Time and tide wait for no student

The importance that various cultures assign to punctuality vastly differ

The early bird catches the worm

This is not only just an Asian tendency, it occurs in many countries where the climate is very warm. Some European examples are Spain and Cyprus, where there is never any difficulty in putting off tasks until later.

I find it difficult to accept tardiness and missed deadlines by my students, and I try to instill being on time as a fundamental course requirement. I also believe that arriving on time for an appointment and completing projects by agreed upon deadlines are essential personal and professional traits to have. Most employees who consistently arrive late for work soon find themselves out of work.

Make timeliness a part of your course

It is always easier to be strict at the beginning of a semester and then ease up as time goes on. Students will not accept a teacher who is too relaxed in the beginning and decides to become stricter later during the course.

As a consequence, I find it easier to be the strict disciplinarian at the beginning of the semester and then gradually ease up as students understand what's expected.

This process involves using a bit of psychology. It is vital to teach the importance of being punctual to all students. As the more responsible students practice arriving to class and completing assignments on time, the slackers will also improve because they will not want to be left behind.

I allow students to be five minutes late as there can be many legitimate reasons why someone can be late. I try to be five minutes early for every class and after a while, the students know that their teacher is always early, so they are more inclined to be at least on time.

After a while, when students come late they are gently chided, not by me as their teacher, but by their fellow classmates. Classmates will want to know in great detail - and in English - why the latecomer did not arrive to class on time. Some of the excuses are well worn and deserve to be challenged. Unless a good excuse is proffered and accepted, late student will be marked as late in the register and this will be reflected in their final grade.

Nowadays, I don't seem to have many problems with latecomers. I am aware that there could be legitimate reasons why a student comes late or completes an assignment beyond the deadline. When it does happen I am as eager as the class to listen to an explanation in English. I sometimes get telephone calls and emails concerning impending emergencies that may result in a student being late.

Deadlines

Another aspect of timekeeping is the setting and meeting of deadlines. While it is beneficial for teachers to remain flexible, I am of the opinion that students need to understand the importance of deadlines and the consequences of failing to meet them.

All of my courses have built in deadlines as tertiary course objectives. These deadlines can be negotiated as a class; and students who meet the deadline once it is set are rewarded in their grade. Those that do not, are not.

As long as the requirement to be on time is explained at the beginning of the course, students seem to adjust themselves to achieve punctuality goals. Students can learn an important lesson as long as the teacher is prepared to explain the parameters in advance, repeat them often and gently enforce the rules along the way.

There will always be students who have a personal disdain for being on time. In some cases, it is beyond the skills of regular teachers to get a student to conform, but at least the student should be made aware of the potentially serious consequences that might result.

Steve Graham is an English language teacher at the Language Center, Udon Thani Rajabhat University in northeast Thailand. If there are any comments or areas for debate that you would like to discuss, you can contact Steve at: shed_chelsea@hotmail.co.uk .