This paper will discuss several of the techniques that I’ve come across and used in the past 12 years of teaching in the context of my current situation, an elementary and middle school public teacher in South Korea. The methods are those that I’ve learned from and adapted from other teachers, or just picked up from various sources. I have been teaching in the public school system in Japan and Korea for about 7 years.

The official line is that all classroom discipline is to be handled by your Korean/Japanese teacher if you are working with the EPIK or JET programs. In reality, that’s a joke, even if your co teacher stays in the room when you’re teaching, so it won’t be discussed. These suggestions are things that the foreign instructor can use if they have nobody to rely on, which will be 99% of the time.

One of the major cause of discipline issues are that children are very aware of power structures. They know very well that you as the foreign teacher are not a “regular” teacher and do not have the authority over them that a Korean teacher would have. And they are completely right, you don’t. Just like we gave substitute teachers a hard time when we were kids, your Korean students will give you a bad time if you let them.

The best that you can hope is making them aware that you can send them to be disciplined by a “real” teacher. If you are lucky, you will have the authority to pull a kid out and send them to their home room teacher, but this privilege depends on the school you are in and can’t be relied on. I’m in a good school right now where the other teachers back me up, but my previous school certainly wasn’t.

The fundamental things that every instructor should do as the year starts is make a seating chart so that you have the names of the students readily available. As you become aware of the trouble spots, you can later rearrange the seats so that disruptive students are not placed near each other. I find that a boy/girl/boy/girl arrangement is fairly effective. Especially disruptive students should be placed near the front.

The desks should be clear of all textbooks, pencil cases etc. The desks should be clear. The students shouldn’t have any pens or other objects in their hands, especially those paper cutters. Students should only have texts, pencils etc when they are needed for the immediate tasks, otherwise there are just a distraction.

At the start of the year, you can set rules. The kids will forget them in a matter of seconds, but you can try. A simple concept like “don’t hit each other” will be ignored. You can try to draconially reinforce those rules whenever a student does hit someone, but in my experience it’s still not going to work. But I’m sure it works for some teachers, so good luck.

Of course, the language tasks should be simple and easy, which will have the students focus on the activity and minimize problems. The instructor should never, ever raise their voices, shout or appear visibly angry. You’re not being paid anywhere near enough to give yourself an ulcer. If you’re upset, it’s time to grab a Korean teacher and say “Enjoy your class”. You’ll probably get backlash from this, but if anybody has a better suggestion….

Many teachers have told me that positive reinforcement works for them. Dividing the class into teams and giving points for good behavior and a prize at the end. Personally, I find it objectionable to reward students simply for not doing things they would never dare do in anybody else’s class. In practice, I give out candy quite a bit. It doesn’t help much with curbing the disruptive behavior, but it does get the students more interested in the activity you are doing. It’s amazing how much English the kid will remember when there’s chocolate to be had.

When it comes to punishment, always remember the objective is not to punish the student but to stop him from disrupting the rest of the class. The most common thing is a three strike rule. First strike the kid goes to the back of the room for a certain length of time. This is not usually effective at all, but it’s just intended as a warning.

Strike two the kid gets sent out of the room, if your school allows you to do that (under Japanese and Korean law every child has the right to an equal education and so can’t be sent from the room. Of course under the law the school can’t have classes taught by people who aren’t officially teachers, but….god, don’t get me started.)

If the school does allow you to do this, it can be effective because the kids know a “real” teacher might see them and then they’ll get punished.

Strike 3 is the kid gets directly handed to the vice principal or the school coach. This’ll terrify them, it’s important to ignore any tears that or the kids sudden understanding of how to say “I’m sorry” over and over. If you back down, you’ll only have more problems later. Always make sure the kid has had at least two warnings first in case the parents complain.

So to summarize, set your class up in a seating plan that sets troublesome students away from each other. Do your best to be a good teacher and make the lesson interesting and fun to maximize interest. Don’t try to get every student to learn, but instead try to stop those who don’t want to learn from distracting the kids who do.

If you do have a good co teacher and an administration that backs you up, you’ve got a gift from God. Treat him or her as such.

Use positive reinforcement, and treat them fairly, but firmly, and with kindness. In 12 years I’ve only seen a few who have acted out of maliciousness (which is more than I can say about the adults) so always remember they are just kids and don’t usually mean any harm.

Paul Bell