As I wrote before, sometimes I ask myself about what to do in relation to teach adolescents... Reading five different texts about adolescents and about teaching English, I could notice the reason why adolescents behave as they do and I also could get some ideas about what I can do to have a good atmosphere in class.
Artoni (2006, p. 33) says that according to the common sense, adolescents are as they are - they don’t have self-control or prudence, they are anxious and bored all the time – because of the hormones. But she explains that the “guilty” for this kind of behavior, according to the Science, is the brain. It happens because in this stage of life, the brain is having a lot of transformations, it’s a kind of a revolution that is happening with this organ. Before this readings, I’d never had imagined that brains are the “responsible thing” for teens behavior. These studies about adolescents are recent and Strauch (2003, p. ..) says that for the first time, scientists are trying to discover one of the oldest answer about the following question: why do teens act as they do? As an English teacher, I would like to know the exactly answer for this question, since I’m going to teach adolescents very soon. But I know there isn’t an answer for it... So, what I’m worried most is about how I am going to deal with my teen students. According to Sulich (2004, p. 32), “teachers should not only be nice, patient, honest, and friendly but should be able to keep order in class”. Ok, I know that, but I ask myself: how do I do it? She (2004, p. 33) gives some ideas about what teachers can do in class to keep discipline: keeping students’ attention, establishing clear rules and addressing discipline problems are three methods that she has successfully used. She (idem) also says that discipline in classroom is based on mutual repect of rights and duties of the teachers and students so that the aims of the lesson can be attained.
I agree when Brown (2001, p. 92) says that dealing with teens is a challenge for the teacher. He has mentioned some considerations which can help a teacher – especially the ones like me who is just starting a career in this area – having a better environment in class. The topic that called my attention was: “complex problems can be solved with logical thinking”, it means that linguistic metalanguage can, theoretically, have some impact. Another studies that have been done recently are about motivation. According to Oss (2006, p. 241), the student needs to be motivated to be able to give opinions, to question, to investigate , to manage and to modify in knowledge the information brought by the foreign language. I think we (English teachers) have to present challenging activities to our students, motivating them and I also think that before taking some decisions in class, we should consider that the “driver” of their “bad behavior” is their brain and they don’t act as they do because they want.
Artoni (2006, p. 33) says that according to the common sense, adolescents are as they are - they don’t have self-control or prudence, they are anxious and bored all the time – because of the hormones. But she explains that the “guilty” for this kind of behavior, according to the Science, is the brain. It happens because in this stage of life, the brain is having a lot of transformations, it’s a kind of a revolution that is happening with this organ. Before this readings, I’d never had imagined that brains are the “responsible thing” for teens behavior. These studies about adolescents are recent and Strauch (2003, p. ..) says that for the first time, scientists are trying to discover one of the oldest answer about the following question: why do teens act as they do? As an English teacher, I would like to know the exactly answer for this question, since I’m going to teach adolescents very soon. But I know there isn’t an answer for it... So, what I’m worried most is about how I am going to deal with my teen students. According to Sulich (2004, p. 32), “teachers should not only be nice, patient, honest, and friendly but should be able to keep order in class”. Ok, I know that, but I ask myself: how do I do it? She (2004, p. 33) gives some ideas about what teachers can do in class to keep discipline: keeping students’ attention, establishing clear rules and addressing discipline problems are three methods that she has successfully used. She (idem) also says that discipline in classroom is based on mutual repect of rights and duties of the teachers and students so that the aims of the lesson can be attained.
I agree when Brown (2001, p. 92) says that dealing with teens is a challenge for the teacher. He has mentioned some considerations which can help a teacher – especially the ones like me who is just starting a career in this area – having a better environment in class. The topic that called my attention was: “complex problems can be solved with logical thinking”, it means that linguistic metalanguage can, theoretically, have some impact. Another studies that have been done recently are about motivation. According to Oss (2006, p. 241), the student needs to be motivated to be able to give opinions, to question, to investigate , to manage and to modify in knowledge the information brought by the foreign language. I think we (English teachers) have to present challenging activities to our students, motivating them and I also think that before taking some decisions in class, we should consider that the “driver” of their “bad behavior” is their brain and they don’t act as they do because they want.
References
ARTONI, C. Tá tudo na cabeça. Galileu. Janeiro 2006.
BROWN, H. D. Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Longman. 2001.
OSS, D. I. B. A motivação na aprendizagem de inglês no ensino médio: um estudo descritivo. In Língua Estrangeira e Segunda Língua ~ estudos descritivos. EDUCS. 2006.
STRAUCH, B. Como entender a cabeça dos adolescentes ~ as novas descobertas sobre o comportamento dos jovens. Editora Campus. 2003.
SULICH, M. Keeping discipline in the classroom. English Teaching Forum. July 2004.
ARTONI, C. Tá tudo na cabeça. Galileu. Janeiro 2006.
BROWN, H. D. Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Longman. 2001.
OSS, D. I. B. A motivação na aprendizagem de inglês no ensino médio: um estudo descritivo. In Língua Estrangeira e Segunda Língua ~ estudos descritivos. EDUCS. 2006.
STRAUCH, B. Como entender a cabeça dos adolescentes ~ as novas descobertas sobre o comportamento dos jovens. Editora Campus. 2003.
SULICH, M. Keeping discipline in the classroom. English Teaching Forum. July 2004.
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