Rules and procedures

The Importance of Setting Rules and Procedures in the English Classroom
Annie Rodríguez Suárez

Abstract
This paper centres on a sixth grade English class of a Colombian co-educational state school and on the solution of the question “What kind of treatments can be implemented in a sixth grade English class so that the students take real part in it?” These students are not focused on thisclass, but on generating all sorts of chaos. They complain about not understanding why they have to do certain activities and so they do not take part in their English class at all. The aim of this research is to present an action plan to overcome the identified problematic issue of this class by analysing certain aspects that are relevant to this, and which are backed up with some articles relatedto this topic such as L. Prodromou and L. Clandfield - “Dealing with Difficulties: Solutions, Strategies, and Suggestions for Successful Teaching” (2007), Anthony Bruton - “From Tasking Purposes to Purposing Tasks” (2002) among others.
Introduction
Concerns about why an English class ends being a complete chaos as well as why students seem to be apathetic towards learning English can leadteachers, parents, and even students to think that such situations are the result of problems of discipline, lack of interesting classroom activities, non-planned lessons, lack of students’ interest in the target language, and/or problems of classroom management among many others. Diagnosis like the ones previously mentioned are the product of a superficial analysis which does not include otherinternal elements that may have indeed the answers to the nature of such problematic states.
That is why it is essential to carefully look at such elements, and one of the best ways to do so is by undertaking an action research. Hence, this paper begins with the presentation of the participants involved in this research. After that comes the literature review that supports this research and thatexplains certain findings that were essential when designing the action plan. Following this, a brief description of how the data were collected and a close look at what could be seen during the observations carried out are included in an annexe. Next, the corresponding action plan is introduced and explained. Finally, some conclusions are presented.
This paper focuses on a sixth grade English classand the lack of a set of rules and procedures that can foster students understanding of the importance of such class as well as their involvement in it. The observations that led to the identification of the problematic situation, already presented, took place in the sixth grade classroom of a school called Colegio Nieves Cortés Picón – located in El Poblado de Girón, Santander – Colombia. Thestudents involved in this research belong to the afternoon program. This is a fifty-minute class that consists of 45 students of which only 26 were present during the observations. Their ages range from 10 to 14 and they have three English lessons every week.
Literature Review
After a careful analysis of the collected data (the observations, surveys, and formal as well as informal interviews), itwas found that the real problem that interferes with the learning process of these sixth grade students is the lack of a set of common rules and the establishment of clear procedures that familiarise the students with what they have to do in the English class and with how they should do it. Consequently, is it of great importance to focus on certain articles related to classroom rules and proceduresand to other topics that are linked to this issue and which are necessary to the design of an effective action plan to triumph over this problematic situation.
To begin with, it is important to consider L. Prodromou and L. Clandfield in “Dealing with Difficulties: Solutions, Strategies, and Suggestions for Successful Teaching” (2007). These authors say “... shared goals and mutual respect...