tasks
Ivan 10 Art Playing games
Tymofii 10 Computer games Retelling stories
Sofiia 11 Dancing Playing games
Maksym 10 Tennis Listening tasks
Dmytro 10 Swimming Tests
Roman 11 Football Group work
From the classroom profile, we can see that 30% of students prefer playing
games as in-class activities. Three out of thirteen learners consider themselves
good in tests and other two in listening tasks. The remaining amount of learners
prefers retelling stories, group work, discussions and roleplaying dialogues.
It was decided that the best tool for compiling the profile of the class would
be students’ questionnaire (see Appendix A), which gave the chance to get to know
the participants better. Furthermore, it helped me to find out more about their
6
preferences for in-class activities and as well as tasks or activities they are
interested in most of all.
I think my research will help the teachers to reduce students’ misbehavior in
order to create a favourable atmosphere and productive learning environment in the
EFL classroom that is beneficial both for teachers and for students.
Rationale
During my school experience I observed many lessons given for learners. As
a trainee student, I have noticed that the majority of the students were not attentive;
some of them had a rest on the desk during the English lesson or just interrupted
other students. They used their phones a couple of times and therefore all teacher’s
efforts to calm them down were made in vain. After the observations I have come
to such conclusions:
large classes are harder to involve into work and to maintain their
attention during the lesson;
the right environment created by the teacher has a special power to
raise the students’ interest and to keep discipline;
better understanding of classroom management enables both students
and teachers to change their behavior for cheerful and supportive
atmosphere.
The research was organised around three research questions:
1. What do learners say why they misbehave in the EFL classroom?
2. What do teachers say about the reasons for students’ improper behaviour
and possible ways of dealing with it?
3. What am I to do as a teacher in order to prevent or minimize students’
improper behavior?
These questions have been posed many times during my years of studying
and observing the process of teaching and learning English as a second language.
7
tools and methods. The next step was to prepare necessary interviews,
questionnaires and activities. These data collection tools gave me a great amount
of information that was used to investigate the problem. Following the analysis of
the findings, I have interpreted them and have come up with conclusions.
I exerted any effort to improve students' behaviour in the EFL classroom
through the ways and procedures in five phases.
In the preparation phase of my research I identified the general issue,
observed the situation, read books to obtain necessary information to conduct the
research. The most important in this phase was fact-finding process to refine the
ideas about the general focus area and prepare more systemic investigation.
During the planning phase I developed a plan for gathering data, considered
and selected a range of appropriate literature sources.
During the action phase the procedures selected for collecting data were
developed and put into action. This period helped me to penetrate more deeply into
the issue being researched.
Observation phase involved observing the outcomes of the intervention and
reflecting on its effectiveness. This involved some new teaching strategies and
activities which were used for further collection of the data.
Reflection phase is considered a combination of both analysis and reflection.
On this stage, the data was analyzed using a systemic process of analysis and
interpretation according to agreed criteria.
I began with reading many literature sources to investigate what other
scholars say about students’ improper behaviour in the EFL classroom and how
they deal with it. It helped me to choose the main tools for gathering data and
moreover to come up with the questions directed to the students and teachers.
I started this study with the first research question “What do learners say
why they misbehave in the EFL classroom?” To answer this question I used such
data collection tools as questionnaire (see Appendix B) and focus group discussion
(see Appendix C).
11
These tools were aimed at describing students’ opinions about the subject
under investigation. The results of the questionnaire and focus group discussion
served to investigate the situations of both the learning and teaching process. They
provided me with quantitative and qualitative data and showed that some of the
students do foreign affairs during the lessons and don’t try to work fully. It also
helped to discover if the learners have an interest in English and if they are
engaged in the process of studying.
The survey was of a great use to find out whether the students misbehave
during the lessons and discover the main reasons of improper behaviour. These
reasons are mostly connected with the psychological sphere of students’
conscience. The tools helped me to reveal that some learners feel that they are
worse in studying than other classmates, so it caused that they begin to misbehave,
disturb each other in order somebody (teacher or other students) pay attention to
them. One more considerable thing that should be noted is that some learners are
not interested in the subject. They are not engaged in the lessons, their
expectations from it are too low, that is why they become bored and improper
behaviour is likely to occur. I used these data collection tools because it is an
appropriate way of getting information and it provides learners with a possibility to
answer anonymously.
In order to answer the second research question “What do teachers say
about the reasons for students’ improper behaviour and possible ways of dealing
with it?” such data collection tool as interview with teachers was used. The
interview was chosen because it is one of the most reasonable ways of obtaining
the information about teachers’ points of view regarding the topic. Teachers were
asked to answer some questions related to the research topic (see Appendix D). I
consider it to be appropriate tool to get the information about students’ behaviour
during the lessons, if they behave improperly how often it happens, when and what
the reasons for such kind of behaviour are and whether teachers use some activities
and techniques in order to encourage learners to participate and be active. During
the interview positive atmosphere and conditions for further work were created.
12
The next stage of the action research presupposed answering the third
research question “What am I to do as a teacher in order to prevent or minimize
students’ improper behavior?” Collected and analyzed data gave some ideas
concerning the choice of the activities and techniques that might be effective while
dealing with discipline problems and how they can work in the classroom context.
They also gave me an insight what to do next, how to do the intervention.
I tried very hard to encourage learners to behave in a proper way, so that
they know which behaviour is desired during the lessons and which is not. I
proposed students whose behaviour was not improper to roleplay the situation
where they performed the role of a teacher and I performed the role of a student. I
explained that students who were playing the role of a teacher had to control
others’ behaviour. Learners were supposed to do the task from their workbooks as
they usually do, but observing some established rules:
1. Listen and follow directions of a teacher.
2. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
3. Raise your hand before you want to speak or to ask something.
I know that some teachers make up too many rules, which children ignore or
feel confused. In this experiment children had only three simple rules which were
clear and not frustrating for learners. It was really difficult both for students not to
misbehave and for „teachers“ to control the discipline in the classroom. From this
experience students learnt that classroom atmosphere is tightly connected with
students’ behaviour. „Teachers” were allowed to reward and praise those students
who were active, attentive and obedient. That was a collaborative tool because the
students did their best to be good „teachers“ and students. It helped learners a lot
to look at their behaviour from another perspective and to see how important the
discipline in the classroom management is.
After this experience, I asked students to discuss together possible ways that
could motivate them and help to be active and engaged during the lessons. Though
the students suggested different ways and activities that they would like to try,
some of them still preferred to behave improperly. Suddenly, one of the students
13
spoke loudly: „English is not interesting for me at all. I don’t want to study it“. At
that time, I realized that some games and different kinds of engaging activities
could boost students’ interest and improve behavioral situation in the classroom. I
rearranged the seats to make the process of study more unusual and interesting for
children.
I developed interactive activities and games for boosting students’
interest to study and behave in a proper way. Below is the description of these
activities:
Creating a Fictional Story
The students sit in the semicircle in this activity. Students are to create the
emerging story as coherent as possible. Here is an example:
Student A: Jack went to school.
Student B: Jack went to school and he had a bike accident.
Student C: It was very serious; his arm was bleeding (new word).
Student D: He called his mother.
Student E: His mother fainted (new word).
I encouraged my learners to use the new vocabulary and assisted them along the
process. There was a good teamwork, so students could help one another, make up
their own stories and at the same time practice vocabulary and grammar.
Game „Guess Who!“ (pair work)
The students are to write the name of a famous person prepared in advance and
their partners should guess the name by asking a series of yes/no questions.
Asking and Answering questions
The students are to write as many questions as they can in 10 minutes about
anything they want. After the students are done with the questions, each of them
must come up front and sit in a chair while the other classmates ask the questions
they wrote.
I found this activity very beneficial for children, because they were active
asking and answering interesting questions of their peers and could develop
speaking skills.
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Findings
The first research question was addressed to the students in order to find out
the reasons for improper behaviour in the classroom. For this purpose, the
questionnaire and the questions for focus group discussion were created. After
analyzing the data obtained from the questionnaire I can state that in general, some
students reported that they don’t like to follow some instructions during English
lessons, often get comments or not interested in the subject. According to the
students’ responses to the first question from the questionnaire it has become clear
that in the 5th grade 46 % (6 students) are not interested in English lessons and the
rest 54 % (7 students) have an interest in this subject. The results are illustrated in
Figure 1.
15
Want
Do not want
38%
62%
The results of students’ answers to the third question are illustrated in Figure 3.
From this figure we can see that 23 % (3 students) of the 5 th grade often get
comments and the rest of them 77 % (10 students) don’t often get comments.
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77%
Do some foreign
38% affairs
Don’t do any foreign
affairs
62%
Another question helped to find out whether the students ever missed lessons
without a good reason or not. Only 7% (1 student) missed lessons without a good
reason while the rest 93% (12 students) do not cut classes.
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Missed lessons
7% without a good reason
Didn’t miss lessons
without a good reason
93%
Question 6 in the questionnaire was dedicated to how children work during the
lessons. 77% of the learners answered that they work fully and do their best in
order to work better and 23% gave an opposite answer.
77%
According to the next question, whether they try to find an answer if something is
unclear 15% (2 students) responded negatively. From the results displayed in
Figure 7, the following findings were identified: 85% (11 learners of the 5th
graders) try doing so.
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15%
Try to find an answer
Don’t try to find an
answer
85%
the process of study. Getting back to the results, I can say that only 15% (2 of the
5th graders) feel that they are not so good as other classmates (the other 85% don’t
have this feeling) (see Figure 9).
I continued my study with the first research question “What do learners say
why they misbehave in the EFL classroom ?“ Having analyzed the data of the
focus group discussion I can postulate that the students of the fifth grade find
learning English boring (23%), make noise at lessons (8% – often, 15% –
sometimes), are not motivated to study (54%) and don’t have enough confidence to
speak to a group of people in English (38%). Furthermore, I revealed that some
students misbehave at English lessons, because they feel that they are bored (15%)
or just want to attract somebody’ attention at them.
The results are presented in Table 2.
Summing up the results of the focus group discussion and the questionnaire I
identified the main reasons for students’ misbehavior in the EFL classroom. They
are predominantly of the psychological nature. The most influential among them
are low self-confidence and lack of interest in the subject. Nevertheless, the
students mentioned that among the activities at lessons they like playing games,
tests, listening tasks and group work most of all, so it would help them to be more
interested in learning the English language.
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Table 2
The results of the focus-group discussion for students
№ Items Results
1 Do you like to go to school? Yes (62%) No (38%)
2 Do you find learning English Yes (23%) A little (23%) No (54%)
boring?
3 How often do you make noise at Often (8%) Sometimes (15%)
lessons?
Never (77%)
4 What interrupts you from the I feel bored (15%) Nobody notice
lesson? me (8%) Nothing (77%)
5 Which activities at the lessons do Playing games (38%) Tests (23%)
you like most of all?
Listening tasks (15%) Group work
(8%) The rest (16%)
6 Is it difficult for you to study? Yes (23%) A little (8%) No (69%)
7 Are you motivated to study? Yes (54%) No (46%)
8 Do you have enough confidence Yes (54%) No (46%)
to speak to a group of people in
English?
The second research question was targeted at the teachers (the teacher of
English, the teacher of German). The interview was designed for teachers to
answer. The results are as follows. They told that teachers must consistently
reinforce the desired behaviors while ignoring or in some other way extinguishing
the undesirable ones. Both teachers pointed out that they have 2–3 students almost
in each class who misbehave and have challenging behaviour (mostly at the
beginning of the lesson or at the end). Among the reasons for such kind of
behaviour students’ failure to participate in activities and the desire to interact with
others were pointed out by them. For some children lack of interest in the subject
they study also cause difficulties with behaviour as well as with the learning
process. These reasons are connected with learners’ actions or inactions.
21
Another question was about the usage of any encouraging techniques which
can motivate learners. One teacher told that during the years of her teaching
English she tried to create a language environment, practiced different modes of
interaction and ways of encouraging students to work actively. Sometimes she
arranged the furniture in the classroom so that students could sit around the table
facing each other or introduced 5-minutes free talk at the beginning of every class.
As a result, they made a lot of progress in classroom management and students’
motivation that helped to diversify usual learning of English. Another teacher
shared that to her mind, praising children is one of the most effective ways to lift
their spirits and keep them working hard. Giving a positive feedback, trying to
praise if teacher can see learners’ eagerness definitely raises their self-esteem and
confidence. It is like a key to children’s heart, but of course teacher should know
the measure.
The next question was focused on teachers’ attitude towards any kinds of
punishment if it is available. Teachers answered that students who are constantly
talking, for example, can receive some extra work. But they use this kind of
punishment rarely in order not to discourage students.
As for the activities which the teachers practice, the teacher of English
named different games, storytelling, roleplaying, group discussions, etc. which are
popular among children. One of the games mentioned by the teacher of English is
the game „Simon Says“ when one player is Simon and the rest players have to
follow his commands that begin only with the words „Simon Says“ until somebody
is out. The 5th graders like this game very much; it requires students’ attention and
concentration.
Taking all the data into account I made an intervention. I tried to encourage
the learners to be active participants during the lessons by using different activities
that boost their interest in the language. Also I rearranged the seats to make the
process of study more unusual. Besides that I included praising for good job in my
intervention, when I saw that students did their best to show that they have not to
22
be afraid to express their thoughts and opinions. The detailed description of the
intervention is given in Methodology and Procedure section.
Having made the observation, I found out that the students’ interest in
learning English had increased. When all the students were involved they were
more likely to misbehave. The activities that I conducted with 5th graders combined
learning English and the things they like to do. I used the activities and techniques
based on students’ and teachers’ responses, such as: roleplaying the situation,
establishing a few rules in the classroom, creating a fictional story, games „Guess
Who!”, „Simon Says“, asking and answering questions, presentations, praising.
To collect data from the students I created the post-intervention
questionnaire (see Appendix E). The responses were then analyzed. Learners’
attitude to these activities was found. The questionnaire revealed that all the
students of the 5th grade liked to participate in such activities. 9 students mentioned
that they helped them to reduce their fear of making mistakes. Though all the
activities were interesting, two of them were the most preferable according to the
responses: “Simon Says” (11 responses) and Creating a Fictional Story (10
responses).
List of activities
13
11
Figure 10. The most preferable activities according to the children’s responses
23
It’s fundamental to note that all the students emphasized that they wanted to
practice such activities in every lesson. Praising also played not the last role in
raising students’ confidence while conducting the intervention.
classmates evaluate them (38%). Having analyzed the data of the survey it is
necessary to mention that some students (15%) feel that they are not so good as
their peers are. This situation has negative effect on the classroom atmosphere and
management. Discipline is not synonymous with absolute quiet. So the students
mentioned that interactive activities would help them to improve conditions.
I have answered the second research question ‘‘What do teachers say about
the reasons for students’ improper behaviour and possible ways of dealing with
it?”
And have discovered that lack of interest in subject of learning and fear of
interacting with others make children break behaviour from time to time. I have
also found out that both teachers try to create a positive and friendly environment
by:
Using meaningful tasks and activities (storytelling, group discussion, games,
etc.)
Practicing different modes of interaction
Praising and giving positive feedback or giving extra work for misbehaving
(very seldom)
Introducing 5-minutes free talk at the beginning of every class
With all these findings I came up with the following list of activities and
strategies which I practiced during my observed teaching and which are the answer
to the third research question. These activities and strategies are:
Establishing only a few rules which were not frustrating and clear for
children.
Introducing 5-minutes free talk to assure that learners are ready for further
interaction and don’t dissipate their attention. Students can talk about any
interesting event, news or stories they have read, listened to and watched
recently.
Creating a Fictional Story: ask students to create the emerging story as
coherent as possible using new vocabulary or grammar.
25
for good behaviour. Criticize not the student, but his behaviour. Criticism
should be polite and constructive.
Be firm in a gentle way and give students praise whenever they are doing
anything close to a good job.
Provide a clear structure for your lessons.
Make your lessons interesting, exciting and engaging.
Treat students with the kindness and respect without favoritism. Smile a lot
and value their opinions. Never embarrass anyone for a laugh.
The research has shown that teacher is responsible for what is happening in
the classroom, including not only the learning process but also behaviour.
Improper behaviour of the learners upsets the normal and smooth running of the
school and obstructs the progress of other students. That’s why teachers should
control the students and activities that are supposed to lead to the realization of
learning goals.
To summarize I need to say that this research and its findings will be helpful
for all the teachers to deal successfully with any kind of improper behaviour and
deprive students from the opportunity to enjoy it. Teachers should not only be
honest, trustworthy and responsible, but also be able to keep order in class and at
the same time give students more independence.
27
References
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Harmer, J. (1991). The practice of English language teaching. New edition.
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(2009). Chinese elementary school teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom
behaviour problems. Educational Psychology.
Swinson, J. & Knight, R. (2007). Educational Psychology in Practice.
Walker, C. & Newman, I. (1991). Whole school discipline. Practical English
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Wheldall, K., & Merrett, F. (1988). Which classroom behaviors do primary school
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Appendices
Appendix A
Students’ questionnaire
Appendix B
Students’ questionnaire (Yes/No)
1. Are you interested in English lessons?
Yes
No
2. Do you want to learn something new from the school curriculum?
Yes
No
3. Do you often get comments?
Yes
No
4. Do you do any foreign affairs in the lesson?
Yes
No
5. Have you ever missed lessons without a good reason?
Yes
No
6. Do you fully work during the English lesson?
Yes
No
7. Do you try to find an answer if something is unclear?
Yes
30
No
8. If you want to do something, do you think about how the class will evaluate it?
Yes
No
9. Do you feel that you are not as good as other classmates?
Yes
No
Appendix C
Focus-group discussion
1. Do you like to go to school?
2. Are you interested in learning English?
3. Do you often make noise at lessons?
4. What interrupts you from the lesson?
5. Which activities at the lessons do you like most of all?
6. Is it difficult for you to study?
7. Are you motivated to study?
8. Do you have enough confidence to speak to a group of people in English?
31
Appendix D
Teachers’ interview
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. How often?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
3. Why do you think they behave in such a way? Express your point of view.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
5. Having observed some of your lessons I noticed that from time to time you give
your students praise whenever they are doing anything close to a good job. How
much is it effective? Is it important to know the measure?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
7. What types of activities and modes of interaction do you use? Which is the most
effective to increase students’ interest to study English?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
33
Appendix E
Post-intervention questionnaire for students
1. Do you like to participate in activities we practiced in the lessons?
2. Did they help you to be interested in learning English?
3. Was anything boring for you?
4. Was anything difficult for you?
5. Did you have a fear to speak, to communicate or a feeling that you are not as
good at something as others?
6. Did you get distracted (was inattentive, anxious) during the English lessons?