1. The “Bandwagon” Problem

The teacher discover a new exciting method and accepts this way of teaching with great enthusiasm as the best way to teach. (Gebhard, 1996)

According to Mark Clarke (Clarke, 1982, p.439^*), bandwagons are “the 'latest word,' the trendy, the fashionable, the most up-to-date in methods, materials, techniques.” Once, the teachers discover a new exciting material, method, or technique that people said it is to be the best way to teach, they tends to directly follow it without considering another possibilities. They should depend on the students and class situation first before deciding to follow the bandwagon. They can also do some observations, analyze it, and then generate their own teaching decisions. What people consider as the best method to teach may not mean the same for us. We have to consider whether it is suitable to be applied in our students. If it is needed, we can make some changes or improve the bandwagon to suit the class conditions.

While bandwagons provide us with confidence, company, and techniques, as Earl Stevick stated at the 1982^* TESOL Conference, they do not let us free to make our own informed teaching decisions.

2. The “Overly Anxious” Problem

Some students have such high levels of anxiety that they cannot take advantage of opportunities to learn English. (Gebhard, 1996)

Anxiety is a vague fear which is associated with feelings of uneasiness, self – doubt, apprehension, or worry (Brown, 1987, p. 107^*). Some factors that could raise the level of anxiety in language students (McCoy, 1979; Alpert and Haber, 1960^*) are the inability to pronounce strange sounds and words, the inability to understand and answers questions, the reputation of the language class as a place for failure, the peer criticism, the testing (especially oral testing), the previous unsuccessful language – learning attempts, the encountering different cultural values and behaviors, the incompetence of getting the meaning of words and sentences, and the incompetence of understanding course goals or requirements

We might often find students who have a high degree of anxiety. When being asked such questions, or to do some tasks, they usually can do nothing. They might only sit, look at the teacher or stare at their books, and even look around hoping for their friends' help, but keep silent and do nothing.

Facing these kind of students, we do not need to critize and judge them. All we need to do is helping them expressing their ideas and give an understanding response (Curran, 1978^*) to their ideas by realy listening to them and give appraisal for their answer. We can also paraphrase the students of what they had said. “Such paraphrasing not only can provide a way for the student to reflect on his or her own language in a noncritical way but can alos improve understanding. When we consistently and sincerely work at trying to understand the students' meaning without expressing verbal or nonverbal judgement of the language used by the students, a postive, trusting relationship between the student and teacher can develop, one that also reduces anxiety about being in a language classroom.” (Gebhard, 1996)

3. The “Engagement” Problem

The teacher is not fully committed to teaching English as interaction and will not fully engage in interacting with the students or arranging activities for them to use English as a means of communication in the classroom. (Gebhard, 1996)

As Wilga Rivers puts it, “Never having experienced an interactive classroom, [teachers] are afraid it will be chaotic and hesitate to try.” (Rivers, 1987^*). Relating this problem with students' attitude, we might often find that students come to our classroom with little experience in participating in the interaction using English. They might have an afraid feeling of interacting with the teacher and their classmates. Therefore, we, as their teacher, have to create a pleasant class atmosphere. A 'friendly' atmosphere that will make feel acceptable and that they are given chance to express themselves freely.

In order to make a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere, we have to establish a norm of tolerance, encourage risk – taking and have mistakes accepted as a natural part of learning, bring in and encorage humour (to have more relaxed attitude about how seriously we take oursleves), and encourage learners to personalise the classroom environment according to their taste, for example decorating the classroom. (Dornyei, 2001)