Teach English in Fogo Island - TEFL Courses

Establishing rapport with students is one of the most important aspects of a successful classroom. When a bond is created on mutual understanding and care, students are bound for success. teachers create rapport with students in different ways. www.socialpsychology.org suggests “showing a sense of humor, availability before, after or outside of class, encouraging class discussion, showing interest in them, knowing students' names, sharing personal insights and experiences with the class, relating course material in everyday terms and examples, and understanding that students occasionally have problems” contribute to the development of good rapport. When there is no stress in the classroom and students feel comfortable, the material is more interesting and students are more motivated to come. I remember many teachers in high school that delivered lessons well but created no relationships with the students. Even though the lessons where great, it was harder to engage in conversations and feel like the teacher was there to help because of the lack of rapport throughout the course. It is important to establish good rapport in all classes but especially in esl classes. Students can lose motivation and confidence easily. If students “feel too confident or lose confidence in their abilities to complete an activity, their motivation begins to decrease. The balance of building confidence and presenting a challenge is critical to an esl learners success” (tallenglish.com/blog) Building rapport will help with students' attention, confidence, satisfaction and motivation, which will end in success. Being an educator, I want all of my students to succeed and developing great lessons that involve my students and make them feel welcome will help make this goal attainable. teachers from all over the world have different activities and strategies to establish rapport. Starting from the first class, having students create a passport where they include relevant information about themselves and at least one piece of memorable information that will stick in the minds of others will help make students feel comfortable. Creating groups, teams or creating a class family is a great way to help students feel welcome. In my student teaching experience in a kindergarten classroom, my teacher practiced conscious discipline. The students had weekly jobs in the classroom and they were a class family that helped each other out. They had a song they sang before playing on the playground that talked about helping friends out and not putting them down. Conscious discipline focused on positive reinforcement instead of negative and students felt like the classroom was their home. I know that this type of rapport with students may only be effective with young learners, but it can be adapted in many ways to help older learners. No, we probably wont sing a song about being nice to each other, as that is expected, but creating an environment where students feel open to talking with each other and asking any questions and not feeling nervous is the kind of classroom I hope to have. Too often, courageous, hopeful, motivated students are discouraged because of unprepared teachers. Being prepared includes starting each class with a simple smile and making each student feel like they will succeed if they keep coming, and keep studying. www.socialpsychology.org/rapport www.tallenglish.com/blog