Shyness is often misunderstood because it is not one emotion, but a mixture of fear, tension, apprehension and/or embarrassment. Shy children seem to lack confidence and are self-conscious especially in new surroundings or when they are the centre of attention. Changes in the environment and school pressures are also factors that affect a child’s demeanour. Symptoms of shyness may include gaze aversion, a soft tone of voice, and/or hesitant or trembling speech . It is noteworthy that shyness is not necessarily a negative attribute. Many shy children exhibit an ability to please and think for themselves. Being reserved can also be a worthy personality trait. It is when shyness is severe that educators need to be concerned.

Heredity, culture, and environment can each play a role in a child’s shyness. If a child’s family tends to be aloof and sequestered, there is a likelihood that the child will be somewhat inhibited. In addition, if the adults in a child’s life constantly call attention to what others think of the child or allow him or her little autonomy, shyness may result.

The problem with a child being extremely shy is that he or she may be perceived by peers as unfriendly and disinterested. Children may avoid playing with a shy child, thus hampering his or her social development and increasing the chances of a child having low self-esteem. With few friendship or communication skills, shy children may become lonely and depressed, which can interfere with reaching their full potential. Educators can assist children, whose shyness interferes with their social development and learning, by helping them relate comfortably with others. If no assistance is provided, shyness may worsen.

It should be noted that the process of socialization takes time. In order to feel safe, shy children often stand back and watch an activity. They begin the socialization process by observing and listening to the interactions of others. When they feel comfortable they move closer. Later, they may speak to a teacher or peer, and after time begin to relate to other children.

What can educators do to facilitate the development of a shy child’s social skills?

1. Create a caring relationship with the child by attempting to understand his or her thoughts, fears and other emotions. Reassure the child that all children feel inhibited at times.
2. Since a shy student may become more self-conscious when confronted with a loud voice, speak softly and clearly. Be prepared to wait patiently for a reply to a question because the child may need time to respond.
3. Be accepting of a shy child’s reticence to participate. Allow the child time to adjust to a situation. This will increase his or her sense of security and self-confidence.
4. Refrain from forcing a child to participate in group activities. Instead, provide nonthreatening ways for the child to interact with peers. Sometimes pairing a quiet child with an extroverted child can produce a positive learning experience for both students.
5. Notice and comment on a child’s strengths including qualities such as kindness and athletic or academic ability. If you feel the attention will embarrass the child make the compliment in private.
6. Help the child see that everyone makes mistakes and that no one is perfect. Encourage him or her to keep trying by emphasizing that making an effort is what you consider important.
7. If you label a child as “shy,” your description may become a permanent characteristic of the child. Instead, say something like, “Everyone is different. Melissa is a thinker. She watches and learns about what’s happening before participating.”
8. Teach specific social skills through various means including role playing, and/or using dolls or puppets. Have the children practice:

•  Holding their heads up, smiling and making eye contact when they are speaking. Say, “If you look at me while you are talking, I will be able to hear what you have to say.”
•  Greeting a peer with enthusiasm. For example, have the children say things like, “Hi, my name is Tommy! What’s your name?”
•  Beginning a conversation by saying, “What school did you go to last year?” or “What do you like to play?”
•  Listening, smiling, and enjoying social interactions. Have them smile and say things such as, “It’s fun to play this game with you!”
•  Making simple conversation about school work, sports, or television shows. Comments the children may make are: “I like reading too.” “What sport do you like?” or “What’s your favorite TV show?”
•  Being good listeners and not interrupting.
9. Meet with the parent or guardian. Ask the parent to reinforce the social skills listed above. Encourage the parent to help the child do things for him or herself. Brainstorm ways to increase positive peer interactions for the child so that he or she can become more outgoing and independent. Stress that the parent should not label their child “shy” or call the shyness a “problem.” Instead, have the parent call the child a “thinker.” Help the parent recognize that every child is different and that it’s okay for a child to take time before responding or participating.

If the above measures are unsuccessful and extreme shyness and/or anxiety persist, refer the child for additional professional help.

Causes/Reasons

Often quite a fragile individual – behaviour can be a cover-up for frustration and unhappiness.

This student may have been hurt by peers or adults at home and/or school and is now hurting others as a form of revenge and power.

Action

Do:

Remember this student can’t be changed with force. Fighting fire with more fire never works – it just leads to more arguments and more serious incidents. Remember also the student’s anger is probably not personal – usually it is directed at adults and authority in general as a result of failing, being hurt or even being spoiled.

Make the student responsible for his/her actions. This is a very important aspect of dealing with disrespectful students. When we retaliate we reinforce their view that the adult world is against them – effectively letting him/her off the hook. Remain calm and remind them of the consequences of choosing to continue to behave in this way.

Remove the audience. A public confrontation may put the student on the spot and compel him/her to act even worse to save face “Who do you think you are? I don’t get pushed around by anyone!” Whenever possible ask the student to follow you to another room such as the hall to talk the matter through in private.

“I’m not talking about this here in front of everyone; it won’t look good for either of us.”

Keep your cool. Even though you may be deeply offended by the disrespectful behaviour try not to react as this will make the student feel justified. In addition, classmates will respect the teacher who maintains a professional manner and responds respectfully to an abusive student. Try taking the student aside, out of earshot of other students and calmly saying, “Carly, I don’t think I deserve to be spoken to like that. I can see you’re upset, why don’t you tell me what’s really on your mind and maybe I can help.” This type of professional and caring response often results in an instant apology.

Deny them an enemy. Remember, disrespect is usually caused by hostility and revenge. Give the student nothing more to be hostile toward – offer nothing but support – and the situation can be quickly resolved.

Don’t:

Use sarcastic comments, put-downs or ridicule them. You will almost certainly provoke the same behaviour from the students in return. ‘Life is a mirror’ – they will give you what you give them.

Lose control. Responding too quickly and too harshly can back them into a corner and cause them to retaliate further. Try not to let your initial response be too defensive, indignant, or attacking.

Bad Behaviour 6: Silly class clown

Observed

Continually disrupts class with wisecracks and silly behaviour

Will do or say anything to be in the spotlight.

Doesn’t know when to stop

Causes/Reasons

May be covering up deep rooted pain or anxiety – often very insecure and immature

Desperate to be liked and raise status

Sometimes these students have high self-esteem and simply love to entertain

Action

Do:

Meet their need for attention. This student is absolutely DESPERATE for attention. Meet this need by giving them attention when they are not messing around – show them that they can get attention with having to act the fool.

Arrange a time when they can be the comedian. Remember that this student is often very funny. This can be used to your advantage to help raise spirits in a group – laugh with them and enjoy the fun from time to time.

However, the comedian also needs to know that there is an acceptable and unacceptable time to be a clown.

Speak to them in private and offer them a chance to perform ‘on stage’ at the front of the room – at an appropriate time during a lesson. Often, the very fact that you’ve acknowledged them will be enough – they won’t bother accepting the offer. “Paul you’ve got a great personality but I can’t have you disturbing the lesson. How about you entertain us for five minutes at a certain time in the lesson? One condition though, you must stop when I say so.”

Remind them how their behaviour will look to others. Speak to them in private and tell them you are concerned that some students are laughing at them rather than with them. Tell them that it is just their behaviour that is causing this and that there are positive ways they can use their talent rather than going too far and appearing silly. “Simon, you’re a very funny lad but sometimes you go too far. Some people may lose respect for you if you act too silly. If I give you this signal it’s time to stop so that you don’t make a fool of yourself – ok?”

Make time for this student. Take the time to build a relationship with this student by showing interest in them. They will come to respect the teacher who values them.

Respond with silence. When silly behaviour interrupts the class, use the power of silence to convey how you feel. A serious expression and total silence gives the clear message that the behaviour is immature and unacceptable.

Separate them from their audience. Move the student to the front of the room but be quick to give them the attention they need as soon as they start to behave appropriately.

Don’t:

Belittle them – particularly not in front of peers – their esteem is already likely to be very low.

Bad Behaviour 7: Interrupting

Observed

Shouting out

Making silly or rude comments

Trying to engage the teacher in off-topic conversations

Generally ignoring the teacher and talking over him/her

Causes/Reasons

Sees disrupting the lesson as a way of gaining status – the student is trying to get attention and acceptance from peers

The student is trying to satisfy the needs for power and belonging therefore appropriate methods of doing so need to be presented.

Action

Do:

Include cooperative group work activities in lessons – allow the student to make connections with peers and give opportunities to practice appropriate social behaviour.

Give them a responsibility – Doing so enables them to assert themselves and meet their need for empowerment appropriately.

Don’t allow them to disrupt the lesson flow - Continue teaching and try to maintain flow by using proximity praise – giving positive attention to students who are listening and taking part – getting up close to the student and using frequent questioning. Try to keep explanations to a minimum. Confront the student only if

the behaviour actually stops the flow of the lesson. At this point calmly remind them that they have caused the lesson to stop. “People can’t learn when you interrupt us. Let’s stay on topic.” If it continues use a hierarchy of consequences.

Give adequate opportunities for expressing ideas and reporting back – After all, why do pupils talk out of turn? Often because they don’t think they will get a turn.

Speak to persistent interrupters in private at the earliest possible time - Tell them the effect their behaviour is having on the group and calmly but firmly tell them you will not allow this to happen. “My job is to help you all learn. If another student was stopping you learning I would do something about it. This is a serious matter, I want you ALL to succeed and your behaviour is preventing this.”

Look for any improvement – no matter how small – Give positive feedback in private to the student.

Request help from parents. - Explain that if this behaviour continues, it will be difficult for you to teach and it is likely that classmates will withdraw socially from the student.

Pre-arrange an eye or hand signal - Help the student to recognise the unacceptable behaviour without involving the rest of the group.

Don’t:

Neglect the opportunity to teach good social skills – let them see that this behaviour may alienate them in future.

Give undue attention to their interruptions – it will encourage a repeat performance

Is it part of the teacher’s job to make sure that everything said in the class is correct at all times? Think about your own experience of learning a language and of being corrected. How did your teachers correct you? How did you react?

What is a mistake?
A slip – A careless mistake / a slip of the pen or the tongue. The student should be able to correct him / herself with some guidance.
An error – A regular and systematic mistake. The student may believe what he / she’s saying is correct / know what the correct form may be but can’t get it right.
An attempt – The student has not been taught the correct form so cannot produce it.
How can you decide whether or not a mistake is a slip / an error or an attempt? Which of the three would warrant more attention?

Mistakes of form
Definition: A deviation from the form of standard English. e.g. “I reading now.”
What causes such mistakes?

1. Influence of L1.
e.g. “I lost the bus.” (Lose and miss are covered by one word in Greek)

2. Overgeneralization of rule.
e.g. “We use will when we talk about the future.”

3. Communication strategies.
- simplification
e.g. “I go now, bye” (I’m going…)
- guessing
e.g. “Why do men in Scotland wear skirts? (kilts)
- borrowing from L1
e.g. “I travel to the islands by dolphin.” (hydrofoil)

4. Being in a hurry / tired.

5. Teaching-induced mistakes.
- overloading. You give them too much too quickly to take in.
- incorrect staging. You get them to do pair work before you’ve practiced as a whole class.
- failure to highlight rules / form / meaning.
- poor instructions. The students are not clear on what or how to do a task.

6. Cross-Association.
e.g. “prefer”/”would prefer”

7. Distraction.
e.g. The class next door is noisy.

Mistakes and meaning
1. Which is the most important mistake here? Why?
    A: Please will you to show me coats. (In a shop) – (The student wants to be shown a jacket.)
Conclusion: The most important mistakes are those which affect meaning.

2. Where’s the mistake here? Are the forms correct grammatically?
Two students speaking:
    A: How long are you here for?
    B: Two months.
    A: So you came two months ago?
    B: No, yesterday.
Conclusion: Correct linguistic forms are of no use if they don’t mean what we want to say.

3. Why would both people be upset after the short exchange below?
In a shop:
    A: Good morning!
    B: What can I do for you?
    A: Give me some sugar.
What conclusion can you draw from the above example?

4. Which is the most important mistake below? Why?
    A: I liking ice cream. On the contrary, most people like fruit juice.
What conclusion can you draw from the above example?

Mistakes Are Useful
If students make mistakes, what does this mean?

What if they don’t make mistakes?
This may show that students understand fully but it may indicate that students are unwilling to experiment / take risks with new language.

Oral Correction
When presenting language, you probably want students to get it right. (“Repeat after me…”).
When students are discussing in groups, you are more interested in their fluency rather than accuracy.

Teacher Correction / Self-Correction or Peer Correction?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Should they be tried in a certain order? How do you think students feel about peer-correction?

Correction – Some Basic Steps
1. Indicate that an error has been made. – Gesture / facial expression / sounds (“Mmm”)
2. Indicate where the error is.
    - Isolate the part of the utterance that’s wrong.
    - Use fingers to count words and show where the error is.
    - Don’t “echo” errors in a mocking way.
    - Don’t correct it yourself.
3. Encourage the student to try it again.
4. If the student still can’t get it right, invite peer correction.
    - Use gesture to hold the attention of the student who doesn’t know.
    - “Can anyone help?”
    - Try to avoid peer-correction being dominated by 1 or 2 students.
    - Get student to repeat correct model.
5. If peer correction fails, ask yourself why.
    - Does the point need presenting again?
    - If the meaning is unclear, correct it yourself encouraging the whole class to repeat and then each individual student alone.

Written Correction – Some Guidelines
1. Concentrate on the main point of the exercise:
    controlled writing – Correct tightly
    free writing – Correct as a piece of communication
2. Give time for self and peer correction and help students by showing them where mistakes are (by underlining) and what kind of mistakes they have made (by using a correction code).
Example of a correction code:

3. Provide class time for self and peer correction.
4. Correct their corrections.
5. Keep a note of important / common mistakes and prepare a remedial lesson.
6. Encourage students to exchange their marked written work.
7. Be encouraging in your comments before highlighting problem areas.

1. Who goes into the classroom first?
If the teacher is already there, she can welcome the students and control where they sit. If the students are there first, there may be a noisy atmosphere which the teacher has to deal with before the lesson starts.

2. How do you start the lesson?
You may like to have a routine such as all students stand up and are silent when you go into the class. You do not start anything until they are all silently standing and are attentive. Part of the routine may be that students have their books and pencil cases on their desks with their bags on the floor ready before you enter.

3. Where do students sit?
Can they all see the board? Can they see you? Does the sun shine in the students’ eyes or on the board?
Do students sit in rows or around tables? Do you let them sit where they like, seat them alphabetically or change the seating arrangements so students have turns being in the front?

4. What are the rules?
Children like structure. Raise hands if you want to speak. Speak English in the classroom. If you’re late, come in and go quietly to your seat.

5. How do I view a lesson?
Is it like a symphony / birthday party / football game / meal / shopping with a friend / medical consultation / chat? All these are collaborative enterprises, as is a lesson. You have different roles: conductor, organizer, and referee. You plan the menu, select the recipe and give your guests a choice and variety of experiences in a certain order. You and the students pick out and try on what fits and suits you; you advise and provide opportunities for free, improvised speech.

6. What do I do in a lesson?
You have your lesson aim. Your coursebook tells you so. The lesson plan should have a variety of activities and ways for students to get involved in learning. They can be quiet (reading / writing) alone, noisily talking in pairs or groups; they can repeat the teacher or write a dictation as a class or give their own presentations on a topic. Many lessons may follow this format:

* Check homework
* Present new language
* Practice language
* Produce language
* Set homework

Always put yourself in students’ shoes. They should always know what they are supposed to be doing at any particular time in a lesson. You can be the focus of attention or go around helping groups depending on the activity.

7. How do I project myself?
You’ve just had a row with your boss / partner/ child. You’ve been called in last minute to take over a missing colleague’s class. You don’t feel well. Unless your classes are adults with which you feel it’s ok to share personal events and feelings, you have to be seen to be in charge. You are confident in your knowledge and ability to handle your class. Leave personal issues in the classroom door.

“…a state in which both teacher and learners accept and consistently observe a set of rules about behaviour in the classroom whose function is to facilitate smooth, efficient teaching and learning in a lesson.”
Penny Ur

10 tips on preventing discipline problems

1. Use your eyes. Keep eye contact with students and scan the room to pick up signs of boredom, restlessness or distraction. A good teacher has eyes in the back of her head. A pointed look at a misbehaving child should work (Especially if you can look over your glasses).

2. Use your voice. Don’t shout. Speak clearly. Don’t talk too much.

3. Use your body. Vary your position in the class. Stand (you can see all the students) and monitor when they are involved in a task.

4. Use your ears. When you’re speaking, you want absolute silence until you invite responses. If you hear a gradually rising murmur or a little chat between two of the kids at the back, nip it in the bud. Maybe you need to change the activity or pace.

5. Use your authority. You’re the boss and they know it. They might want to test you but most children and adolescents want affirmation and praise. They appreciate structure, so be firm and don’t argue, particularly with individuals in front of the whole class.

6. Be flexible. If an activity isn’t working, be prepared to skip it and move on. If students say they don’t have time to revise for the test you’ve planned for Thursday, perhaps you can reschedule it to for Friday.

7. Be organized. Plan a variety of elements into the lesson and have one or two extra up your sleeve for students who finish quickly or to occupy them for the last five minutes. Start the lesson with something to get the students’ attention and interest. Be aware of which activities stir them up and settle them down. Let them in on your lesson plan by noting on the board what they are going to be doing in the lesson. Have a plan for dealing with late-comers (a seat near the door?).

8. Be consistent. Treat students equally. Give each a turn. Do not only be a teachers pet to the enthusiastic compulsive hand –raisers at the front. Keep to the rules and routines. It’s useful to draw up an agreement list in the beginning of the school year.

9. Be clear and positive. When giving instructions, use examples and demonstrations to what you want the students to do. Make sure you know that they know what they are expected to do before you tell them to do it. Give positive feedback. Reward good work and behaviour. Success breeds success.

10. Be sensitive. A class is made up of individuals. Lessons often presume a receptive homogenous mass. Some of your students may be hyperactive, dyslexic or depressed; have other learning or emotional problems. Children are influenced by the weather (What happens to them when there’s a storm brewing?); adolescence by their hormones. All students bring their outside life experiences and personalities into the classroom. Bring yours too.