Rapport

This qualitative study aimed to develop a model of classroom management strategy for Iranian English as a foreign language learners. To tap into this matter, some face to face and focus group interviews as well as real observations were performed. Twenty-six students including various proficiency levels from four different provinces participated in the face to face and focus group interviews. Also, 10 observations of the real classes wherein teachers were teaching conversation courses were made. Transcribing and codifying the data according to Corbin and Strauss's (2014) systematic steps of open, axial and selective coding, the findings revealed a model of classroom management strategy encompassing three main themes (management, quality of life and classroom practices), nine categories and 39 subcategories. The findings suggest EFL teachers notonly should pay attention to classroom practices, but they should also work onbuilding up rapport and encouraging their students in order to achieve a class in which students are wholeheartedly willing to learn the language.

This article focuses on how Shaygan and Dr. Talaee manage their rapport orientations in three interactional goals in Monji based on Spencer-Oatey’s model (2008), consisted of three interrelated elements (face sensitivities, interactional wants and behavioral expectations). Threatening or supporting each of which leads to rapport enhancement, maintenance, neglect and challenge. It is hypothesized getting involved in a transactional goal is a threat to rapport and insistence on getting one’s goals achieved further imbalances rapport and orients it toward neglect and challenge; it may lead to unpleasant consequences. The research intends to answer (1) how Shaygan and Talaee manage their rapport in their transactional interactions? (2) How are the interactional goals settled in the end for the two characters? The findings show both characters threaten each other’s sociality rights and sometimes attack each other’s face and set their rapport toward challenge. Left bereft of his identity and sociality rights, felt tenser when he himself attacked them, Shaygan committed suicide. Analysis of face and rapport management among people who are in contact with each other in long-term relationships and how face unfolds under those conditions in pragmatics is a road less traveled by and this research is a step in this path.

Objective: The present study sought to explore EFL teachers’ cognition of rapport establishment and maintenance, as one of the aspects of classroom management, in the context of Iran’s foreign language institutes’ face-to-face EFL classes.Method: The study involved 12 Iranian teachers who taught adult learners. The sample size was determined based on reaching saturation, and the participating teachers were selected through purposeful sampling. The main instrument utilized in this qualitative study was a semi-structured one-to-one in-person interview, which aimed to elicit the participants’ cognition of rapport development. These individual interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically.Results: The findings revealed that the participants believed in the importance of rapport creation for efficient classroom management. Besides, they recommended strategies for establishing rapport with learners, such as familiarization, verbal immediacy, non-verbal immediacy, attention to learners’ emotions, judicious L1 use, playing games, and utilizing social media. Moreover, they held that teachers’ personality traits and communication skills could impact their approach to building rapport.Conclusion: Altogether, the participants had a sound cognition of rapport maintenance as one of the aspects of classroom management. The findings of the current study provide implications for teacher educators, teachers, and institutes’ supervisors.