lesson. Keep a simple record of who you have asked, so that others can be
invited on future occasions. No learner should have to feel invisible!
5 Use pair and group work. Sometimes this feels chaotic in large classes, but
it is the only way to give learners time to use the language for themselves. It
is also an excellent opportunity for helping learners to start to develop
independent learning skills, which will be particularly useful to them in a
large class environment.
6 Agree some alternative group configurations at the start of the course.
You may not want learners always to work with the same people, but a lot
of time is saved when you ask them to form groups if they know who they
are to go with. So having two or three pre-established group sets—according
to the constraints of the particular classroom—is a good compromise.
7 Monitor group work selectively. During brief periods of group work you
will not be able to monitor every group in detail. So give the bulk of your
attention to just a small number of groups—and, again, make sure you rotate
this fairly over a series of lessons.
8 Agree a signal for quiet. Noise levels during group work can seem high,
and it may not be easy to get the class’s attention again. A pre-arranged
signal, such as clapping hands or ringing a bell, can bring the group back
together. If you don’t want to interrupt quite so brusquely, you could also try
raising your arm as a request to ‘finish off’—groups who finish then also
raise their arms, until everyone has stopped.
9 Take selective feedback on group activities. Some of the groups who you
were not able to monitor could be invited to report to the class on what they
did. Try to make sure different group members get the chance to act as
reporters.
10 Invite the learners to write to you. This does not necessarily mean at
length, nor all the time, but at appropriate intervals, to give you feedback on
their experience of the course. You can respond to the feedback orally, with
the whole class or with an individual, if it seems necessary. The existence of
a written communication channel can be reassuring for learners who have to
‘share’ the teacher with so many others during class time.
11 Find out how colleagues cope with large classes. There may be some
institutional ground rules in operation that you can easily tap in to. For
example, if the learners are already used to a certain signal for quiet or a
certain approach to getting feedback on group activities, it will probably be
easiest for you to do the same thing.9 Keeping your class in good order
If you are working with small groups of motivated adults, who have powerful
motives for learning English and who may be financing their own tuition, then
you are unlikely to have to take any specific steps to ‘keep order’ in your
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