Student misbehaviour in EFL classes: Teachers’ and students’ perspectives

In this study, English teachers? and other teachers? perceptions aboutmisbehaviours, causes of misbehaviours, and types of misbehaviours in 7th graders theyencountered were investigated. Additionally, how the misbehaving students explain andinterpret misbehaviours, their causes and what they think about the interventionstrategies used by their teachers were searched.The participants of the study consisted of 6 teachers of English, 6 teachers ofdifferent lessons and 22 misbehaving students. 6 schools placing in Adana city SeyhanDistrict were chosen according to low, middle and high socio-economic levels. For eachsocio-economic level, 2 schools were chosen.Data were collected by using observation, interview and questionnaire. Parts ofobservation form was taken from Atcı (2004) and Sayın (2001). Semi-structuredinterview was prepared by the researcher. Besides, questionnaire was taken from Sayın(2001).The data revealed that misbehaving students? explanation and interpretation ofmisbehaviour did not generally share similarities with teachers. Teachers? perceptionsof student misbehaviours include such behaviours as; ?disturbing the flow of lesson,dealing with other things, talking to friends and so on?. On the other hand, misbehavingstudents? perceptions of student misbehaviours include such behaviours as; ?fighting,talking to friends, disturbing the flow of lesson and so forth?.Teachers? and misbehaving students? perceptions of causes of misbehaviourdiffered from one another a lot was another finding. According to teachers; ?socio-economic level, media, class size and characteristics of parents? were the main reasonsof misbehaviour while for students ?boredom, modelling peers, teasing, irritation andreaction to teacher and parents?indifference to the child? were the main reasons.Teachers mostly employed verbal strategies such as; ?verbal warning,communicating with parents, threatening, talking with students and givingresponsibilities? and also nonverbal strategy such as ?using eye contact? and ignoringin handling misbehaviour. Teachers expressed that their intervention strategies mostlydid not differ depending upon the level of class. Misbehaving students mostly expressedthat they liked their English teachers? intervention strategies.Key Words: Student misbehaviour, types and causes of misbehaviour, socio-economiclevels, intervention strategies, classroom management.