Teaching English to young learners; 5 golden rules for discipline in your TEFL class

I remember well an early EFL class, teaching English to young learners:
As I remonstrated with little Pedro - his real name incidentally. (He's either a politician or master criminal now) to please not drop my bag which he was gleefully dangling out of the 3rd floor window, I did find myself pondering, how did it get to this? In other words what could I have done to prevent this sorry state of affairs?

When it comes to classroom discipline, I've learned some lessons over the years and have established 5 golden rules for myself which I'm happy to share:

Rule 1.
Know your class. If they are boisterous from the off, you need to be there before them, early with a heads-down task ready on their desk to focus them as soon as they enter. It can be light; a simple word puzzle or even let them unscramble some words on the board to find out the theme for the lesson. Whatever it is, it needs to be quiet and individual.

Rule 2.
Silence is golden. Instead of raising your voice, why not be quiet when you need some hush and raise your hands in the air. Tell them from the off that this is the sign to be quiet and copy you. Say nothing, but when all hands are in the air, begin again. This can really work and although you might think you'll be there forever waving your hands in the air like some stranded swimmer, you'll be surprised how many of the students nudge each other to copy if they've missed the cue.


Rule 3.
Agree and establish the rules with your students early on. For older students ask which tasks they find fun and agree to include them as a reward towards the end of a class when they have behaved well. Reach a consensus with them on acceptable modes of behaviour and use of English in the classroom.  For younger students, reward/sticker charts work really well with a small prize at the end of the week/term for hard work. Be sonsistent in this and be sure to reward good behaviour only.


Rule 4.
Make learning as fun as possible. Boredom often results in poor behaviour

• Break up longer tasks with a ‘breakout' 2 minute class activity such as aerobics, Simon says or a chant.

• Include communication games regularly. There's some great ones here: http://www.mes-english.com/games.php

Rule 5.
Look at your own classroom management behaviour and remember that body language speaks louder than words.
Smile and talk to the whole class. The newbie teacher's tendency is to talk ‘to the board' or that 1 friendly face in the crowd as it's easier than facing a sea of bored teenage faces. This won't do.

Keep your hands out of your pocket and stand up. This immediately gives you authority. There's time for you to be their class friend once you've established the rules of engagement!

Say it like you mean it, so: ‘we're doing this today…' rather than ‘I thought we'd do this um and um hope you like it'. Force a smile, sound enthusiastic and adopt a louder ‘whole class' version of your real voice. Remember, there's no point speaking if you haven't got their attention. See rule 2

Break down instructions into manageable chunks. How many times has poor attention been the result of the student not really understanding what they have to do? This can mean ensuring they've got each segment of instruction before moving onto the next chunk. E.g:

‘First, stand up.' (Everyone obeys.) ‘Next, face the wall.' (Everyone faces the wall.)

‘I'm now giving each of  you a piece of paper with a famous person on it.' (Give out the piece of paper.)
‘Now, open the piece of paper. This person is now you. Keep your new identity secret.' etc.

This works far better than giving the instruction in one ‘download' since you can make sure everyone is with you at each stage. Have a look at how I break down instructions in our Global English teaching video: a getting to know you activity

Rule 5b. Yes, I cheated with an extra rule.
Ensure you isolate trouble makers - but avoid stand-offs. There's always 1 Pedro. (I should really let this go, shouldn't I?) Faced with 1 or 2 who are getting the whole class giggling with their flagrant flouting of your instructions, the best thing is not to engage in a battle of wills. They have a captive audience of their peers to play up to and have little to lose in most cases. EFL teachers have fewer sanctions up their sleeve than regular teachers and kids know this.

Get the class quickly involved in some work. This means your troublemaker has lost their audience. Then quietly approach said trouble maker and stoop to his/her eye level. Ask something neutral like:
‘Do you need help with this task or can you go on alone?

Avoid stand-offs…‘Sit down Pedro! (Pedro refuses.) Louder: ‘Sit down Pedro!' (Pedro doesn't budge.)
Rather: ‘Pedro, when you've sat sown, let's begin at page 4.'

Of course, ignore all the above advice if their behaviour is dangerous – if little Pedro is dangling little Angelina out of the window instead of a bag, for example. In which case, do what you have to and good luck!

 There's more on classroom management and discipline in the Global English accredited 100 hour online TESOL + Teaching English to Young Learner course: