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Teaching a group of students can be challenging for new teachers. It can also be rewarding and in the long term be beneficial for the teacher. It provides opportunity to be creative in managing different classes. Experienced teachers know how to use the classroom dynamics when teaching groups. There are many nuances between teaching a student individually and teaching groups. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Teaching groups requires patience and the right attitude. The teacher should know how to arrange the class accordingly to its size, and use his/her voice to its full effect. As we know, group sizes differ and there can be multilingual and monolingual groups. The smaller the group, the easier to connect with the students. In a small group, the students are usually more attentive as the teacher can make eye contact with everyone and equally involve them during a class. The same cannot be said about a large group of students. A Large group can be fairly relative. To experienced teachers even a class up to 50 students may appear small, as he may have experienced teaching bigger classes before. Giving student equal attention in a large group can be challenging. Teachers should be very patient, and employ strategies like appointing group leaders, and using a lot of pair/group-work. Teachers often tend to be caught in the mix of having favorite students. While it is natural behavior for preferring some students more than others, the teacher should always refrain from favoritism. Every student want equal opportunity and respect and the teacher should be mindful about it. That does not mean that the student who does better won’t be rewarded. Rewarding a student with a token of appreciation can get other students motivated. The teacher should be friendly but also at the same time have a professional attitude towards the students. Keeping quiet during a student’s behavior problem may appear weak and some students might use it to create further disturbances in the classroom. Necessary action should be taken to ensure a cordial atmosphere in the classroom. Teaching a group of children is altogether a different story. Children tend to pick language faster than adults but they tend to have very lower attention span. Teachers need to be most patient here and adapt to a parental role. Children are often very curious, and fun filled activities like games, picture drawings etc keeps them engaged. As in adults children crave for attention equally, if not more. Appreciating their efforts, and encouraging them all the way by giving them rewards can help them be motivated to learn faster. Children are usually attracted to bright colors. Activities using crayons, and decorating the class with funny colorful drawing can make an environment ideal for the children. A TEFL class mainly deals with monolingual group of students. Students usually have their own common native language. Teachers may have a hard time in bringing students to use English while they are trying to communicate, especially with one another. They resort to using their mother tongue because it is effective for conveying one another about the lesson doubts, and the activities they are having. While the teacher may allow some of it, he/she must make sure that it is not always the case. Promoting the use of English even if the grammar and fluency isn’t on point, should be the main concern for the teacher. Students acquire and retain new vocabularies faster when they start producing the language. So, using English at almost all times should be encouraged. Even if the teacher knows their native language, he/she should refrain from using it. In most situations the teacher is the only source of motivation for the students. They would look up to the teacher for the ideal pronunciations, accent, grammar, etc. An ideal group teaching is enjoyable and fun with a lot of class dynamics and can provide the teacher with a lot of resources to bring new activities to the table. Regardless of the group size, the teacher must embrace the situation to face new challenges. In the long run, with more experience, teaching groups can become more rewarding and fulfilling, all the while learning about different cultures around the world and helping various students to learn English.
