I feel like the smartphone usage in university level classes is much higher than previous years.
It’s getting to the point where I am having difficulty controlling the class. In the past it was my goal to always be more interesting than their smartphones but making funny questions or activities. I would say I still had 1 or 2 students in my classes who wouldn’t listen or participate but generally I was happy with the participation rate.
This year however, I find that about 30-40 percent of students straight up refuse to participate in speaking or writing activities and just use their smartphones unless I specifically call them out in front of the whole class. Even then other students will keep using phones until I have called out half the class. Then they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing even though I explained the activity in English and Japanese. So I have to go around to each group and explain the whole thing again.
What can I do to make them participate more in speaking and writing activities?
I don’t want to be “that teacher” that bans smartphones. I know some students actually use it to help express what they want to say. But these days I catch at least 3 or 4 on Tiktok or games every day.
I don’t want to fail half the class or just play English games the entire class every day. I don’t want to scold them like little children as that tanks morale.
I have already talked to my supervisor about the problems but he is leaving next year. He just kind of shrugged his shoulders and said yeah not much you can do.
Anyways sorry for the rant. Any help is much appreciated.
Tldr Students use smartphones too often in class and don’t pay attention