Teaching English as a foreign language requires not only knowledge of

methodology and language itself, but also effective classroom management. Usually,
classroom management can be addressed as the process where a teacher controls and
organizes behavior and interaction patterns between students during lesson. Creating
conditions for effective learning is considered to be one of the most crucial jobs for an
ESL/EFL teacher to be able to do. In order to create effective language learning
environment for students, teacher must have a positive attitude and ability to build a
good rapport with learners. Everything mentioned above can be named classroom
management.
However, effective classroom management does not only include good
organizational skills and ability to maintain discipline in classroom, but also knowledge of
classroom arrangement. Classroom sitting arrangements is a substantial part of classroom
management. Moreover, this aspect of classroom management is closely connected,
and can directly affect interaction patterns, maintaining discipline, giving instructions
and other elements of classroom management.
The arrangement of desks and chairs in the ESL/EFL classroom is very important
and can significantly influence learning process. Seating arrangements can impact both
teacher to student and student to student classroom interaction. For example, when
teaching young learners, desk can sometimes be a huge barrier between children and
a teacher. The reason of it is that the desk stands for authority and power. If teacher sits
behind the desk, certainly not all children can approach. Thus, for a child-centered
learning this type of arrangement in classroom is undesirable.
There are many different types of seating arrangements like traditional, semi-circle,
students sitting in small groups, students sitting in circle and etc. All styles of classroom
arrangement can be useful and make learning process effective. However, it is important
to mention that different styles of classroom arrangement serve different goals, and not
all of them can be used for one specific of activity. In fact, choice of a particular
arrangement depends on different factors such as activities students will be doing in the
classroom and type of lessons. For instance, teachers planning to have debates and
group discussions on the lesson might use semi-circle seating arrangement. Using this
arrangement teacher can easily walk around the class and monitor students. On the
other hand, using semi-circle classroom seating arrangement is not favorable for project
works. Instead of semi-circle, for doing project works teacher can use an arrangement
where students are supposed to sit in small groups facing each other. Doing this way
learners can discuss and brainstorm ideas for their projects.
Another type of seating arrangement is historically common not only in ESL/EFL
classrooms, but in schools, colleges and universities. Despite the fact that now there are
many types of classroom arrangement styles, traditional seating arrangement is still
widely used. Using this arrangement to have role-plays and discussions can be a bad
idea, however, when it comes to a written assessment or a test, traditional seating
arrangement would be most appropriate as it minimizes student to student
communication. Also, this historically common arrangement can sometimes be used to
give instructions or lectures. Although, if there is a large number of learners in a classroom,
it is unlikely for a teacher to use traditional classroom seating arrangement. The reason
behind it is that students sitting at the back can simply lose concentration and avoid
participation.
In conclusion, with an effective classroom management ESL/EFL teachers can
create appropriate learning environment and encourage learners to learn language.
Utilizing different arrangements in a proper way can boost efficiency and
effectiveness of any ESL/EFL classroom. I believe that one of important goals of ESL/EFL
teacher is to choose seating arrangement which develops different interaction patterns
depending on the aims of the lesson.