Teachers of English Conference

Afghanistan Abstract

Challenges and Techniques for Teaching Large Classes -- Bilqees Habibi, Kabul Afghanistan

This presentation will be about the challenges in teaching large English Language classes and the techniques I use in my school to solve these challenges. The challenges we have are that the classes are very large with between 40-60 students in each class. The students in each class have many different levels of English language skill. We have 35 minutes per day for each class. The traditional culture of the classroom has been that the students must be quiet, sit in their seats and only the teacher speaks. In this system, students do not have a good chance to speak English or participate actively in the class. Only the best students raise their hands and give answers. The teachers are the center of all the activity in the classroom. Some students are very shy and afraid to participate and the teachers are not friendly towards the students. If a student has poor English the other students and the teacher criticize them and they don’t want to talk.