Teaching English is a very nice profession, but it is also a very hard one in many different contexts and countries. Although many people may not agree with this fairly complex statement, everyone tends to agree when we talk about the unavoidable difficulties some lecturers have to face in order to teach some classes. Within those relevant constraints we have to overcome, most English language teachers working in Spain will consider that having too many students in the classroom can be a very important problem. The main purpose of this text will be to analyse how to overcome the important constraints caused by the fact of having many different students in the same class, recommending the implementation of process-based syllabi in order to solve all the problems created by this situation.

First of all, let me define the term "large group", as it is a fairly tricky one. In a conference organised in Spain a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity of listening to a plenary speaker, coming from another European country, who stated that he had "large" groups of 15 people. Most people in the audience were quite shocked, as English language lecturers in Spain are quite used to taking care of considerably larger groups. What is "large"? What is "small"? Let me try to offer some clues, in order to re-define the term for our purposes.

The concept "large class" has been widely used by many ESL lecturers and researchers during the last fifteen years. However, the concept, as I commented above, cannot be defined as "too precise": whereas some people consider that fifteen people can become a "large class", most ESL practitioners working in Spain will probably have considerably larger groups. In some cases, a few "lucky" lecturers will have to teach groups formed by more than one hundred students. This constraint, however, is just an example of the many problems that any English language practitioner will have to face. We all know that an English language teacher has a lot of work to do, having to deal with far too many students; besides, in most cases, this task has been considered as something minor, almost irrelevant. As Johnston (1997: 682) commented, the role of the English language teacher tends to be a very difficult one. He points out that:

Nevertheless, and among many other constraints we have to face in order to teach English skills, we have observed that there are many difficulties which can be overcome when teaching Business English (Palmer, 1998). Therefore, let me explain to you the exact situation of the English for Specific Purposes unit at Universitat Jaume I (Castellón), paying special attention to our Business Sciences groups.

University Jaume I has offered a large number of degrees in its few years of existence, and the Business Studies Diploma is one of the most popular ones. Assuming this fact, let me explain that during the last academic year (1997-98) we had four groups of first year students, two of them formed by over 100 students (morning classes), whereas there was an average of 70 students enrolled in the two evening classes. These four groups were later reduced into three during their second year, in all cases formed by over 100 students. To cut a long story short, we should simply state that, thanks to academic regulations, we have been able to divide each group into halves. Even so, most classes are still very large ones, formed by 50 or more students.

English, being a compulsory subject at University Jaume I, has to be studied by everybody. This implies that all the students we have in the Business Sciences Diploma have to take both English I and II examinations in order to complete their degree. This fact means that we have fairly heterogeneous groups, formed by people who are almost proficient in English, sitting next to some other colleagues with a considerably lower level in this same language. This situation has forced us to generate important research, based on the implementation of a number of approaches trying to overcome this problem.

On top of that, and considering the special linguistic situation of Castellón, with a clear mixture of Spanish and Valencian-speaking people (the latter being a Latin-based native language, widely used by the population of the area), classes are even more heterogeneous. Table 1 shows the percentage of students we had last year, in order to understand how heterogeneous these groups were. Results were taken from a series of questionnaires that both English I and II students had to complete during the first weeks.

In Table 1 we can see important information to understand the type of students we have in our classes. Regarding their initial level in English, we can observe that most students confirm having an acceptable level in this language, probably because many of them have studied English in order to complete their secondary education. Additionally, and what seems most important for us, there are some students who had not studied English at high school, but this tendency is also changing, and the data obtained seem to support this change, which will be completed in a couple of years. In fact, all high schools in the Castellón area are recommending students to take English during their secondary education, as they will have a better background before facing English language classes at our university.

As the data suggest, there is nothing like an average student in our classes. However, considering the current situation, it seems as if in a few years’ time we will not have so many differences among the students attending our courses. Let us observe, therefore, what can be defined as a typical ESP/BE class.

As we commented above, we should point out that most classes are initially formed by large groups of about 55-60 students. However, there is a regular average attendance of 40 to 45 students per group. Most classes, as we showed above (Table 1), can be defined as heterogeneous, formed by students with mixed capacities in English, due to their differences in ability, motivation and previous exposure to the language (Bruton, 1997: 109). In all the groups that we have been teaching in the last seven years we have always faced additional difficulties, mainly based on the number of students without previous considerable experience in English (they tend to be students who studied French during their secondary education and who have received some intensive training for a short time before joining our classes).

In order to point out the three main features that should be applied when teaching large classes, we have tried to observe some of the characteristics defining these groups. In our opinion, a business English teacher (and, subsequently, every other lecturer dealing with English for any specific purpose) should pay special attention to classroom management, trying to focus on all the different possibilities that this type of groups can offer. Secondly, lecturers should also be aware of how to get in direct contact with their students, offering direct feedback. Finally, it should be quite advisable to let learners control the learning process. These three aspects should be considered in order to develop a good syllabus which could help us improve our teaching activity (Nunan, 1988). In our conclusion we will observe the way these aspects can affect the learning process.

One of the most difficult things to do in a large classroom is trying to get the attention of every single student. In my opinion, a large class is nothing more than a group of smaller classes in the same room. It may be interesting to turn control over to small groups whenever possible, trying to get everyone involved in the different activities; if we do not do so, students may not get much practice, and they may feel too bored. The great advantage of dividing the class into different groups is that, once the teacher has provided an accurate framework and set the task, students can take over, set their own targets, plan their development, organise themselves into groups, and work at their own pace. The teacher’s role, as Hedge (1988:68) commented, will be "to advise, assist, monitor, and keep up motivation." It all comes down to letting the learners control their own learning process.

One of the main problems we can face is that some students will hide themselves, taking shelter within the smaller sub-groups. Some authors have recommended lecturers to resign themselves to only really having an impact on committed learners. However, our opinion is a fairly different one; we assume that the implementation of a task-based syllabus could enhance those students’ eagerness to take part in the different learning activities. Everyone should take an active part in their own sub-groups. This experience will later become an important asset in the students’ learning process.

As a conclusion, we, English language lecturers, should design and implement activities helping our students improve their overall competence in English. However, we should keep in mind that every student is a single case, with his/her own previous cultural background, and we shall be well aware of this fact, especially when dealing with large classes. Therefore, we should try to create a very comprehensive syllabus, allowing the students to take active part in the learning process. We have to run away from traditional syllabi which, in Berwick’s (1989: 53) opinion "inevitably represent a collection of authoritative, informed opinions about what should be taught." In spite of this, we should enforce a much more comprehensive process syllabus, whose main feature has to be based on the fact that, whatever happens in the classroom, should exclusively be determined by negotiations between teachers and students. This is, quite probably, one of the best possible ways to overcome most constraints observed in large, heterogeneous classes.

There is often a considerable conflict between our intention and the actual situation of our heterogeneous groups. Let us keep in mind that we are dealing with human beings, not with computers; we should be aware that some aspects such as intuition, class dynamics and subjective judgement tend to play an important part on course development when dealing with large classes. The success of the teaching task will probably be based on this fact. It will be up to us, English language teachers, to overcome these constraints.