Dealing with Bad Behavior in an ESL Kids classroom

We’ve all been there.  We’ve planned a great lesson with lots of fun and stimulating activities, the kids in the class are great, you’ve got wonderful materials … but it is all spoilt by one or two kids who seemingly have no interest in your lesson or learning English.

Or it could be small things where you just can’t seem to get control of the class in the way you would like to: constantly having to repeat instructions, always asking certain students to be quite or stop poking their friend with their pencil or just trying to motivate slow, unresponsive kids.

There are many types of misbehavior and just as many ways to deal with them.  In this post we’ll look at the signs of negative behavior in your ESL kids class and then discuss ways that these can be managed.  At the end of the article is a comment box – if you have any of your own ideas or comments on this article we would love to hear from you!

Signs of Bad Behavior

This list is by all means not complete, but shows some of the more common signs of bad behavior.  It is roughly ordered in severity from borderline bad behavior (or perhaps not even bad behavior at all) to completely unacceptable behavior.

• Not standing or sitting straight
• Laughing at inappropriate times
• Wearing inappropriate clothes or jewelry
• Showing rebellious, sullen or bored expressions
• Staring out of the window
• Doodling when the teacher is speaking or during activities
• Not using polite language when asking for things
• Practical jokes
• Making inappropriate noises with classroom objects (rocking chairs, etc.)
• Speaking in their own language when they should be using English
• Deliberately going slow
• Not doing homework
• Making rude noises
• Not listening
• Cheating in games
• Not following instructions
• Speaking when should be quiet
• Refusing to do what the teacher asks
• Doing the opposite of what the teacher asks
• Cheating in tests
• Saying bad or hurtful things
• Saying bad words, e.g. cussing, swearing
• Vandalism
• Fighting
• Making violent threats to students or teacher

Dealing With Bad Behavior

Dealing quickly with bad behavior is important: students need to know that what they have done is unacceptable and there will be a consequence for their actions.  Bad behavior can be dealt with by a punishment or certain steps can put put in place to avoid bad behavior.

Punishments for Bad Behavior

The following punishments are listed in order of strictness.  Choosing the right punishment to fit bad behavior is important – kids are very good at assessing this and may retaliate if they feel hard done by.  Moreover, if your punishment is too weak they may continue to misbehave.

• Look at the students disapprovingly
• Use the “hands up” instruction – on saying this all Ss must raise their hands and be silent. Hands can only come down again once control is gained
• Count down from 5, then punish if not working
• Take points off their team
• Call out the name of the misbehaving student
• Move the misbehaving student away from their friends
• Sit everyone elsewhere (e.g. boys next to girls)
• Disqualify their team from the game
• Point to the door (indicting that they will leave the room if they continue to misbehave)
• Write down the student’s name on the board or a special book
• Leave the student out of the next activity
• Make the student do some written work while the others play a game
• Make the student tidy up the room
• Make the student stand when everyone is sitting
• Make the student stand in the corner
• Stop the game and move onto written work
• Talk to the student after class
• Put black marks on a special wall chart
• Put a black mark or message in the student’s notebook
• Send the student out of the class for 5 minutes
• Tell the school’s head teacher / manager / director
• Tell the student’s parents

Rewards to Avoid Bad Behavior

In an ideal world we would be able to implement actions to encourage students to be good so you wouldn’t need to deal with bad behavior. Although in practice this may not always work, it can help to reduce misbehavior.  Here are some ideas:

• Give teams not misbehaving extra points
• Keep the same teams for several lessons (e.g. one month) and give a prize to the winning team
• Start a fun game with the first students to finish written work and only when others finish their work they can join in.  The game ends when the last student finishes his/her work (and therefore misses the game)
• Put stickers on good written work
• Put stickers on a wall chart for good work / behavior
• Praise good work / behavior
• Smile directly at good students
• Point out the best student or team
• Give a round of applause
• Use positive gestures (thumbs up, victory signs, etc.)
• Assign class captains (sometimes assigning a misbehaving student as a captain is effective)
• Give badges for “The best at …” (spelling, pronunciation, giving answers, etc.)
• As a reward when the class is good play a favorite game
• Give out candies or small toys (if candies are allowed!)
• Write positive comments in the student’s book of after a piece of written work

Managing Good Behavior

Finally, here are some tips to manage good behavior in class (in no particular order) – this will help encourage continued good behavior.

• Be consistent: this is the most important tip.  Students need to know what the boundaries are and these boundaries should never change.
• Make sure students (and parents) know what you consider to be good and bad behavior
• Start from a blank state once a student has been punished
• Do yourself what you expect your students to do
• Teach a lesson topic on good behavior
• Have clear gestures and phrases for things you want your students to do (and make sure they understand them)
• Play games where good behavior is encouraged
• Manage energy levels
• Make sure your lesson is fun
• Bond with your students (e.g. find common interests, give nicknames, remember birthdays, etc.)
• Plan classroom management into your lesson plan
• Think about why some students are misbehaving and experiment with ways to change their bad behavior

Of further interest:

Check out our Classroom Management Tips page in our Teaching Tips section.