TEXT:
Building Rapport
Establishing strong foundations for teaching and
learning
By Stephanie Hirchman
September 2, 2025
How do teachers build rapport with
students? I can’t think of a more important question; after all, learning is
all about relationships. In fact, I hope the word “rapport” runs through all
the blogs I’ve written, like the letters in a stick of rock. However, as the
summer holidays draw to a close and with new beginnings in sight, I’m going to
focus exclusively on building rapport.
Fostering rapport
Let’s get out the metaphors! If
learning is a house, then rapport is the foundation, but because it needs
constant maintenance, rapport is also a garden, tended with care on a daily
basis. When there is a good rapport, students feel:
• seen – each student is greeted
individually, and the teacher makes an eff ort to interact with each one during
the lesson.
• confident in the teacher, the
course, and themselves - the teacher knows what each student needs and how to
deliver it so students make progress. Classroom routines are predictable, fair,
and make sense.
• safe – they know the teacher will
not embarrass them or expose their sensitivities or weaknesses. Mistakes are
dealt with sensitively and treated as learning opportunities.
• accepted – the teacher meets each
individual student exactly where they are, without judgment, academically and
personally. If someone is called out on their behaviour, this is done in
private, and an explanation is given about why this behaviour is unproductive
or unacceptable.
Student profiles – the basis for rapport
Whatever your teaching context,
you’ve got to get to know each student as an individual. This can be considered
as an initial information gathering phase, with several possible pathways.
A good starting point is to test
students either before they start the course or in the first few days, making
it clear that this is a process that produces information that will help you to
plan and them to learn. Try to generate as full a picture as possible, so you
have an idea about their abilities in all four skills.
Secondly, you need to conduct a needs
analysis, either privately or publicly. You can read more about this process,
but bear in mind that a public needs analysis can also serve to make everyone
in the class aware of each other’s interests and thus of the rationale for
including certain topics, language points, or skills work in the course
syllabus.
Finally, use whatever resources you
have to identify students with specific learning differences or
traumas/triggers. This information may be disclosed at registration,
self-disclosed (perhaps at interview) or in a private needs analysis, or
tentatively identified through your own observations. Obviously, this
information is private, between you and the student (and their parents, if they
are under 18).
Classroom activities to build rapport at the start of
a course
These rapport-building activities aim
to generate information in such a way that students feel well-supported.
In a first lesson, the top priority
is to make sure you know everybody’s preferred names and how to pronounce them.
I’ve always found it helpful to have small desktop cards with this information
on display – at least for a couple of sessions. Why not ask the students to
make these themselves, or at least to personalize them? The back of the card
could have some classroom language phrases to help prompt students, and there’s
also the option of including this useful functional language as an introductory
lesson – note that this generates a lot of information about student
performance in areas like listening (including following instructions),
speaking (including pronunciation) and studentship (including note-taking),
facility with vocabulary, grammar and functional language. It can also serve as
an introduction to pair and group work and to questioning and correction
techniques, and, of course, builds confidence for students to take an active
part in lessons.
Rapport thrives on praise
Teachers must remember that students
are putting themselves on the line every time they come to class. Every effort
carries a risk of failure, and not everyone is robust enough to bounce back
easily when this occurs. Praise is the magic ingredient here – individualized,
sincere and specific. Even when things have gone a bit wrong, find something
that went well. It may be that you’re praising eff ort (“Good try, Haruka, I
like that idea, but it isn’t what I’m looking for right now.”) or scaffolding
achievement (“That’s a pretty good sentence, Juan, the verb tense is correct.
But think again about the subject – should it be singular or plural?”). It may
be delivered in written form (“This essay makes some relevant points. You used
a lot of new vocabulary and improved your accuracy with punctuation. Next time,
put the information into paragraphs.”). And when you make a mistake, as you
inevitably will, model a positive reaction – check the information, put it
right and thank the person who pointed it out.
Finally, make plenty of space for
laughter and smiles, as they not only reduce stress, but have a positive effect
on engagement, learning and recall. Rapport really does serve learning.
Adapted from:
https://www.linguahouse.com/blog/post/building-rapport Acesso em 18/10/2025
Os falsos cognatos podem ser uma armadilha para quem
está aprendendo um novo idioma, pois podem causar confusões
e erros de tradução. Dessa forma, é essencial conhecer os falsos
cognatos, para evitar constrangimentos. Dentre as palavras
abaixo, todas retiradas do texto, o falso cognato é:
