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It goes without saying that establishing rapport is one of the most important things you as a teacher can do in your classroom. Rapport is simply a relationship between two people with mutual understanding and respect. You can see how building this fundamental relationship with your students can go a long way in the growth of your classroom. Establishing Rapport is not an easy task, especially since the teacher is most likely a foreigner whose culture and customs differ from the country you’re teaching in. This can present many problems and challenges as your students don’t speak the same language as you. How are you supposed to connect with your students if you can’t communicate past basic sentences? It may seem impossible, but there are many techniques the teacher can do to build rapport within their classroom. Some techniques to keep in mind is to learn your students’ names as soon as possible. Another technique the teacher should do is to get to know their students in and out of the classroom. When you take the time to show interest in your students lives, it builds trust and communication which is crucial in the building of your rapport. A teacher’s rapport has a great deal of influence in the classroom, it makes the teachers job go easier, smoother, and more fun if they have taken the time to build their rapport with their students. Students will pay more attention and become more involved in the classroom if the teacher is likable. Sadly, the opposite is also true, a teacher with a bad rapport will often have to “fight” just to get his or her students to cooperate and engage in the lesson. Students without a connection to their teacher will provide more resistance, and the classroom dynamic will simply not be the same. It is crucial that the teacher builds rapport through the use of fun, easygoing, engaging lessons that the students will enjoy but also get the benefit of learning a new language. In this paragraph I’m going to talk more about specific tasks/techniques that the teacher can use to their advantage to build rapport. While there is no right way to win over one’s students, there are many tasks a teacher can undertake to build rapport. The first one I want to highlight is the teaching style used; a teacher needs to engage his/her students, smile, joke around and make their class something for the students to look forward to. A teacher needs to plan and design games and lessons that are formulated to connect the students to the teacher while connecting the students to each other. A teacher should be interested and want to learn the culture of the students and country they are teaching in. A teacher needs to be a role-model for their students, arriving on time and presenting themselves as a professional, but approachable. Finally, teachers should carefully manage the class seating arrangement, this is essential to learn more about your students; and ensure they are sitting next someone they can work well with. Taking everything into consideration, you can see how maintaining rapport is one of the most important things in a teacher’s classroom. There are thousands of ways a teacher can become more connected with their students, and implementing several of these methods to build rapport is essential. It may take some time to build, but if you just be yourself and use some of the techniques highlighted here you will be a fantastic teacher!
