Classroom Management Challenges: An Account of EFL Teachers at Private Language Institutes

Abstract

Classroom management is one of the most contributing yet challenging issues in a teaching career. In a language-learning classroom where foreign language is used as both the medium and the content of the teaching, EFL teachers may experience unique classroom management challenges This basic qualitative study focused on the main types the management challenges that EFL teachers face in their classroom and the strategies used to survive these challenges. To this end, the researchers selected 30 EFL teachers working at private language institutes in Shiraz, Iran and conducted semi-structured interviews to collect the data. Theme analyses showed three major themes in classroom management challenges: (1) instructional challenges (2) behavioral and psychological challenges and (3) contextual challenges. Instructional challenges were pertinent to the unfinished homework assignments, inconsistency in learners' level of proficiency and the learners' insistence on speaking in their first language. Behavioral and psychological challenges were related to the learners' unwillingness to speak, demotivate, naughty learners, latecomers and inappropriate use of cellphone and apps. To survive these challenges, EFL teachers suggested different strategies including warning, eye contact, teacher-leaner conference, etc. The implications, limitations and suggestion for future studies were discussed in more details in the paper.