Does this sound familiar? You ask a question to the class. Silence. You repeat the question. No response. Crickets chirp. Tumbleweeds roll across the dusty road. Then you suddenly wake up in a cold sweat. Quiet classes full of shy students – a terrible nightmare for ESL teachers.
Depending on your teaching situation, you may encounter this problem rarely or frequently. We’ll go through some points that will help you, from basic to more involved class management. If you follow these points, you won’t be waking up in a cold sweat ever again.
1. Level check
Tip 1 – Don’t assume all your students are in the right level. It may seem unlikely that the whole class is a level or two below the one … but it happens. Your institution wants bums on seats and full classes – so it can afford to pay you, the electric bill, and turn a profit. Don’t be surprised when it happens – be prepared.
2. Grade language
Following on from point 1 – grade your language, even for higher level classes until you are sure everyone is following along. Speak slower. Don’t use complicated grammar structures or higher-level vocabulary. Use plenty of repetition, and say things in a slightly different way. Use multiple forms of communication – writing, pictures, gestures.
3. Don’t direct questions to the whole class
Are you in the habit of asking a question to the whole class, and expecting a response? Well, there’s no use getting frustrated if you don’t get a response. And getting annoyed at your students will make the whole thing worse. So, we need to change tactics. We can call on students individually – although it is better to do this with stronger students. And as yet, we don’t know which are the stronger students. So instead let’s direct our questions to groups of students. Which leads us nicely on to point 4.
4. Groups
Get your students in groups. Do it on the first day. Groups of 4 preferably, but 3 is okay. Try and have a good mix of male to female students. If two friends come together, let them stay together at first. If any larger groups of friends come, split them up.
5. Don’t focus on mingle ice breaking activities
Ok, onto something that will raise an eyebrow with some of the more experience TEFL teachers. On your first day, you may be in the habit of doing lots of ice breaking activities involving mingling of the whole class. You don’t have to stop, but that shouldn’t be your main focus. It’s always good to give your students an idea of what you will be doing for the rest of the course/semester, so perhaps save one for the end of class.
Focus instead on group bonding. Let’s assume your students are all introverts. Most introverts are more comfortable getting to know others in a one-on-one situation, or in a small group. So, find some group activities for breaking that ice, or adapt your class mingle to use with groups.
6. Ice breakers aren’t just for the first day
So, you probably planned to do ice breakers on the first day of class, and then crack on with the coursebook from the second class. Don’t feel bad, that’s what the majority of teachers do. But if we really want to do something about these tough, quiet classes and turn them completely around, we need a change of strategy.
Plan your classes so that you have plenty of group work. It could be group activities, group-based review games (ppt games work well), communicative board games, group card-based activities, exercises adapted from the book and so on. Make sure there is lots of group work, so students are getting to know the 3 other students in their group.
In addition, you’ll want to plan some ice breaking activities for when we shuffle the groups.
7. Shuffle groups
Once your introverted students are comfortable, we are going to shuffle them. Shuffle groups regularly – this is the key to bonding the whole class. However, we are not going to shuffle groups randomly. You need to plan it carefully. You are going to split each group in two; two students stay together and join two students from another group. This way they will feel less uncomfortable, and will bond more quickly.
As soon as the groups have been shuffled – you need to do an ice breaking activity or two. Also, it’s very important not to slip back into old habits – you need to keep up the group focus every class. Build group activities into your planning – it can take a while to adjust, but it pays dividends.
8. Keep on shuffling
Keep shuffling. Shuffle every 4 or 5 classes. Try and make sure everyone knows someone in the group from previous classes. By the 3rd shuffle you will see a noticeable change in your class, and by the end of semester you won’t even believe they were the same quiet class from the first day.
More Ice Breaker Tips for Quiet Classes
Do you have any tips on how to deal with quiet classes? How about your favourite ice breaker activities or warmers. Let us know in the comments below.
If you are looking for some ice breaker activities, we have a free one available on our TPT store HERE, as well as a bundle of different ice breaker activities suitable for a variety of levels. Happy Teaching!