Handling Efl Learners’ Unexpected Behaviors in Class Essay

For the sake of providing the best services to their students, English teachers arrange their English language teaching and learning activities as perfect as possible. They spend most of the time to make preparation for their teaching. However, along with the process of such preparation, they sometimes do not consider the importance of also preparing the unplanned teaching. Consequently, when things go wrong, they often get difficulties on what they should decide to do. Therefore, this study is crucial to be conducted as its result would be able to give knowledge to English teachers on how to appropriately respond when such phenomenon comes into surface. The purposes of this study were 1) to observe the categories of EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors in the process of learning English in class and 2) to identify the efforts of English language teachers in handling such behaviors. This study utilized the qualitative design in which observation and interview were used as the main instruments in carrying out the research. To be the respondents of this present study, three English teachers from three different state junior high schools in Bogor were purposively chosen. The findings showed that there were four major categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors, namely learners’ psychological problems, uncooperative attitude, learners’ intelligence level and learners’ native language use. Some solutions in handling such behaviors were also recommended. One of which was to give different materials when dealing with learners with different level of capability. Keywords: unplanned teaching, EFL learners’ classroom behaviors Introduction For English language teachers, planning lessons has become a crucial action that needs to be carried out since it helps guide them during and after the lesson (Spratt, Pulverness & William, 2005). Further, it enables them to make the language teaching process more systematic and well-organized so that they would be on the right track of what they are going to teach and what kind of teaching methods they are about to employ in classroom activities. Therefore, as an effort to provide the best services to their students, English teachers frequently spend most of their times arranging their English language teaching and learning activities as perfect as possible before conducting the act of teaching in the classroom. In fact, only few teachers are aware of the importance of also making attempts to think of and list the solution handling the EFL learners’ ‘unexpected’ behaviors that may probably appear in the classroom when English language teaching is in action. As the result, they will face problems which could seriously block the flow of the teaching process. Thus, the unplanned teaching needs to be paid a particular attention within the consideration when teachers plan the lesson. Brown (2001) explains that the unplanned teaching can occur when the midstream of the lesson changes; going out of the plan that has been set earlier. Further, such phenomenon may happen at anytime. In conclusion, teachers are daily called upon to deal with the ‘unexpected’. 1 Methods This study was principally aimed at identifying the categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors that might exist during the English language teaching and learning process inside the classroom. Additionally, the investigation was also led upon the identification of the teachers’ effort in handling the behaviors. This present study employed qualitative research design using observation and interview as the instruments in collecting the data. Additionally, three English teachers from three different state junior high schools in Bogor were purposively chosen. The observation was conducted to capture and observe the behavior of the EFL learners when learning English at the classroom. Further, it also functioned to identify how the teachers reacted towards the existing behavior of the learners which were categorized ‘unexpected’. The interview was done to verify what has been witnessed during the observation. The Categories of the Unexpected Behaviors Having completed with the data analysis process, the categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behavior could then be revealed. It could be seen from the table below. Table 1 EFL Learners’ Unexpected Behaviors No 1 Categories Learners’ Psychological Problem Sample of Phenomenon Learners had less confident and did not want to participate within the language class activities Learners did not pay attention and kept on talking with their friends when teachers were explaining the materials Learners were not well-motivated to learn Learners did not do the tasks ssigned Learners did not want to work in a group Some learners were slow and some were fast Learners asked question which was far ahead the topic being discussed at the mean time Learners kept on using their native language when the teachers wanted them to speak English 2 3 Uncooperative Attitude Learners’ Level Intelligence 4 The Learners’ Native Language Use Solutions in Handling the Behaviors After knowing the categories of the unexpected behaviors of the EFL learners when learning English, solutions on how to appropriately rea ct towards the phenomenon were discovered. Firstly, when dealing with the learners’ psychological problems, teachers, in the beginning of the class, were required to put a strong emphasis on the positive side of having high motivation in the process of learning language. This would build their learning enthusiasm. Second, in handling the learners who were uncooperative such as did not do their homework, teachers could explain the benefit of doing their homework to help them get progress in their language learning process. Third, to teach learners who were at different level of capability, teachers could give special attention to the slow learners while fast learners were given other materials to work with. This was in line with the theory proposed by Harmer (2007) in which he suggested the use of different materials when facing students with different levels. The last, to handle learners who kept using their native language, as found in the interview, teachers were strongly suggested to only respond to the English use. This was supported by Harmer (2007) in which he indicated to ignore what students said in their own language. 2 Conclusion Considering the unexpected things that perhaps may exist in the language learning and teaching process is really important for the language teachers to take into account in the process of planning the lesson. Therefore when things go wrong, they would at least have options on how to handle it, as they are well-prepared. After all, four major categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors were recognized. They were learners’ psychological problems, uncooperative attitude, learners’ intelligence level and the learners’ native language use. Some solutions in handling such behavior were also recommended. One of which was to give different materials when dealing with learners with different level of capability. These findings are expected to be able to give knowledge to English teachers on how to appropriately respond when such phenomenon comes into surface so that the act of English language teaching and learning will keep on successfully moving forward.