TEFL - coping with arrogant students?

Does anyone who teaches TEFL have any advice on this? I'm talking about students who overestimate their level of English, question your explanations, correct your pronunciation, etc? It's actually a bigger problem than I would have expected and one that TEFL courses don't always cover in much depth. My friend is currently teaching in Japan and had a couple of his students tell him they didn't need to learn any more grammar because they already knew it all - of course they could barely string a sentence together and my friend had to convince them that they might just need more classes. I recently had another student who mocked my pronunciation and implied it was incorrect (I speak British English with a slight, slight Irish accent). He didn't understand the word 'road' until I explained what it was and then came out with 'oh you mean RRROAWWD' (imagine the strongest Polish accent you ever heard) and rolled his eyes at me. I snapped at this point (he did this a lot) and told him I was the native speaker and in fact that is how the word is pronounced, and he might do well do actually listen to me instead of correcting me. I mean, someone who can't hear the difference between 'Tuesday' and 'Thursday' really has no business telling me the right way to pronounce anything. I generally tend to be 'nice' and supportive of the students, I don't want to make them feel stupid, but stuff like this riles me up. I obviously don't want to be snapping at them or come across as being horrible, but how can you bring someone down a peg or two without being cruel?

I'm not really used to the arrogance - I usually teach Spanish grinds to Irish students and they usually have the opposite problem of lacking confidence and being too shy to use words out loud. I studied Spanish in college and we'd never have had the gall to correct a native teacher's pronunciation or grammar! I'm not saying all teachers are always right and should automatically be listened to, but some students need to understand that they are nowhere NEAR as good as they think they are and that there is a world of difference between asking a polite question and implying that the teacher is wrong. What is the best way to say this, without knocking their confidence or being mean?

smoc

Just be assertive to them. I find giving an example and puting a student on the spot to prove themselves (which they normally cant) will shut them up and realise they dont know everything.

spurious

I wouldn't say this is specifically a TEFL problem. There's always one who will try to undermine you.

is_that_so

This is widespread and not restricted to specific nationalities although sometimes it can have more to do with gender than anything else. If it is a problem with your gender then I would refer it to the school admin immediately to sort out.

There are many ways to cope with this and if the school is any good you can also ask them for support on this. There is no shame is saying you have a difficult student.

A student rolling eyes at you is rude and should be highlighted as such. A little anger from a "nice" teacher can shock people and get them to show a bit of respect. A firm quiet word can often work as well.

With students who challenge you, challenge them back and invite them to explain to the class exactly what is wrong. In the case of pronunciation "misunderstand them" or even use a good student or two as a sounding board to show how poor their pronunciation is. You could do a pronunciation session on class problem aand specifically focussing on areas of difficulty that they have.
You can spend more time with them as they do exercises, pointing out difficulties that arise.

They can also be deliberately set exercises that are too difficult.

Collectively make up a set of class rules. Some silly, some not.
e.g. What the teacher must/should do. What the students must/should do.

Adult students are often like kids, looking for that crack where they can manipulate or take advantage of the teacher. Whatever attitude you take don't be intimidated.

madziuda

Teaching pronunciation's always tough, precisely because there's so many variations on how one word can be pronounced.

If a student challenges you on this it’s good to use multimedia to prove your point. Most dictionaries are now sold with a CD version where a word can be played back pronounced in both its American and British English version.

A student might not believe you but he/she will most likely acknowledge the authority of a dictionary

If you’ve got a laptop bring it to school with you, after a demonstration or two like that I guarantee the student in question will just shut up and realize that you’re the teacher and you know best.

Best of luck anyway

biko

madziuda wrote: »

Teaching pronunciation's always tough, precisely because there's so many variations on how one word can be pronounced.

If a student challenges you on this it’s good to use multimedia to prove your point. Most dictionaries are now sold with a CD version where a word can be played back pronounced in both its American and British English version.

A student might not believe you but he/she will most likely acknowledge the authority of a dictionary

If you’ve got a laptop bring it to school with you, after a demonstration or two like that I guarantee the student in question will just shut up and realize that you’re the teacher and you know best.

Best of luck anyway

try again, with default font and colour

forestfruits

Theres always one!

I totally agree with the use of multi media to prove your point!

But I would take the student aside and perhaps suggest that if they feel they already have a full handle on the language that perhaps they should not be attending the classes!!

Be nice but firm!!

Arrogance!

biko

You could bring a friend in to talk to the class, when s/he comes to the troublesome student s/he could pretend not to understand

foreignobserver

That might be just a rude person.

But a person that has little English and wants to communicate might sound rude without having such intention.

I could imagine that this person is simply frustrated, too. Not being able to understand the teacher might be very frustrating.

Of course that's their problem but as they happen to pay for the course they expect you to, you know, speak clearly... Of course You Do,
but they are not used to your, or anyone's, natural English. This is one of teh reasons why they want to learn, I would presume.

I'd say - put emphasis on pronounciation and specific English phonems. Make the "aural" difference between e.g.Tuesday and Thursday clear.
This seems to be the initial problem, only then his/her and your egos got involved.
Don't expect people to just hear the difference - and - don't take it personally.

Good Luck

See Ye

Pronunciation
- the accepted pronunciation for any one word by native speakers is much wider than other languages, especially when we're talking about vowel sounds, stress the fact that English is an international language. They need to see that if they cannot be flexible enough in their thinking and expectations to bring logic into play to work out the meaning of a word in context they will be at a disadvantage both on the job market and life in general - this is why we talk not just about Listening Comprehension but also Listening SKILLS.
Use lots of listening exercises with speakers of different origins (native and non-native speakers) in class. Books such as the "In Company" series by Macmillan are good for this - the intermediate level alone has Aussies, various UK accents, US, Swiss-French, Dutch etc. The BBC has a thing called "voices" where you can listen to various UK accents which is a nice challenge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/index.shtml

Also could it be possible that the learner's attitude came across as rude but it was in fact just poor phrasing and intonation on their part ? Here you can go another route "OK Pawel, when you say that you sound rude and arrogant and you will get a bad reaction from other people now listen (then repeat his phrase with exagerated relieved intonation) "Oh you mean road!"" Then drill the whole group chorally and individually until you're satisfied that he sounds nicer.

"Arrogance"
For over-cocky learners you may have to go against all your training and instincts and stop them every time they make a mistake, mid-sentence or no, thus underlining that although they can pretty much be understood all the time their accuracy is far from perfect.
"Yesterday I have been" "WENT" "I went in" "TO" "to have a lunch" "have lunch no 'a'" etc.
If they question you, don't be afraid to hand them copies of entries in dictionaries or grammar books which back you up the next time you teach them. (I once recopied dictionary entries on harpoon, javelin, asegai, spear, halberd, spike, for a learner in Warsaw who disagreed with the shape of the object I drew on the board to illustrate the image behind "spearhead" !)

Japan
Your mate's learners may not be that wrong - they probably don't need any more pure grammar lessons with gap fills and isolated phrases. They expect to get something different from their mother tongue speaker. What he needs to do is focus on the situations in which we use certain grammar forms and get the learners to focus on the context. He should contrast different forms and illustrate how the message changes or gets deformed by the errors they are making. I don't know how long his lesson are but he might be able to review the "form" (how to make the Pres. Cont. for example) then have some receptive practice, seeing how it's used in a spoken or written text before getting the learners to produce it themselves. It needs to be hidden grammar - elicit the form then use it. His life may be easier if he just avoids mentioning the name of any form in the opening stages of the lesson.

Hope this helps, let us know how things develop.

See Ye

PS to help them with the old "Tuesday" versus "Thursday" problem don't focus so much on "t" compared to "th" (which is often difficult to reproduce anyway) but the next sound i.e. the "you" in Tuesday and the "er" in Thursday.