It is often more difficult to get and deal with student questions in large classes. However, there can also be issues with questions in lessons which are specific to or worse in small classes. This article will deal with such problems in classes of around two to four students. Similar issues in one-to-one lessons dealt with in a separate article, but most of these techniques could also be useful in smaller and/ or larger classes.
Problems with student questions in small classes
Issues with questions specific to small classes include:
- there not being anyone who is brave enough to jump in and ask questions (statistically more likely when there are fewer students in class, with that shyness possibly made worse by sitting so close to all the other students)
- students not listening to other people’s questions (often a problem but possibly more so when they know it won’t be long until they have their chance to ask their own)
- questions from one pair disturbing the other pair (as they are probably sitting close together, often on the same table)
- students feeling free to ask questions which are really off topic questions and/ or only related to their own lives (perhaps because there are few other students for them to annoy by doing so)
- students getting into bad habit such as dominating the questions when the other students are absent and so they have the teacher to themselves (statistically more likely in small classes)
- it being more obvious than in a large class if you usually nominate the same keen student to ask the first question each time
- there being less chance of someone else answering if you redirect the question to the class
- student questions producing conflict and other bad feelings (more likely when you can’t move students who clash away from each other)
The common problem of one student dominating (by asking all the questions, trying to answer all questions from other students, and/ or always asking the first question) can also be more of a problem in small classes.
Questions in small classes teaching tips
Solutions to the problems above include:
- giving suggested questions (orally, on the board, or on a poster in class)
- demanding at least one question from each student (in any order, if necessary with other students filling time with other questions while the one last person comes up with theirs)
- making questions from one student relevant to the others (by making connections to the other students’ jobs, problems with English, earlier questions, etc)
- making a note of when someone wants to ask you a question and answering later (after pairwork has finished, after class, by email, etc)
- mixing up allowing anyone to ask questions and nominating someone to ask the next question
- mixing up allowing other students to try to answer the questions, and (insisting on) answering the questions yourself
- having class votes on answers (“Hands up if you think it means…”, etc).
Making the most of questions in small classes
There are also ways that you can make the most of the advantages of being in a small class including:
- encouraging students to ask questions about English, cultural differences, etc that have come up between classes (dealing with any questions which turn out not to be of interest to others in the ways explained above)
- knowing when another student is likely to be able a question (or at least when they will be able to contribute something interesting), and when you should just answer yourself
- being easily able to keep track on who has asked questions or who asked first, and to choose the best times to even things up