On Thursday 8th January, I was able to participate in this session, which brought together ELTC teachers (both those who teach Academic English Skills and some who don’t!) and USIC subject teachers, as it had been moved online due to potential adverse weather conditions. (Would have had to call in sick if it had been F2F but could manage attending by computer with lots of hot water, hot drinks, paracetamol and tissues!)

The goals of the session were:

• Addressing recent shifts in student demographics
• Sharing collective “tried and tested” strategies
• Producing a collaborative “Tips and Strategies” summary

We were given four scenarios designed to stimulate discussion, based on some specific areas of concern that teachers have reported, and put into groups to discuss them, and add ideas to a google doc. The format of the session was to spend a chunk of time discussing scenario 1 in small groups and then coming together for each group to share ideas in turn, and then going back into small groups to discuss scenarios 2-4 followed by a similar but briefer feedback plenary. As such, I also found the online format beneficial because when discussing in small groups, being in breakout rooms, I could only hear my group rather than a wall of noise from all the other groups talking simultaneously! Thank you, weather!

The scenarios are laid out below, and beneath each one I will share some of the ideas that came out of the discussions as well as my own thoughts.

Scenario 1: The “Dribbling” Effect (Attendance & Transitions)

The Situation: It is 10 minutes past the start of your session. Only half the class is present. Over the next 20 minutes, students “dribble” in one by one. Later, after a 10-minute coffee break, three students do not return for nearly half an hour, claiming they were “just using the restroom”.

Discussion Prompt: How do you manage the disruption of latecomers without stopping the flow of the lesson? What strategies can be used to ensure break times are respected?.

For context, in 2hr lessons, it is common to give students a 5 minute break halfway through the lesson and the lesson attendance policy is:

• if students arrive at the start of the lesson, they are marked present
• if they arrive within 10 minutes of the start of the lesson, they are marked L (does not negatively impact visa requirements)
• if they arrive more than 10 minutes after the lesson has started, they are allowed in and marked U (absent for via purposes but has been seen by the teacher)
• if they do not attend, they are marked absent (also absent for visa purposes but unseen by the teacher).

It’s a new attendance policy this academic year (used to be if students arrived more than 5 minutes after the start of the lesson, they weren’t allowed in) and has given rise to situations like that described in Scenario 1. There were lots of ideas but they all basically boil down as follows:

• Before the class:
  • Be aware of the students’ timetable – their previous lesson may finish just before your lesson.
  • Set expectations from the start of the course, e.g. within a class contract, and be consistent thereafter.
  • Plan for the issue – plan your lesson so that you don’t start on core material straightaway e.g. do review/standalone tasks initially.
• In the class:
  • Have a system in place for dealing with the latecomers – e.g. a buddy system set up from the start of the course which directs certain students to help certain other students to catch up if they are late.
  • Have task instructions displayed on the board so that students can catch up independently. Such systems enable you not to have to interrupt the lesson repeatedly.
• After the class:
  • Follow up with the students in question to ensure there isn’t a welfare issue going on and to raise awareness of the importance of taking responsibility for arriving on time.

As for ensuring break time durations are respected:

• Write the time students are expected back on the board so that it is clear
• Have consequences (e.g. no break next time or not allowed back in class after the break)

My thoughts:

With my class this year on Wednesdays in Semester 1, they had a 9 -11 lesson and then my lesson 11-1. We negotiated that they would have a ten minute break and then we’d start the lesson at 11.10 (the cut-off time for attendance being marked such that visa requirements are not affected). I think that’s fair, as no one can concentrate for 4hrs in a row with no break. Even a 10 minute break is minimal.

The other 11-1 slot (Thursday) is their first class for the day and they tend to be on time if they are going to attend. On the other hand, I need a few minutes to set up the lesson (get the computer going etc) and I’ve found that on Thursdays they respond well to scanning a QR code and carrying out a review task while they wait, though something paper-based works just as well. The key is making sure whatever it is won’t take too long, so that it doesn’t end up displacing something more important.

The timetable will be slightly different this semester, so there will be some renegotiation of how things will work. I tend to think treating the students like people and developing a positive and inviting learning environment at the start of the course will hopefully mean that problems are less likely to arise. One tricky thing in our context is that our module is often seen as less important by students than their subject-specific modules. This means that when the stress piles on, it is the first thing to ‘give’ as far as the students’ motivation and capacity are concerned. I think all we can do is do our best to make the relevance of the material clear, make our lessons as engaging as we can and beyond that just accept that the students are people rather than taking it personally.

Scenario 2: The Ideological Clash (Difficult Interactions)

The Situation: During a seminar discussion on global systems, a student begins pushing a specific ideological agenda, suggesting the inherent superiority of their own political or religious system. The comments are culturally insensitive and clearly make other students in the room feel uncomfortable or upset.

Discussion Prompt: How do you intervene to maintain a safe learning environment while handling “unpopular” viewpoints? How do you redirect the conversation back to academic inquiry?

The suggestions usefully group into the three categories used in Scenario 1:

• Before the class:
  • Make sure that the global community is highlighted at the induction stage, including policies regarding tolerance, equality, diversity.
  • At the start of a course, in the classroom, make expectations clear regarding acceptable behaviour and respect for others (again, a class contract can be a vehicle for this).
  • Plan to use frameworks to ground any discussions (e.g. case studies, theories).
• In the class:
  • At the start of the activity, remind students about expectations regarding communication in diverse groups.
  • Intervene early and calmly, using professional language to defuse the situation.
  • Reiterate the importance of academic objectivity and supporting views with evidence – this is something students in our context need to develop skills in: views should be evidence-based rather than unsupported or dismissive in order to be academically valid.
  • Point out that while free speech is part of academic culture, expressing views which marginalise, insult, discriminate or intimidate people is not acceptable.
  • Emphasise the importance of clarifying misunderstandings and apologising to maintain positive relationships.
• After the class:
  • Check in with any students who were upset during the class to make sure they are ok.

My thoughts:

I think this is one where building and maintaining positive group dynamics goes a long way to avoiding such issues arising. Students need to both see the other students in the class as people and be seen as people by the others in the class. If that can be achieved, then they are much less likely to do or say things that might upset others and if they do it will be unintentional and therefore more easily able to be resolved. So, it’s important to have your strategies for how to handle it but equally important to try and ensure that it is unlikely to arise in the first place.

Scenario 3: The Wall of Silence (Engagement)

• The Situation: You have set up a collaborative task. In the physical classroom, several students sit in silence, refusing to engage with their peers or the task. Simultaneously, your online students have their cameras and mics off and are not responding to prompts in their breakout rooms. No one has completed the preparatory work assigned outside of class.
• Discussion Prompt: What teacher-led strategies can reignite engagement in both F2F and online environments? How do we address a systemic lack of out-of-class preparation?

For this prompt, the thoughts and ideas put forward can be grouped nicely into two categories: considerations and responses. In that, there can be different reasons for the type of behaviour described above and we need to keep that in mind in order to respond effectively to it.

• Considerations:
  • What is the reason behind the silence? Silence does not necessarily equal disengagement or defiance or insolence or unwillingness to do tasks.
  • How long has it been since you asked the question or given the instruction? Students may still be processing what you are saying or figuring out what they need to do for the task.
  • What stage of the course is it? Early in the course, we may still be setting expectations and the students may still be adjusting to a new learning style.
  • Perhaps they have done the preparation but are shy to speak up?
  • Or, it could be a lack of understanding that is behind their silence.
  • Perhaps it could be due to personal issues or other external factors. It might be that they are having trouble with their group.
  • Might there be unmet special educational needs at play?
• Responses: There are lots of levers we can pull in a situation like this. No single one is lightly to be a silver bullet solution and different ones may work better on different days with different students. As with the previous two situations, the early weeks of the course are important for acclimating students to the new learning situation.
  • Online
    • Establish expectations for audio and camera use at the start of the course, provide easier practice opportunities and follow up.
    • Use Google docs so there is an output to provide a focus for collaboration but praise participation not only output so that the process is recognised as important rather than only the product.
    • Use commenting on Google docs to show that you are monitoring their participation.
    • Group students strategically to maximise the chances for participation. Use polls.
    • Encourage students to share answers in the chatbox.
    • Provide sentence starters to scaffold production.
    • Nominate – students like to be recognised as individuals and are likely to respond better if you treat them as such.
    • Give thinking time – be comfortable with the silence of cognitive processing.
    • Spend time building rapport at the start of each lesson e.g. getting students to switch on their cameras and say hi.
  • Face to face
    • Give thinking time.
    • Check understanding of the task and provide repair instructions where needed.
    • Follow the think, pair, share format to build up participation.
    • Gently encourage students to participate.
    • As with online lessons, nominate students.
    • Spend time building rapport at the start of the lesson e.g. warmers.
    • Give students study tools and tips to support their participation (e.g. suggest that they research concepts online to help their understanding).
    • Using gentleness and sensitivity, encourage a culture of not having to be “right” so that students are more confident to participate.
    • Assign specific roles within groups so that students know what they need to do.
    • Create an information gap: have groups carry out different tasks which they then need to share with each other.
    • Recognise students’ time constraints and workloads – where possible integrate activities into lesson time rather than expecting students to do too much (in addition to all their coursework) outside of class.

My thoughts:

I think this is a scenario where there are a multitude of influencing factors. Therefore, curiosity is important rather than automatically assuming the worst. I also think that some of the factors can be mitigated to some extent again by developing and maintaining positive group dynamics such that students are comfortable working with one another and expressing their ideas to one another. As such, I highly recommend reading Sandy’s blog post about group dynamics as well as Dornyei and Murphey’s Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom (unaffiliated link) on this topic.

Scenario 4: The “Second Screen” Distraction (Low-level Disruption)

The Situation: The class is technically “on task,” but you notice a constant hum of whispering and giggling in L1 (first language) in the back row. Several other students are completing the work, but they are constantly toggling between the lesson and multiple tabs on their laptops (social media, shopping, or messaging).

Discussion Prompt: How do you address the “split attention” caused by devices without banning technology entirely? What are effective ways to pivot students away from L1 whispering and back to the whole-class activity?

This has become an issue mainly since the pandemic, as during the pandemic we switched to digital learning materials rather than a printed workbook and since the pandemic, we have had a period of readjustment to the physical classroom (with initial discouragement towards using paper because of infection risks). While now we are able to use the same range of activities as before the pandemic, our core materials are still all digital. Students all bring a laptop or tablet to their lessons.

The ideas resulted from the discussion prompt were mainly a mixture of considerations and responses, which were divided predominantly between pre- and in-lesson responses. So I shall use those categories to group them:

Considerations:

• Technology
  • screen-based translation tools can be part of the problem, by creating a constant pull on students’ attention.
  • The development of AI which may or may not be used for unfair means is another draw.
• Multitasking
  • students may think they are skilled at multi-tasking but a multi-tasking test (such as the gorilla test) may surprise them.
• L1
  • This is another resource for students and is not necessarily problematic/suggestive of inattention/disruption.
  • Students may be on task while speaking in L1, especially as academic tasks are complex and involve complex cognitive processing which may be easier to achieve in L1.
  • If they are disrupting other students’ ability to concentrate/carry out a task or preventing students in their group from carrying out a task then it may be problematic.

Responses:

• Before class:
  • Plan to have students use pen and paper for tasks which require deeper focus e.g. brainstorming, note-taking, short exercises, reflection activities. That way there will be less temptation to get distracted during these shorter, more demanding tasks.
  • Plan clear outcomes and timings for activities.
  • Think about where L1 use might be beneficial and where using English is essential so that you can guide students accordingly.
  • Plan a variety of tasks and interaction types to maximise student engagement.
  • Design tasks that require purposeful use of devices (e.g. Google Jamboard, collaborative writing in shared documents, live polls, vocabulary searches, timed grammar challenges) so that technology supports learning rather than distracting from it.
  • Adapt lessons to be as screen-free as possible, including movement, writing on whiteboards, spoken communication.
  • Think about whether you will need individual copies of a handout or whether one between two or three or four would work better. (This can save on printing and encourage collaboration!)
• In class:
  • Monitor actively so that students are encouraged to stay on task and so that you have a better idea if they are on task or not.
  • Highlight that giving full focus is a sign of respect (caveat: this should not require them to be looking into your eyes, which may be uncomfortable for neurodivergent students)
  • Ensure that instructions regarding use/non-use of technology for a given task are clear. E.g. “Close your computers for this task./Phones down for this task.”
  • In lessons where this is relevant, make it clear to students initially that there will be an ‘open’ period of the lesson where they will be able to work on an assignment (which could include work for other modules if this is more urgent) IF they are able to achieve the lesson aims/complete all the lesson activities first.
  • Be clear about timings and keep these snappy so that there is less temptation to get distracted.
  • Use humour: say that you will confiscate phones to sell on ebay to raise funds for teachers or have a bell jar of liquid with an old phone in it to show what will happen if phones are used at the wrong time. Suggest that students don’t need to be there if they have more important things to discuss but they will of course be marked absent if they leave.
  • Use another language: speak to students using another language so that those who don’t speak it can feel how it is not to understand what is going on.
  • Use whiteboards/running dictations/post-it notes etc to get students moving.
  • During longer tasks, accept that students will take brain breaks and that’s ok.
  • If students are using AI inappropriately, emphasise the importance of acquiring the skills and understanding the lesson content.
  • Change the groups around so that students work with different classmates (mixing up language backgrounds where possible).
  • Make it clear where L1 use is and isn’t acceptable. Rather than trying to keep it out of the classroom for the whole lesson, isolate time frames/parts of activities where students should use English only.
  • Allow space for L1 e.g. let students use L1 in task preparation and encourage English only in task execution.

My thoughts:

During my last observed lesson (we have an annual lesson observation where we get feedback on our teaching), my line manager suggested I could have used paper for a particular activity rather than the digital document, and it might have worked better. And I’ll be honest, I was like “oh yeah, so I could have!” – since then, I have been making a conscious effort to think about what format to use for different activities, what could be more engaging, and have been doing a lot more that is paper-based/mini-whiteboard-based/main whiteboards-based. In my last lesson, we had a laugh when I brought out some A3 paper, to the effect that it wouldn’t be an AES lesson without some A3 paper!! (That has been an experiment this year, using different paper sizes!) It definitely keeps the lesson moving better.

I think as with many things, what you do ahead of the class thinking/planning-wise has a big impact on how the lesson unfolds and what issues arise, and gives you more flexibility for dealing with known potential issues. I also think that getting students to close their computers when not in use is important so that there isn’t that physical barrier between them and the other students, and there is space for paper etc to bring them together.

Lots of ideas and lots to think about. This was a great workshop to do at the start of a semester!

Do you experience any of the issues discussed above in your context? Do you have any suggestions not mentioned above? Please do comment and share, I’d love to hear from you!

Pictures above are both free stock photos!