Abstract:

Teachers of the English language have always been concerned with the ideas of productive and successful communication. However, teaching your students life skills such as empathy and pedagogical conflict resolution is just as important as teaching the nuts and bolts of the English language. In this paper, there is presented a new and original approach to handling current pedagogical conflicts in the English language classroom. Why is it so hard for people to agree? The mutual resentment may arise from the lack of knowledge and understanding of our common history, from unwillingness to understand each other, etc. Conflicts are inherent in any interpersonal relationship; its management is integral in every person’s life and his/her performance. No doubt, all conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can decrease the probability of its further escalation.

The authors of this study presume that pedagogical conflict management should involve acquisition of skills relating to conflict resolution, conflict communication skills, self-awareness about conflict types, strategies and tools of dealing with controversial situations pre-service teachers might encounter in real school life. A copyright two-step tutorial is suggested as an effective tool to teach students to deal with pedagogical conflicts and successfully resolve them in class. Firstly, it is hypothesized that preparatory theoretical course on the nature of conflicts will significantly stimulate and encourage pre-service teachers to learn more about the types, strategies and tools of dealing with controversial pedagogical situations they might come across in the classroom. The authors fairly claim that case-study method may help them learn and consolidate the probable algorithm of demeanor when faced with a pedagogical conflict situation. Moreover, it surely debunks the frequent misconception that conflict is similar to fighting. Secondly, the teaching tips included into the tutorial will enable pre-service teachers to manage pedagogical conflict situations during their compulsory teaching practice with a further compilation, analysis and feedback of the disputable situations they might experience.

Keywords:

Algorithm of demeanor, behavioral strategies, case-study method, English language classroom, pedagogical conflict situations, pre-service teachers.