Ss are indeed profoundly affected by what they see, hear, and feel when they enter the classroom.

If your classroom has movable desk-chairs, consider patterns of semicircles, U-shapes, concentric circles, or –if your class size is small enough—one circle so that students aren’t all squarely facing the teacher.

The chalkboard is one of your greatest allies. It gives students added visual input along with auditory. It allows you to illustrate with words and pictures and graphs and charts. It is recyclable!

Make sure that the equipment fits comfortably in the room; you try out the machine ahead of time to ascertain that it actually works and you know how to operate it.

You do not have to have a loud, booming voice, but you need to be heard by all the students in the room. Nonverbal messages are very powerful. Here are some pointers:

(1) Let your body posture exhibit an air of confidence.

(2) Your face should reflect optimism, brightness, and warmth.

(3) Use facial and hand gestures to enhance meanings of words and sentences that might otherwise be unclear.

(4) Make frequent eye contact with all students in the class.

(5) Do not “bury yourself” in your notes and plans.

(6) Do not plant your feet firmly in one place for the whole hour.

(7) Move around the classroom, but not to distraction.

(8) Follow the conventional rules of proxemics (distance) and kinesthetic (touching) that apply for the culture(s) of your students.

(9)Dress appropriately, considering the expectations of your students and the culture in which you are teaching.

(1) Establishing rapport. Rapport is the relationship or connection you establish with your Ss, a relationship built on trust and respect that leads to Ss’ feeling capable, competent, and creative.

(2) Balancing praise and criticism. Genuine praise, appropriately delivered, enables Ss to welcome criticism and to put it to use.

(3) Generating energy. Energy drives Ss toward higher attainment. Ss take energy with them when they leave the classroom and bring it back the next day.

Interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people, resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other. A short classroom exchange has three main moves: initiation response feedback (IRF)

(1) Automaticity: true human interaction is best accomplished when focal attention is on meanings and massages and not on grammar and other linguistic forms.

(2) Intrinsic motivation: as students become engaged with each other in speech acts of fulfillment and self-actualization, their deepest drives are satisfied.

(3) Strategic investment: interaction requires the use of strategic language competence both to make certain decisions on how to say or writer or interpret language, and to make repairs when communication pathways are blocked.

(4) Willingness to communicate: interaction requires an attitude on the part of the learner that says, ‘I want to reach out to others and communicate’.

(5) The language–culture connection: the cultural loading of interactive speech as well as writing requires that interlocutors be thoroughly versed in the cultural nuances of language.

(6) Interlanguage: numerous errors of production and comprehension will be a part of this development. And the role of teacher feedback is crucial to the developmental process.

(7) Communicative competence: all of the elements of communicative competence are involved in human interaction. All aspects must work together for successful communication to take place. 

Ss can be grouped into 4 forms:

(1) Whole-class teaching/ Class work

(2) Ss on their own/Individual work

(3) Pair work

(4) Group work

Table 14-1: Comparison each form of grouping students (adapted from Harmer, 2003: 114-8) 

Therefore, we may decide when to put Ss in groups or pairs, when to teach the whole class, or when to let individual get on with it on their own will. Following factors should be considered:

(1) The task;

(2) Variety in a sequence;

(3) The mood. 

Arends, R. I. & A. Kilcher. Teaching for student learning: Becoming an accomplished teacher [M]. New York & London: Routledge, 2010.

Brown, H. D. Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (3^rd ed.) [M]. Tsinghua University Press, 2013.

Cook, V. Second language learning and language teaching (4^th ed.) [M]. Edward Arnold Ltd, 2008.

Harmer, J. The practice of English language teaching (3rd ed.) [M]. Pearson Education & World Affairs Press,2003.

王蔷. 英语教学法教程（第二版）[M]. 北京：高等教育出版社，2006.

Q1: Each form of getting Ss to work has its own limitations and strengths, how will you combine ways of grouping learners together?

Q2: How to create a beneficial environment of the classroom?

Q3: In which dimensions can we manage classroom well? How to utilize the teacher himself to manage the class?

Q4: How to interact with Ss better?