Teachers Avoiding Learners' Avoidance: Is it Possible?

Dealing with learners who prefer to take the back seat and avoid classroom participation can be every teacher's nightmare. This lack of participation may cause teacher frustration, and possibly the only way to reduce this lack of participation is to access the concept of avoidance strategy. Avoidance strategy is the abandonment of a classroom task by learners due to causes such as the task difficulty, topical knowledge, shyness, anxiety, face-saving, fear of negative evaluation, and peer pressure. This article provides an enhanced understanding of the notion of avoidance strategy, presents factors resulting in avoidance behavior, and offers strategies teachers can employ to reduce student use of avoidance behaviors. Reducing student anxiety, motivating learners, teacher support, group work, and pushing toward production are among the possible paths that may help reduce avoidance strategy use in the classrooms.