Classroom language

This task is about the language we need as teachers in an English class. We can divide this language in two main groups: teacher language (with different purposes which we’ll see in a while) and language support and scaffolding for students.

Teacher language

In the following grid, you will see on the left side the different purposes which the teacher can use the language of. On the right side, you can find some language structures, words or activities that the teacher can use for each purpose.

Expressions

Let’s start; Let’s get started; Let’s get the ball rolling; Let’s get down to work/business; etc.

Resources

Songs or games

Starting the lesson

Expressions

What’s the weather like today?; How do we feel? (moods); What’s the date today?; Hang your coats up; Button your smock up; Form a line/Line up; Get into the line;

Resources

Songs or games; Relaxation activity; Word or number of the day; Messenger notebook; Helpers; the date; The weather; Call the list; Exit tickets; etc.

Habits and routines

Positive (click here)
Negative

Give it more thinking; Not quite there/right yet; Good try, but…; I’m afraid…(this is not correct); etc.

Encouraging

Give it another shot/go!; Have a guess; You’re getting there; Try again; etc.

Giving feedback

Make groups of…

Divide yourselves into X groups

Number up

Get together in groups

etc.

Arranging groups

What the English word for X is?

How would you say that in English?

Can you try to say that in English?

What do you call X in English?

etc.

Getting students to say STH in English

What exactly do you mean?

What do you mean by this?

Could you repeat it in a different way?

I don’t see your point / I don’t see the point you’re trying to make

I don’t see what you’re getting at

etc.

Asking for clarification

Can you repeat it?

Can you say it again?

Would you mind repeating what you’ve said?

etc.

Asking for repetition

Did I make myself clear/understood?

Did you all get it?

Are you following?

Are you all with me?

etc.

Checking understan-ding

Difficult:

I know this may be difficult/complex; This may be challenging; This may require extra effort from you; etc.

Easy:

Easy peasy (lemon squeeze); This is as easy as ABC; It’s a walk in the park; It’s dead easy; It’s a piece of cake; etc.

Saying STH is easy or difficult

In other words; What I’m trying to say is…; Let me make me clear; Let me put/explain this differently; The point that I was trying to make is...; What I was going to get at is…; etc.

Paraphrasing

Expressions:

You’re not concentrating; You’re not focused/focusing; Can you focus on what you’re doing?; Punished!; You’ll stay behind; I’ve warned you several times; You’ve a warning; Silence/be quiet, please; Keep your voices down; etc.

Resources:

Silent criatures; Bouncy balls; Bomb;

Controlling

behaviour

Expressions:

Listen to me, please; I need your attention now, etc.

Routines:

Chants or rhymes (One, two three, look at me; etc.); raising your hand and waiting them to do the same, etc.

Getting attention

Can you remind me what we did…?; Do you remember…?

Recapping

Expressions:

That’s all for today; Let’s leave it here; We’ve run out of time; Time’s up; We’ll have to stop here; I’m afraid it’s time to finish; Put your books away; Put your chairs back/up; etc.

Resources:

Songs or games

Closing the lesson

As English teachers, it’s very important that we use an accurate language in the class, as it’s also a way of make students learn these words.

In the previous grid, you’ve seen different purposes with which the teacher can use the language in a classroom. It’s important to know different words and expressions for each purpose, because we’re going to use them for sure. And if we use them many times, students will remember these words in the end and they will have a wider range of vocabulary.

So, not only are we teaching the vocabulary or sentences included in our teaching unit, but also the vocabulary used by us to manage the classroom. That’s why knowing different ways of saying the same thing is good for us as teachers, because students will learn even more.

Language support and scaffolding for students

We can use a lot of things to give language support or interactional scaffolding to our students when they need some help to produce in the foreign language. Here you have some ideas:

Posters or murals
Some corners of the class devoted to a special language support
Images
Glossaries
Rephrasing and repeating
Non verbal communication

My Teaching Unit

Regarding the teaching unit I designed to be implemented in the school where I was doing my practicum, I created some visual support for almost all the activities in order to help students not to get lost.

In the following link you can find all the visual support for my implementation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1E7wG4hjHQbYiFH24jmow5FBWxL9X_pb7gjUj58atAP4/edit?usp=sharing

The teaching unit was all about clothes, as you will see. As I was not allowed to create visual materials to hang on the classrooms’ walls (because I implemented in three different classrooms and not in all of them there was enough space to do so), I decided to take advantage of the projectors and digital screens and create digital visual support.

I also made students create their own picture dictionary in the first session of the teaching unit, so that they had it with them in all the other sessions and they could take a look whenever they needed to review something.

I tried to use expressions from the previous grid to structure the lessons so that students didn’t get lost and learn new vocabulary. Some useful language for me was:

I also think that the use of non verbal communication was crucial for students to understand my messages, so I tried to use it as much as I could.

Co-teaching

Regarding the co-teaching activity I designed with Mar, it was about a writing activity. Students had to write a story including some elements given. As language support we gave them some connectors in order for them to structure the story better (once upon a time, after that, suddenly, etc.). The classroom language we had to use was mainly:

Tips for future teachers

Language is, of course, the essential part of language learning lessons. That’s why language teachers should be aware of that and try to use it in an accurate way so that the simple fact of listening to them can be a learning activity for students. Of course, we must take into account that it is not their native language, so we should help them understand what we say. Choosing some expressions for each purpose that we can have in the classroom and trying to use them usually can help our students, as they will learn these expressions and won’t get lost. It’s like setting a routine. But, of course, later on we can introduce new expressions, that we can start using together with the previous ones, so that students learn new vocabulary and new ways of saying the same things.

So, language is something that must also be planned in a language lesson. Not only the contents or activities to be covered, but also the way we’ll explain them, for example. When we plan a teaching unit, then, it is very useful to think about the language we should use and the language we want our students to learn, so that it won’t be improvised and will fit better with our objectives.