Recently, I’ve received several emails and some DMs from teachers about students listening. They were all having the same frustration. The comments are, “My kids just don’t listen”, “My kids are super chatty”, and “They just don’t stop talking”. Of course, the follow-up question is, “How can I make them listen?” This is such an important question! You and I know that our students need to listen in order to acquire the language. To read more about why we should learn language, head to this blog.
So, what can we do for them to listen to us? This week, I’m going to share my top five strategies.
What Not To Do
Before I share with you the strategies about students listening, let me tell you three things that I don’t do anymore. The first one is scream at them. It just doesn’t work. It damages our relationship. The second one is to blame myself or believe that I’m a bad teacher. I know I’m a good teacher. The third one is ignoring it. We cannot ignore the fact that they don’t listen. If they’re chatty one day and we don’t do something about it, they’re going to be chatty the next day, and things will escalate.
Top Strategies To Get Your Students Listening
#1 Establish a strong relationship with your students
The best way to establish a strong relationship is to let your students know you as a human, and you get to know your students more as humans. Why? Because we need that relationship so they will want to listen to us. My students know I am human and know things about me and my family. We can still keep it professional. So, how can we get to know them? Spend a few minutes every single day in class, sharing about yourself or asking personal questions to your students. Just a simple, “How are you doing today?”, will make it work. You’re showing intention not just checking boxes.
#2 Establish few, but very clear, rules and expectations for your class
The second strategy is to establish few, but very clear, rules and expectations for your class. The second part to this strategy is to enforce them. Try not to make too many rules. Keep it simple. Just three to five rules are needed.
I have five, non-negotiable rules in my class. I repeat them every single day. When my students break a rule, like if I’m talking and I see two people chatting, I stop, I give them a rule, I look at the class, and I repeat the rule and my class responds to me. Another part of this is to give specific and clear instructions for each one of your activities. They need to know what is expected of them.
#3 Self-assessments and surveys
I love to do self-assessments! I’m creating the space for my students to reflect on their own process, on their own things that they do in class to help them acquire the language. Every Friday, I give one to my students. I tell them that at the end, give me comments to questions like what’s doing really well and where do you want to improve for next week. I’m giving them the space for having that moment where they think about what they’re doing.
I also like to do surveys. I try to do a survey each quarter, to ask my students what things are working in our class and what things are not working. In my largest, and chattiest, class, I gave them a survey. They told me things like, “I don’t think our seating arrangements are working because we’re facing each other and we just love to talk. Maybe you can put us in a different way where we’re facing you.” What a great point! They were also saying, “Sometimes we feel like the content of the class is too high for us, and I get lost. I tried to ask the person sitting next to me for help, but then it just becomes this chatting and constant thing.” They gave me great feedback. So, don’t be afraid to ask them.
#4 Stay comprehensible, keep it compelling, and chunk it
Staying comprehensible is not only necessary for language acquisition, but it’s essential for keeping our students engaged. Nothing is more frustrating than not understanding and feeling that the expectation is that you must understand. When we make it that difficult, they are tuning out. If your students feel competent, they will probably be more engaged. It’s just like us.
Next, think about, “What is compelling for your students?” I really love to start my classes with personalized questions and answers because, that way, I connect whatever our topic is to my students. So, think about your next unit, and think about five questions that you can ask your students that really connect the topic to them on a personal level.
The last part to this strategy is chunking. There are some classes that every three minutes you need a reset. Chunk the learning. So, you may need a brain break, a little turn and talk, or you need to do drawing in the middle of a lesson. Always have some activities that you can do in the middle to chunk your input.
#5 Paper and pencil
When everything doesn’t work, go to paper and pencil. I love when my students just listen to me, especially when I tell a story. But, sometimes this just can’t happen. Some days, classes are not able to just listen. So, what I ask them to do is that they can take the notes in Spanish, they can take the notes in Spanglish, they can take the notes in English, they can draw, but they cannot interrupt or ask me what I just said.
I hope these strategies help you get your students to listen more. In episode 5 of my podcast, I dive deeper into the strategies and give you more examples. Click above to listen.
More Strategies To Get Your Students Listening
In episode 5 of Growing with Proficiency: The Podcast, I also share a few bonus activities that I, and other World Language teachers, use with our students that help them listen. You’ll also find links to these activities. Listen to Episode 5 HERE. Let me know the strategies you use to keep your students listening.
