Teaching large classes in difficult circumstances

Problems in large classes get compounded when they are accompanied by difficult circumstances such as, inadequate resources and classroom conditions that are not conducive to learning. Teachers and researchers have identified several problems in teaching a large class, such as learners' engagement and interaction, high noise level and heterogeneous classes. Accordingly, a number of solutions have been proposed both by teachers and ELT experts to maximize learning in large classes. However, there is dearth of evidence about the effectiveness of these 'solutions' in different contexts. Hence, we need to look for other ways to develop good practice for teaching English in large classes. This includes developing contextually appropriate methodology, such as 'a pedagogy of autonomy' for large class teaching. At the same time teacher education programmes need to help teachers generate pedagogic knowledge, principles and practices which are appropriate to their specific contexts. Teacher research is another way to investigate and support large class teaching in sustainable, localized and bottom-up ways. There is growing consensus in policy debates on class size, that improving teacher quality is more important than reducing class size per se. This underlines the need to develop teachers and teacher quality for improving teaching-learning of English in large classes.