Teacher Discussion Forums

I've been teaching adults (in Taiwan) for almost a year and am just now beginning to feel comfortable at it. I started at a new school two months ago. There I teach two conversation classes: advanced and beginner. Class size varies but averages about 6 students.

There's a student who shows up periodically and, unlike the other students, he is quite talkative. I try to give him a wide berth and let him talk as much as possible. However, he is persistent. Some of the situations and solutions I've used so far include:

* Cutting him off if he speaks when I've already called on another student (which he does).

* During exercises when each student is expected to speak I start with students on the other side of the room so he will go last. This is to ensure each student has enough time to talk.

* I make a point of calling on other students whose body language gives me the impression they have something to say but are too shy or if they haven't spoken during the class.

* Changing the subject on those (not infrequent) occasions when he tries to talk about subjects that aren't appropriate for the classroom (e.g., "picking up chicks", trying to get me to say the "N" word, etc).

I think I've been fair and firm. However, last week a student came up to me after class and told me that I was a "bad teacher" for letting this guy talk so much. The student who complained is one who seems to feel compelled to share his critique of my teaching nearly every week so perhaps I should let it go. However, as I write this I realize there are actually two dilemmas: a talkative student and a complaining student. I welcome any feedback and/or tips for dealing with these situations.

Hello,
I think you're doing a great job. And the talkative student seems to be OK, I've had several who would not stop talking even when asked to stop that. Just double check the complainer isn't right - maybe try to measure how much space each student gets in a typical lesson. And if it's the talking time is similar for each student, then just let it be.
Good luck,

Thank you for your kind words.

It isn't that the talkative student fills all the time. I think there are plenty of opportunities for each student to speak. In my opinion, it's that the other students are too shy to talk.

The complainer has commented to me before that he prefers that I call on each student individually rather than allowing anyone who feels motivated to speak. As you may have gathered from my initial post, I try to vary the methods of participation since not everyone will have something to say about any given topic. I try as best I can to gauge student interest by monitoring their body language. If they seem like they are confused I ask if they understand. If they seem like they have something to say, I will call on them.

If I understand the complainer's perspective, he believes that I should do a "go around" and let each student speak on each topic. I think that's useful sometimes but I don't think it's a tactic to apply across the board for every activity. If my logic is flawed, please let me know.

Thank you!

I see no flaw. Varying eliciting techniques is necessary, if you fall into the same pattern it gets too predictable and the students tend not to listen to what other people are saying and just prepare for their go at predictable time.

Usually the best strategy is to make the complainer feel what it is like to follow his complaint - so I would make sure every time there's a discussion he gets called on. So I would let 2 or more people to volunteer and then ask the complainer to add his point of view.