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Before I answer to this question, let me define the term ’rapport’. What is ’rapport’? Rapport is a relationship in which the teacher and the students (and among the students as well) can understand each other’s thoughts, feelings or ideas, and as a result can communicate well. Establishing rapport is the process where the teacher and the students reach the above-described, mutually beneficial state. How can we establish rapport? Time always comes in the life of each class when the teacher and the students meet for the first time. The ’first lesson’ can be a very demanding and stressful, especially for unversed or debutant teachers. On the other hand, we should not forget the fact that this first meeting with the teacher can also be an intimidating happening for some shy or introvert students. We should take the lead and play the role of the teacher: become the manager or the controller of the class. We should have enough personal courage to step onto the podium and with proper self-assurance be able to handle the situation. This first moment is vital in establishing rapport in a good direction. We do not communicate only with words: our body language, our voice, gestures and eyes are all play an important part in establishing rapport. We can express different things with different postures, just like we –as teachers- can convey numerous feelings with alternating voices. We can add visual interest to our lessons by using gestures, we can adjust the pace and rhythm of our words, not to mention the way we can use the intonation within sentences or the way we may stress different words to express different meanings or transfer different thoughts. As the Hungarian saying goes: ’The eye is the mirror of the soul.’ We can express our feelings and thoughts with our eyes. We can encourage contribution from the students or ask for confirmation and reassurance that the students understood the information we had just shared with them. Why do we need to establish rapport for the first place? Rapport between the teacher and the students, just like with rapport among students play a crucial role in determining whether a class becomes a supportive and encouraging environment for the individual students or not. Our ultimate goal is to improve the language competencies of the students as much as possible. All our actions should be subordinated to this goal: rapport plays a vital part achieving this. Students tend to contribute and cooperate in the activities during the lesson if the atmosphere is positive, relaxed and everyone is motivated. The responsibility of making a positive is supportive environment lies on the shoulder of the teacher: as the ’controller’ of the class, the teacher should guide the happenings during the lesson, so the above-mentioned goal can become feasible or at least approachable. What are the good practices an ESL teacher can use to establish rapport? Make the classroom arrangements (especially the seating arrangements of the students) circumspectly. We need to introduce ourselves and ask the students to do the same. It can be part of the ice breaking activity at the beginning of the first class. We need to do activities (pair-work or group-work) that give an opportunity for the students to talk to each other and share their thoughts and ideas. We need to elicit information from them, try to find out their interests. Maintaining rapport It is important to mention that we should not only establish, but also be able to maintain the rapport within the class. It is something we should need to work on during each class. Last but not least, we should always be and remain positive, provide an encouraging and supporting atmosphere for the students. They should feel that we are their partner rather than their teacher, the person, who is there to help and ready to do everything to improve their language competencies. After all this is the reason we the class was organised for the first place, is not it? So why establishing rapport is important for an ESL teacher? Because without establishing proper and positive rapport, we cannot deliver a successful, enjoyable, and memorable class for the students and they cannot improve their language skills as much as they could have with proper rapport.
