GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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Handout 1

GIVING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Discuss the following questions

1. List some situations when you give instructions in class

• Organize pairwork and groupwork
• ….
• …..
• …..
• ….
2. When do you give instructions in Vietnamese?
• When I explain the use of new language (e.g. grammatical structure)
• …..
• …..
• …..
• ….
3. What kinds of problems do you have when you give instructions in English?
• My instructions are often long, complicated
• ….
• ….
• …..
• ….

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 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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2. Watch the extracts carefully. Do you think the students have understood what they
are supposed to do? How can the teachers make the instructions good and effective?

Extract 1 (Mark) Extract 2 (Pip Titley)

Language

Manner of speaking

Gestures and mime

Visuals

Modelling/Demonstration

Explaining

Checking
comprehension

Assigning roles

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Professional Development
 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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3. Categorize the following statements into DO and DON’T lists in giving clear
instructions in English

1. Give students time to respond

2. Use short sentences
3. Use long, unfamiliar words
4. Check students understanding through Vietnamese if they are worried.
5. Use simple, easy –to –understand words.
6. Use pictures, gestures, mimes to support your words
7. Use different sentence structures in giving instructions
8. Repeat in English what students say to you in Vietnamese
9. Repeat instructions and pause between them
10. Ask students to respond immediately
11. Keep eye contacts with students when giving instructions and getting response
12. Ask students whether they understand
13. Just talk so that students can focus on what you say
14. Use lots of instructions together

4. Writing clear instructions

A. Making instructions clear

Here are some long and unclear instructions. Discuss how you could make them clearer. How
could you check that your learners understand them?
1. Ok, what I want you to do is just to get into groups and talk together about what you did
at the weekend.
2. Maria, would you mind just coming over here just for a minute, yeah just a minute come
and sit here.
3. Could you all open your books? Erm, open your books on page 24 and do the first
exercise up there on the right, do you see it there all right?
4. I’m going to tell you about something that happened to me when I was younger and what
I want to do is to listen and decide. Think about whether I was a well-balanced child then
or was I very bad.

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Professional Development
 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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B. Giving instructions
Write instructions for the following situations
1. You want the class to open their books on page 50 and do exercise 5.
2. You want a student to move to the end of the class and sit with a new partner.
3. You want the class to sit in pairs and discuss three questions
4. You want the class to listen to a story. You will tell it and they will then answer three
questions.
5. You want the class to stand up and ask 5 people about their families.

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Professional Development
 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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Handout 2

CHECKING UNDERSTANDING

1. Look at three teachers who are checking that their students understand some new
language.
a. What is the problem in each situation?
b. How would you check the lesson’s understanding in each situation?

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 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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2. Look at six different ways you can check that learners understand new language.
Match the name to the techniques below.
A. concept-checking questions (CCQs) B. pictures C. timelines
D. translation F. drawing

Reflection
a. Which of these techniques have you used already?
b. Which of these techniques would you like to try?
c. What other techniques have you and your fellows used? Make a list

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 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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3. Complete the table below with ideas about how you will show the meaning and
check understanding. Choose a noun, an adjective and a grammar structure.
Language How to show the How to check understanding
meaning
cough (v) Do the action Ask for a translation
“He is ill and has a bad
cough”
should (modal verb) A situation between a Concept-check questions
“You should get more doctor and a patient - Do I want you to sleep more?
sleep.” (Yes)
- Is it a good idea? (Yes)
- Must you do it or can you
choose?

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Professional Development
 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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Handout 3

MAKING APPROPRIATE USE OF ENGLISH IN CLASSROOMS

How much English is used in your classes will depend on many things, including the level of
your learners, the topic and the learning aims. It’s good to think about when English is needed,
and when the learners’ first language is more appropriate. You will need to be clear with your
learners about which language(s) you want them to use at different times in your lessons. Which
language will work best for your learners to understand language points and for what you want
them to do?

1. Look at the following situations and answer the questions below

a. What other advice would you give Suresh and Saku?
b. What other times in a lesson do you think there are good reasons for learners to use
their own or other languages?

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As language teachers, it’s important to build on your learners’ exposure to English and to give
them as much practice and feedback as possible. You also want your learners to understand,
to experiment with language and not to feel frustrated. When it’s appropriate to use English
varies according to different situations. This means you have to monitor what’s happening in
the classroom, identify whether the reason for the use of another language is appropriate and
then decide if you can take steps to introduce more English. For example, you can teach more
useful classroom phrases, have learners create bilingual vocabulary displays and give rewards
for English-only activities.

2. a. Match the teaching techniques to help learners use more English (1–7) with their
definitions (A–G).
b. Which techniques have you already used? When do you use them?

1. To paraphrase (a text or A. When you say what a learner says in another way, with more
something someone says) accurate or appropriate language so the message is clearer

2.To prompt your B. When you say or write the same idea in your learner’s own
learner(s) language

3. To reformulate what a C. When you don’t understand what someone is saying, you ask
learner says questions to help. You clarify by checking you both understand
the message

4. To ask your learner(s) D. When you help your learners to remember a word or idea,
for clarification e.g. by asking a question or giving a clue, or writing the first
letter(s) on the board

5. To elicit learner self- E. When you use different words to communicate what you read
correction or heard, or what someone said

6. To simplify (your F. When you make something easier for your learners to
language, an activity) understand or do

7. To translate a word, an G. When you ask a learner to say or write something again,
idea, an instruction because there’s a language problem – you can give clues to
help them, but you don’t correct

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3. Read the phrases below and decide which teacher task to use for each phrase.
Teacher tasks include:
a. Sequencing lesson goals
b. Explaining lesson content
c. Modelling and giving examples
d. Giving activity instructions
Write the correct teacher task in the right column below. When you are done, compare your
list with another pair.

Phrase Teacher task

1. Work in groups of three.
2. Practice the dialogue with a partner.
3. You use this to talk about the future.
4. Find the answers.
5. Look at the examples in the book.
6. Today we will begin a project.
7. Why does this say /s/ at the end?
8. Check the order of the sentences with a
partner.
9. When we want to say “You are welcome”
we can say “Don’t mention it”.
10. Next, we are going to practice a
conversation.
11. Today we are going to talk about food.
12. Look at the examples on the board.
13. Here is another example: I can swim.
14. Take turns to read the dialogue.
15. Match the words with the pictures.

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 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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Handout 4

ELICITING: A TECHNIQUE TO REDUCE TTT AND INCREASE STT

1. What is eliciting?
A technique which enables the teacher to get learners to provide information
rather than giving it to them.

2. Why should teachers use it in class?

Premises:
• Students have a great deal of knowledge both of the language and the real world,
this needs to be activated and used constructively
• The teaching of new knowledge is often based on what the learners already know
• Eliciting helps to develop a learner-centred classroom
• Eliciting learning memorable by linking new and old information

Benefits:
• Keep students alert
• Get students involved in the lesson
• Realize if students are listening and understanding or not
• More student-talking-time and reduce teacher-talking-time
• Helps students learn how to guess, learn through tasks
• Students are exposed to useful incidental language
• A simple and effective way of getting students to produce language.
• Establish a variety of interaction, reduce TTT, promote the notion of exchange
information in class.

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 GIVING INSTRUCTIONS & CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

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3. Problems
• Time-consuming
• Not always STT
• Dominant students
• Met by silence
• Language of elicitation is not like normal communication
• Boring/ repetitive
• …

4. Tips
• Provide stimulus (prompts, associations, reminders…)
• Nominate students, don’t wait for volunteers
• Give them time to prepare for the answer
• Encourage rather than correct, no right or wrong answer (the purpose is to get
them involved in the lesson)
• Give more input/ cues/ contextual clues if students give incorrect answers or keep
silent
• Acknowledge and give feedback to each answer with gestures/ positive
comments
• Raise an awareness of appreciating students’ contribution in classroom activities,
teacher is not the sole provider of knowledge.
• Eliciting can be done when necessary and appropriate at any stage of a lesson,
not only at the beginning

Can you add some more?

- ….

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