The Hostile Student
Louis I. Butto, Japan
Louis Butto is a lecturer at Himeji Dokkyo University, Japan. Current interests include the psychology of learning. E-mail: louis066japan@yahoo.co.jp
On the first day of class at a previous university in Japan where I had been teaching ESL, I noticed one student staring at me in a rather hostile way. The other students were fine, but I knew that this one was going to be difficult. Anytime I asked him a question, he would respond, but in an angry tone. He wasn’t sociable with the other students either. He seemed to be a kind of loner. I imagine this is not an unusual situation for teachers to find themselves in from time to time, if not all the time.
About a week later I asked some of my colleagues about this student. One of them recognized his name. It turned out that he had had that student in his class previously. He agreed that the student was indeed quite hostile during his class as well. Therefore, I was left wondering what I could do. On the profile survey that I had administered in the beginning of class, among the questions I asked was, “Do you honestly like English?” His response was an emphatic, “No!” Maybe, at this point, some teachers would be at a loss. It would be easy to think that it would not be (teacher’s) my responsibility; after all, teachers are not babysitters. We are here to teach. If the student has no interest, there is only so much we can do. However, Benson, et al. (2005) noted that, “Instructors tend to favor teaching strategies that focus on clarity of information transmission within their classroom, but may ignore the importance of establishing a rapport with their students.” Thus, I decided I needed to develop some kind of rapport.
There are many definition of “rapport.” For example, Patterson (2009) states that a “rapport is defined as an overall feeling between two people encompassing a mutual, trusting and pro-social bond.” In another definition, we find that, “a rapport is understood here as a positive social relationship characterized by mutual trust and emotional affinity.” (Hanh thi Nguyen, 2007). Both definitions encompass “trust,” and some “emotional” element. Of course there are all kinds of rapports, but do we really need some emotional fuzzy feeling in the classroom? The literature seems to support the importance of the instructor – student rapport. Brandi et al. (2010), in their study found that the “perceived instructor rapport was the only variable that consistently emerged as a significant predictor of each type of learning and participation,” and they continued, “when the students reported positive feelings of rapport with their instructors, they also reported greater participation, satisfaction, motivation and frequent classroom participation.”
In my search through the literature, a few other similar concepts are described—instructor immediacy and interpersonal relationships (Brandi, et. al 2010). However, these more or less all point to the notion that there is more to instruction than a cognitive transmission.
I continued to ponder how I could reach this student; how I could engage him in a heart-to-heart dialogue. The “rapport” literature has listed many kinds of behavior that may bring about a positive rapport between the instructor and the students. Brandi, et. al., (2010) list:
- calling the student by their name
- asking probing questions
- smiling
- nodding
- confirming
- encouraging
- supportive
Rodriquez, et al., (1996) lists:
- instructor disclosure
- attractiveness
- assertiveness
- responsiveness
- homophily
Buskist, et al., (2002) lists:
- encouraging
- open-mindedness
- creative
- interesting
- accessible
- happy
- having a good personality
- promoting class discussion
- approachability
- concern for students
- fairness
There are many other researchers who have enlightened us on what they think can contribute to this teacher-student relationship that I have not listed here. In other words, there is no lack of personality or character traits that can benefit the teacher in his/her relationship with the students. Hanh Thi Nguyen (2007) mentions one behavior that sticks out for me, “social chat.” Patterson (2009) mentions something similar which he has defined as “small talk” which is a “superficial conversation on any topic with comments from the teacher ranging from compliments to encouragement coupled with verbal prompts.” Moreover, “small talk” can happen anytime during the class, not just at the beginning. Hanh Thi Nguyen (2007) pointed out that, “(this) study shows that the construction of social relationships permeates every single moment of teaching and learning.”
Thus, it was that I decided I would focus on “small talk,” specifically “compliments.” I came to this conclusion, not only based on the comments above, but also based on my past experience. I remember myself being asked a question about someone who I really disliked. I was asked, “Isn’t there something you like or find interesting about him?” I thought about it, and I responded, “Well, he has a nice smile,” so I was told why don’t I compliment him about his smile? In fact, that is what I did. That action opened the door in my heart to this gentleman. Afterwards, I gradually came to understand and respect him. I understood that finding something, anything that is positive about a person is in a way respecting them, even if you can’t get along with them. It is difficult to like everyone, but it is not difficult to respect them in some way. Therefore, it could be said that this is about the teacher attempting to change his/her view first, and the student responding anew.
Based on that past experience, I started to look for something I could compliment the “hostile” student about. That was my task. The first week, I complimented him on his sneakers. This “small talk” on that topic may have seemed trivial, but it turned out not to be the case. The following week it was his watch. As this kind of complimenting continued, his face began to change and soften. Incredibly, he became more active in class. By the end of class, he was one of the most active students participating with others joyfully.
I only had him for one semester, so I didn’t know what happened to him afterwards. It turns out that the teacher who I mentioned earlier, and who had had him as one of his students, got him again as his student after me. He asked me incredulously, “What happened to him? He is a new man. He is so active in class.” Maybe, it was because the teacher (me) re-newed himself.
It is so difficult to know where students are coming from; their backgrounds; their likes and dislikes, but we can start with what we have in front of us now. I don’t think I am the sole person responsible for his change, although I made an effort to see things differently. However, “small talk,” such as complimenting, I discovered, can open doors; it can open hearts where the instructor-student rapport can develop even more. I hope that he will go on and enjoy his life with having had a positive experience with English. Maybe that might lead him down roads he would have never traveled before. I am left with the confidence that as a teacher, I can change my own thinking, and in the process affect my students positively.
Of course, there are limitations to this one case story. This is, after all, just one Japanese college student, and therefore this cannot be interpreted or generalized to other contexts, or groups of people. However, this reminds me of the parable of the starfish, where an older man asks a young boy why he is throwing a starfish back into the sea. The older man points out to him that there are thousands of starfish and that it would be impossible to save them all. The young boy throws another one back into the sea and replies that it is important for that one I saved. So, despite the limitations of this brief report, many teacher-practitioners have similar struggles Therefore, I hope this story might prove insightful and worthy of thought as they confront the realities of their ESL classrooms.
References
Benson, T.A., Cohen A.L., Buskit, W. (2005). Rapport: its relation to student attitudes and behaviors toward teachers and classes. Teaching of Psychology, 32(4), 237-239.
Brandi, N., Frisby & Matthew M. Martin. (2010). Instructor-student and student-student rapport in the classroom. Communication Education, 59(2), 146-164.
Buskist, W., Sikorski, J., Buckley, T., & Saville, B. K. (2002). Elements of master teaching. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.), The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer (pp. 27–39). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Hanh thi Nguyen (2007). Rapport building in language instruction: a microanalysis of multiple resources in teacher talk. Language and Education, 21(4), 284-303.
Rodriguez, J. I., Plax, T. G., & Kearney, P. (1996). Clarifying the relationship between teacher nonverbal immediacy and student cognitive learning: Affective learning as the central causal mediator. Communication Education, 45, 293-305.
Patterson, S.T. (2009). The effects of teacher-student small talk on out-of-seat behavior. Education and Treatment of Children, 32(1), 167-174.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Dealing with Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
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