Tips to Deal with Bad Behaviors When Teaching In China

Even though Chinese students are considered to be diligent, humble and disciplined, bad behavior are available in the classroom. For experienced ESL teachers, it is not a problem because they have "secret weapons" to solve them perfectly, while for new ESL teachers who have just entered the education industry, it is a great challenge. If you belong to the latter, you will need some effective solutions to maintain the classroom.

[Recommended Reading: Tips to Build A Good Relationship with Your Chinese Students ] 

Prevention

Smiling and speaking in a gentle voice to show your friendliness, but it also sends a signal to some naughty students: you are not a strict teacher, so they can create "chaos" and "riots" in your class.

No matter what your personality is, gentle or strict, remember to formulate classroom rules in your first class, tell students where your "bottom line" is and you will never tolerate any bad behavior. You don't need to keep a poker face, but make sure to maintain a certain authority.

Learn some Chinese classroom instruction

Some students make trouble in English class because they think foreign teachers can only say "ni hao" (hello), "xie xie ni" (thank you) and "zai jian" (good bye). Saying some Chinese class instructions in class will make them realize that you are not ignorant, such as,

• be quiet (“an jing” 安静)
• sit down (“zuo xia” 坐下)
• Listen carefully (“ren zhen ting” 认真听)

Reward students who perform well

Sometimes teachers don’t need to take “tough” measures to punish those badly-behaved students, but instead reward those students who perform well, such as,

• Praise them in front of the class
• Give them a beautiful notebook as a prize
• Give them credits

Students often have a psychology of comparison, so those naughty students will try to behave well since they may also want to be rewarded by the teacher just like their peers.

Create some discipline methods

Sometimes, some naughty children will not stop their bad behaviors until they are taught/punished, so you have to develop some disciplinary methods to deal with such behaviors. such as,

• Ask the naughty students to stand behind the classroom until the class is over
• Let them stay after school to clean up
• Contact with their parents
• Deduct their credits

But remember, don't yell at your students at any time which will only alienate them and even make them be hateful.

You may also check TIPS TO CREATE A STUDENT-CENTERED ESL CLASRROM FOR HIGH-LEVEL STUDENTS here