ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Setsuko Toyama

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Setsuko
Readers Comments: Collette Young | Darryn Shieffelbien
Date: April 2000

Topic: "What are good strategies or techniques for developing rapport with a new class?"

Peter Viney

Any sales person knows the value of remembering people's names and using them in conversation.

Learn your students' names. Look before the lesson, concentrate in the first lesson, focus on the names and use them. I observed a class where a girl burst into tears because hers was the only name the teacher did not remember. You can get students to use name cards, but this doesn't show them that you're making an effort. You can make a class plan, and ask students to sit in the same places for the first few lessons. There's no substitute for your personal effort though.

Don't make notes on the register card. Students might see them. I once taught a class where the teacher had written things like 'spotty', 'thick glasses' and 'beanpole' on the card. Not acceptable!

Of course it's easier to remember names in multilingual classes. Mixed gender helps too, but in the end you have to remember even in a class of one nationality and one gender who are all wearing blue suits and have black hair. Additionally, you have to decide on which name to use, first name or family name. On my first visit to Japan twenty years ago, I kept asking the local reps to call me by my first name. One of the reps explained it beautifully. He said, "You want us to call you Peter so that we will be more relaxed. Actually, it doesn't make us relaxed. We feel more comfortable with Viney-san, and this does not indicate unfriendliness to us."

Twenty years is a long time, and most students accept the Western desire to use first names nowadays. However, if the class are more comfortable with surnames and titles, go along with them. By using their names correctly, you are showing that they are important to you as individuals.

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Setsuko
Readers Comments: Collette Young | Darryn Shieffelbien

Peter Viney, Freelance ELT Author

Co-author of New American Streamline & Grapevine. Peter's Web site

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