TEFL Laixi

The seating arrangement of a classroom is something which should be carefully considered by the teacher when planning their lesson. The level of interaction within the classroom can be affected by its layout, and the students’ contributions to the lesson have been proven to change depending on how the seats are arranged. This article will discu.s.the relationship between student contribution to the lesson and the layout of seats in the classroom. Students’ seating choice can often be governed by social hierarchy and personality. With students who are not adults, it is therefore a wise decision in the management of the classroom for the teacher to decide where the students sit. This avoids any disruption or chatting in the back row etc. It is necessary to consider any social issu.s.within the group, and discover which students do not work well when sitting next to each other. There are a number of possible seating arrangements to be considered, as long as classroom space permits. Each arrangement has its own benefits, and the students will work in different ways depending on how the seats are arranged. The first formation to consider is orderly rows, which are most common in the classroom because it doesn’t matter what size the room is. Rachel Wannarka and Kathy Ruhl found that students work better on individual tasks when they sit in rows, with disruptive students benefitting the most from this arrangement. This is because rows create a more formal environment where the whole class is facing forward and the teacher can see every student by standing at the front of the class. This arrangement allows the students to concentrate more on their individual work because they only have the board or the back of the person in front of them to look at. In a study by Alexandra Marx, u.s.Fuhrer and Terry Hartig , it was found that within the row-and-column arrangement there was a particular area in which students felt more comfortable asking questions in the lesson. This idea is backed up by Mele Koneya’s findings that students in centrally located seats within a row-and-column arrangement are significantly more likely to verbally contribute to the lesson than those in non-central seats. This formation also works well for whole class activities since everyone is looking at the teacher in front. However it is not the best arrangement for group work, because the students are facing in the same direction, and would have to adjust their seating to form a group. Horseshoes and circles create a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, which is conducive to class discu.s.ons and informal conversation practice. Marx, Fuhrer and Hartig found that students ask more questions in the semicircle arrangement than in a row-and-column arrangement. This is due to the fact that the semi-circle provides a more social environment for the students because they can all make eye contact with each other, and feel more at ease to ask questions. Because of the intimacy this formation creates, it is u.s.itable for class tests. At separate tables, students can work in small grou.s.and have their own private discu.s.ons. This can be very difficult when the teacher needs to command attention because it is hard to maintain eye contact, and in a monolingual class there could be a temptation to use only the mother tongue. Wannarka and Ruhl found that the nature of the task should dictate the seating arrangement; a concept with which I fully agree. The location of chairs in the class should depend on the content of the lesson, which leads me to the conclusion that there is no definitive seating arrangement that a classroom should have.