Help!! My students get absolutely bored!

[petebrown]

Dear all,

I had taught one year and did other jobs. Now I'm back on teaching. However, my students are getting really bored with the classes but I have to follow the methodology of a book strictly and that implies repetition and the same steps. I have tried to vary but they're still bored to the point of having problems with the order and discipline of the class. I teach two groups. One has 24 students between 7 and 15 years old and the other has 9 students between 19 and 30 years old. I'm desperate and don't know what to do. I would be most grateful if you could give some practical advice to solve this matter.

Thank you so much,

Peter Brown

[Tdol]

How inflexible are the management? This sounds like quite a structural problem; the age range of the first class is very wide. In all honesty, if I were in your shoes, I would be looking for another place to work.

[BobK]

How inflexible are the management? This sounds like quite a structural problem; the age range of the first class is very wide. In all honesty, if I were in your shoes, I would be looking for another place to work.

Much TEFL is a money-grubbing racket, and schools that insist on a single method are often the worst offenders. You could make the situation better, by doing a lot of homework (devising and/or finding activities to reinforce the lessons in the book); but this would be a lot of work and would be hard to 'hide' from management. So I'd take Tdol's way out.

b

[ladybird987]

Why don't you make a survey among your students? It might support you in front of the management.

[petebrown]

When I ask my students they say the class goes too slowly and therefore they get bored and tired of repetition. I asked the management about flexibility and they said I could vary activities as long as the competencies are achieved. I mentioned that big groups are hard to provide the appropriate support to every student but they said they have always have classes like that. The thing is that I haven't got another job yet!!

If you can think of any really fun and easy to apply activities I would thank you because for now I have to cope with it. I really appreciate the advice and support you have given me, thank you guys!!

[belkıs]

First of all, I think you can preapare a questionnaire to know what your students' interests are. You can organize your class easily in the light of this questionnaire.

[BobK]

PS: This isn't relevant, but you may like to know: "absolutely" doesn't collocate with "bored" (a gradable adjective). Instead you could say 'bored stiff', 'bored out of their skulls', or 'bored out of their ["tiny"] minds'.

b

[petebrown]

PS: This isn't relevant, but you may like to know: "absolutely" doesn't collocate with "bored" (a gradable adjective). Instead you could say 'bored stiff', 'bored out of their skulls', or 'bored out of their ["tiny"] minds'.

b

It's still very useful, it sounded a bit weird to me but I was so overwhelmed that I wanted to write quickly, thank you for the feedback, I like that as well!

[petebrown]

I've already done a questionnaire and will start using it, I'll let you know the results, thanks again guys!

[BobK]

It's still very useful, it sounded a bit weird to me but I was so overwhelmed that I wanted to write quickly, thank you for the feedback, I like that as well!

I've just remembered a variant of 'bored stiff' - only used in very informal situations: 'bored rigid'.

b