Tailoring an English Language Classroom

I. Is there a need for tailoring an English language classroom?

II. Possible ways of finding a fit between teaching and learning styles

A. Studying the group;

B. Diversity;

C. Flexibility.

III. Harmony in the classroom -- good rapport and high achievements.

I like the idea of tailoring an English language classroom immensely. It reminds me of a real tailor who takes measurements and takes into account all the peculiarities of a person's figure and even character to make a suit fit the person. If he applies the same standard to all alike, the suit will not fit or the person will feel emotionally uncomfortable in it.

Almost the same process happens with good English teachers. They study the whole group and each single person, and tailor the classes depending on the results. Unfortunately, many incompetent overconfident teachers consider the need for finding a fit between teaching and learning styles excessive. They are sure that they know better what their students need. Accordingly, they do their best to impose their own thinking and learning styles on the students. In such a situation students can do almost nothing. They suffer, try to protest, but, in the long run, bite the bullet because a teacher is a figure of authority. As a fifth year student, I am familiar with such situations and know perfectly well that it is absolutely useless to reason with teachers about the benefit of this or that assignment for me. There is an outrageous mismatch between the things that most teachers preach and those that they actually do. I have heard millions of time from various teachers one and the same phrase: "You study for yourself, not for the teachers, not for your parents -- for yourself." It is a real pity that such m...

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...hinking and learning styles, diversity and flexibility cannot guarantee idyll in the classroom, but they definitely guarantee a certain level of harmony and balance between teaching and learning styles, harmony which favours the maximum number of students and leads to high achievement.

To sum it up, I must say that teaching profession is extremely difficult and challenging, but at the same time highly rewarding. If you want positive feedback, you must be ready to face and overcome obstacles. Certainly, it is much easier to apply teaching cliches and blame the students for lack of natural ability, than to admit one's own mistakes and try to take into account the individual peculiarities of every student. It is an overwhelmingly complex task, but teachers must be ready to fulfill it, irrespective of low wages and lack of time, because it is their job and it must