Clara discusses the indications of the presence of peer pressure in the classroom and shows you four ways you can make changes in the classroom to help alleviate it.
Teenagers are normally the most loud, fast-talking and energetic people, but as students, especially of a foreign language, you may find they magically become silent and unmotivated. What happened to this creature that was so eloquently discussing something with friends 5 minutes ago? No, they haven’t disappeared. They are just scared of speaking and making a fool of themselves in front of the class.
I once had a student that refused to participate, no matter how many times I asked him a question or for a comment about any topic. I found out that the year before, with another teacher, he was constantly teased for not speaking English well. So he decided he wouldn’t speak. However, although this was the most severe case, I found that the entire class had issues with oral communication.
We all know how important oral language is to students’ learning process and development, especially when learning a foreign language! Most students don’t have a lot of other opportunities to practice speaking, so the need to converse with their peers and you is of high importance. So how can we deal with peer pressure and their fear of being ridiculed?
Dealing with peer pressure
In order to get my students to participate, I looked for research on the topic. I found that researchers have broadly discussed the problem and it has been an issue for some time. So how can we deal with it? Many specialists agree that the best weapon to fight peer pressure would be self-confidence. When the student believes in his convictions and is sure about his personality and appearance, they don’t seem to suffer the pressure in such a significant way.
However, as teachers, we know that this is not always the case and that in a group of teenagers, it is not difficult to find students who are suffering some kind of insecurity and self-doubt. The role of the teacher, in my view, would not be to eliminate the pressure through disciplinary attitudes by keeping all students quiet and seated, performing exercises confined to their desks. In the language classroom, students need to practice speaking and this is not possible if students are afraid and ashamed to speak.
How teachers can help with peer pressure
As we know, the teachers’ attitudes can influence the dynamics of the room and there are some changes that can be done to help the student cope with the pressures in the classroom, such as these:
- Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and make them believe in themselves
So they can realise that they are learning. It’s a good idea to think of an activity with an authentic material so students can see their English put to real use. If the class’ attitude is really bad, you can start by introducing such material in individual exercises and slowly moving to others for the entire class. It’s important to create opportunities for students to succeed. Once they see they can, they will have more courage to keep trying.
- Do not allow students to bully others. Be vigilant
It’s important to show that you have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior. Create an environment where students are not afraid to fail and be ridiculed.
- Increase your students’ self-esteem and confidence by focusing on their successes
This is more of an attitude. Try not to always point out the mistakes they are making. If a student makes a mistake in class, instead of pointing it, just repeat what they said, but correctly. For instance: if the student says “ He are studying at the moment” just repeat the sentence correctly by saying, “Okay, he is studying at the moment”. Give your student a chance to notice the mistake on his/her own, without you having to point it out.
- Teach students to realise that they can learn from their mistakes and how to deal with error
I always like to emphasize to my students the importance of learning from your mistakes, but how can we do that in the classroom? Well, make the mistake seem cool! Use it as a teachable moment, or when you are teaching a new topic try to point out the places that you know are the tricky parts before your students have a chance to make a mistake. Before you start an exercise, make sure you pronounce first the most difficult words, and discuss the goal of the exercise in a very clear manner so they really understand what is expected of them.
Using these steps I was able to get my own students talking and having more fun in the classroom. With time, they realised that the classroom had another vibe, and thus they followed. But I’m sure there are many other ways and activities to get your students to talk. Do you know any? Comment below with your suggestions.
Find out more about Clara by reading our interview with her on Being a private English teacher in Brazil.