Introduction

Managing English as Second Language classroom is not an easy job. This is because
teaching language is a boring subject to students especially young students. Therefore,
students will misbehave as a part of filling their time rather than listening to teachers
explanation. In order to avoid that, psychologists have developed many theories and models
that can be used in managing a classroom so that the learning becomes smooth and
prepared. In this assignment, I have chosen three theories to be reviewed, namely Theories
of Congruent Communication by Haim Ginott, Theories of Democratic Teaching by Rudolf
Dreikurs and Theories of Instructional Management by Jacob Kounin.

Theories of congruent communication (Haim Ginott)

Theories of congruent communication combine the key tools of setting limits and
compassion with congruent communication. Haim Ginott believes that there are only
unacceptable behaviour in children and not the children itself. In his theory, the teachers and
parents must avoid using personal identification when take in hand with teaching. This will
help them to address the situation without violent and disparage the students. This theory is
famous during the 1970s and still being used until now.

The main principle in this theory is asking questions and listening to students, brevity,
acceptance, and respect. According to Ginott, in an ideal classroom, a teacher is becoming
more like a facilitator rather than being a dictator. Being brief and clear will help teachers to
minimize intermissions in classrooms rather than worsen it. In his theory, punishment is
avoided and praise must be handed out if it is authentic and necessary.

In this theory, there are some strength and also some weaknesses. One of the
strengths of this theory is that it provides good communication between teachers and
students. This is because good communication is the essential to students learning and self-
esteem. This will help the teachers to create conducive environment that makes learning
more meaningful and fun to students. Apart from that, this theory also help teacher to
express their anger appropriately. In his theory, the teachers try to minimize distraction and
express anger when necessary.

However, there are some weaknesses that occur in this theory. One of its weaknesses
is that culture consideration. Ginotts theory does not consider the language, communication
style, boundaries, implied knowledge and methods of discipline in the home inside his
theory. He believes that this theory work for all students. Moreover, his theory also requires
students to communicate their ideas and opinions. When we look into students point of
view, they cannot communicate their ideas and opinions not only because of language
difficulties, but also they are never learned how to have mature conversation. This can cause
misunderstanding between teacher and the students.

In my opinion, this theory appeal to me at some point as this can strengthen

relationship between teacher and students in order to create a conducive environment so
that the learning become meaningful, purposeful and fun to students. Furthermore, it also
can help

Theories of Democratic Teaching (Rudolf Dreikurs)

Theories of democratic teaching are based on four grounds of Adlers social theory,
which are human are social being and their basic motivation is to belong, all behaviour has a
purpose, humans are decision-making individual, and human only perceive reality and this
perception may be mistaken or biased. He believes that discipline is based on mutual
respect.

Dreikurs has stated that there are several methods to deal with mistaken goals. Firstly,
teacher must identify the mistaken goal. Secondly, they should confront the mistaken goals.
Thirdly, they must set up situations where students can show their talents. Lastly, they must
encourage students who show inadequacy. He also stated that there are four techniques
that can be used in addressing the goals of misbehaviour, namely attention getting, seeking
power and control, seeking revenge and lastly, displaying inadequacy. In his theory, he
stated that there are three types of teacher, namely autocratic, permissive and democratic
and each type has their own characteristics.

In this theory, there are some strength and also some weaknesses. One of its strength
is that it is child-centred and not teacher-centred. In his theory, teacher only act as a
facilitator and situation giver whereas students have to discover their mistaken goals for
themselves. This allow them to notice their misbehaviour and correct it using situation
provided by the teachers. Moreover, this theory also promotes a high degree of autonomy
and responsibility. In this theory, students take full responsible of their misbehaviour and
have to face the consequence of their behaviour. This will create a sense of guilty for their
misbehaviour and find ways to correct it.

However, there are also some weaknesses that occur in this theory. One of its
weaknesses is that teacher are overly concerned with control. This is because in this theory,
students have to discover for themselves their mistaken behaviour. Therefore, teachers are
afraid whether students can handle it by their own or not. Furthermore, cognitively students
are not making connections between the behaviour and its consequences. Dreikurs theory
involves logical consequence of students misbehaviour and cognitive students cannot think
logically. Therefore, they got confused when it come to logical thinking.

In my opinion, this theory is not appeal to me because students cannot think by

themselves. Instead, they need stimulus to help them thinking. Furthermore, students cannot
think about the consequences of their misbehaviour by using logic. It is best for them to think
cognitively about their misbehaviour and correct it using cognitive thinking.

Theories of Instructional Management (Jacob Kounin)

Theories of instructional management are based on the belief that there is a difference
between well-managed and ill-run classroom. In order to see the differences, he conducted a
study on how a teacher organized or proactively administers their classroom before
behaviour occurred. Based on that study, he developed a theory about classroom
management that based on teachers ability to plan and organize their while using proactive
behaviour and students involvement.

He believed that for a teacher to have effective connection between management and
teaching, they need to have a good lesson movement. Good lesson movement consists of
five aspects, namely, withitness, overlapping, momentum, smoothness and group focus.
Withitness is the teachers ability to know what was going on in the classroom. Overlapping
is the ability to do multi-task at one time. Momentum is the flow of the lesson. Smoothness is
being able to keep on track without being diverted on irrelevant question. Group focus is the
ability to engage the whole class by using techniques like asking community questions. With
these five aspects, only a well-manage classroom occurred.

In this theory, there are some strength and also some weaknesses. One of its strength
is that it is applicable for a variety of classroom scenario. This theory can be used in any
situation that occurred in a classroom. Therefore, it can help teachers to manage and
organize their classroom so that the learning becomes well thought-out in any condition.
Apart from that, this theory also is not based on personality traits of the teacher. This theory
does not take account of teachers characteristics. Instead, it depends on their ability on how
they prepared and managed their classroom. Consequently, all teachers can use this theory
as a guidance to plan their classroom.

However, there are also some weaknesses that occurred in this theory. One of its
weaknesses is that this model is teacher-centred. In this theory, teacher act as autocrat
rather than a facilitator. It means that teacher handle all the things that occurred in the
classroom. Therefore, students do not have the opportunity to exhibit their talents and high
involvement in the classroom. In addition, this theory only provides a lot on preventing
misbehaviour and a little on correcting misbehaviour. Kounins theory only shows how a
teacher handles a classroom before the behaviour occurred. Therefore, when it comes to
correcting students misbehaviour, they are clueless because they only know how to prevent
it rather than correcting it.

In my opinion, this theory is appeal to me because students tend to do many things

when it comes to teaching language. With this theory as guidance, it can help me in
controlling the class and at the same time teach language to students.

The practicality of the theories in a local ESL classroom

The theories that I choose for this assignment have different practicality in local
English as Second Language classroom. For the first theory, it is practical at some point
during discussion and brainstorming for ideas. These two events involve students to
communicate for getting ideas with their teachers. For the second theory, it is practical at
some point during discipline the students. This event involve teacher to create situation and
students discover their misbehaviour by themselves. For the last theory that I choose, it is
the most practical theory because the most important aspects in teaching language to
students is classroom management and teachers cannot teach successfully if they cannot
control their classroom.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, these three theories have their own techniques, principles in

managing a classroom. The theories developed by psychologists helps teacher in managing
classrooms. It actually depends on the teachers to decide what theories best suited for them.