Classroom Language | English Language Teaching Methodology I

CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

The language spoken in the lessons is English in this context. The language is used by the teacher in different situations in the classroom.

•  at the beginning of the lesson
•  when giving simple instructions
•  at the end of the lesson
•  in relation to classroom management
•  in different spontaneous situations

Here are some phrases about classroom language we should know, understand, or be able to use.

The beginning of the lesson

1. Good morning

•  Good morning, everybody.
•  Good afternoon, everybody.
•  Hello, everyone.
•  Hello there, John.

2. How are you?

•  How are you today?
•  How are you getting on?
•  How’s life?
•  How are things with you?
•  Are you feeling better today, David?

3. Introductions

•  My name is Mr/Mrs/Ms Kim. I’m your new English teacher.
•  I’ll be teaching you English this year.
•  I’ve got five lessons with you each week.

4. Time to begin

•  Let’s begin our lesson now.
•  Is everybody ready to start?
•  I hope you are all ready for your English lesson.
•  I think we can start now.
•  Now we can get down to work.

5. Waiting to start

•  I’m waiting for you to be quiet.
•  We won’t start until everyone is quiet.
•  Stop talking and be quiet.
•  Settle down now so we can start.

6. Put your things away

•  Close your books.
•  Put your books away.
•  Pack your things away.

7. Register

•  Who is absent today?
•  Who isn’t here today?
•  What’s the matter with Jim today?
•  What’s wrong with Jim today?
•  Why were you absent last Friday?

8. Late

•  Where have you been?
•  We started ten minutes ago. What have you been doing?
•  Did you miss your bus?
•  Did you oversleep?
•  Don’t let it happen again.

Simple instructions

1. Here are some common instructions which the class can easily understand:

•  Come in.
•  Go out.
•  Stand up.
•  Sit down.
•  Come to the front of the class.
•  Stand by your desks.
•  Put your hands up.
•  Put your hands down.
•  Hold your books/pens up.
•  Show me your pencil.

2. A number of instructions can be used at the beginning of a session:

•  Pay attention, everybody.
•  You need pencils/rulers.
•  We’ll learn how to …
•  Are you ready?
•  Open your books at page…
•  Turn to page …
•  Look at activity five.
•  Listen to this tape.
•  Repeat after me.
•  Again, please.
•  Everybody …
•  You have five minutes to do this.
•  Who’s next?
•  Like this, not like that.

3. A number of instructions can be used at the end of a session:

•  It’s time to finish.
•  Have you finished?
•  Let’s stop now.
•  Stop now.
•  Let’s check the answers.
•  Any questions?
•  Collect your work please.
•  Pack up your books.
•  Are your desks tidy?
•  Don’t forget to bring your … tomorrow.

4. Instructions can also be sequenced:

•  First
•  Next
•  After that
•  Then
•  Finally

5. Comprehension language:

•  Are you ready?
•  Are you with me?
•  Are you OK?
•  OK so far?
•  Do you get it?
•  Do you understand?
•  Do you follow me?
•  What did you say?
•  One more time, please.
•  Say it again, please.
•  I don’t understand.
•  I don’t get it.
•  Like this?
•  Is this OK?

The end of the lesson

1. Time to stop

•  It’s almost time to stop.
•  I’m afraid it’s time to finish now.
•  We’ll have to stop here.
•  There’s the bell. It’s time to stop.
•  That’s all for today. You can go now.

2. Not time to stop

•  The bell hasn’t gone yet.
•  There are still two minutes to go.
•  We still have a couple of minutes left.
•  The lesson doesn’t finish till five past.
•  Your watch must be fast.
•  We seem to have finished early.
•  We have an extra five minutes.
•  Sit quietly until the bell goes.

3. Wait a minute

•  Hang on a moment.
•  Just hold on a moment.
•  Stay where you are for a moment.
•  Just a moment, please.
•  One more thing before you go.
•  Back to your places.

4. Next time

•  We’ll do the rest of this chapter next time.
•  We’ll finish this exercise next lesson.
•  We’ve run out of time, so we’ll continue next lesson.
•  We’ll continue this chapter next Monday.

5. Homework

•  This is your homework for tonight.
•  Do exercise 10 on page 23 for your homework.
•  Prepare the next chapter for Monday.
•  There is no homework today.
•  Remember your homework.
•  Take a worksheet as you leave.

6. Goodbye

•  Goodbye, everyone.
•  See you again next Wednesday.
•  See you tomorrow afternoon.
•  See you in room 7 after the break.
•  Have a good holiday.
•  Enjoy your vacation.

7. Leaving the room

•  Get into a queue.
•  Form a queue and wait for the bell.
•  Everybody outside!
•  All of you get outside now!
•  Hurry up and get out!
•  Try not to make any noise as you leave.
•  Be quiet as you leave. Other classes are still working.
•  It’s tidy up time
•  Line up

Language of classroom management

Here are some phrases that can be used for classroom management:

Giving instructions

•  Open your books at page 52.
•  Come out and write it on the board.
•  Listen to the tape, please.
•  Get into groups of four.
•  Finish off this song at home.
•  Let’s sing a song.
•  Everybody, please.
•  All together now.
•  The whole class, please.
•  I want you all to join in.
•  Could you try the next one?
•  I would like you to write this down.
•  Would you mind switching the lights on?
•  It might be an idea to leave this till next time.
•  Who would like to read?
•  Which topic will your group report on?
•  Do you want to answer question 3?

Sequencing

•  First of all, today, …
•  Right. Now we will go on to the next exercise.
•  Have you finished?
•  For the last thing today, let’s …
•  Whose turn is it to read?
•  Which question are you on?
•  Next one, please.
•  Who hasn’t answered yet?
•  Let me explain what I want you to do next.
•  The idea of this exercise is for you to …
•  You have ten minutes to do this.
•  Your time is up.
•  Finish this by twenty to eleven.
•  Can you all see the board?
•  Have you found the place?
•  Are you all ready?

Supervision

•  Look this way.
•  Stop talking.
•  Listen to what … is saying.
•  Leave that alone now.
•  Be careful.

Asking questions

•  Where’s Bill?
•  Is Bill in the kitchen?
•  Tell me where Bill is.
•  What was the house like?
•  What do you think?
•  How can you tell?

Responding to questions

•  Yes, that’s right,
•  Fine.
•  Almost. Try again.
•  What about this word?

Metalanguage

•  What’s the Spanish for “doll”?
•  Explain it in your own words.
•  It’s spelt with a capital “J”.
•  Can anybody correct this sentence?
•  Fill in the missing words.
•  Mark the right alternative.

Reference

•  After they left the USA, the Beatles …
•  The church was started in the last century.
•  This is a picture of a typically English castle.
•  In the background you can see …
•  While we’re on the subject, …
•  As I said earlier, …
•  Let me sum up.

Affective attitudes

•  That’s interesting!
•  That really is very kind of you.
•  Don’t worry about it.
•  I was a bit disappointed with your efforts.

Social ritual

•  Good morning.
•  Cheerio now.
•  God bless!
•  Have a nice weekend.
•  Thanks for your help.
•  Happy birthday!
•  Merry Christmas!

The language of error correction

Here are some phrases that can be used when giving feedback to students:

•  Very good.
•  That’s very good.
•  Well done.
•  Very fine.
•  That’s nice.
•  I like that.
•  Marvellous!
•  You did a great job.
•  Magnificent!
•  Terrific!
•  Wow!
•  Jolly good!
•  Great stuff!
•  Fantastic!
•  Right!
•  Yes!
•  Fine.
•  Quite right
•  That’s right.
•  That’s it.
•  That’s correct.
•  That’s quite right.
•  Yes, you’ve got it.
•  It depends.
•  It might be, I suppose.
•  In a way, perhaps.
•  Sort of, yes.
•  That’s more like it.
•  That’s much better.
•  That’s a lot better.
•  You’ve improved a lot.
•  You were almost right.
•  That’s almost it.
•  You’re halfway there.
•  You’ve almost got it.
•  You’re on the right lines.
•  There’s no need to rush.
•  There’s no hurry.
•  We have plenty of time
•  Go on. Have a try.
•  Have a go.
•  Have a guess.
•  Not really.
•  Unfortunately not.
•  I’m afraid that’s not quite right.
•  You can’t say that, I’m afraid.
•  You can’t use that word here.
•  Good try, but not quite right.
•  Have another try.
•  Not quite right. Try again.
•  Not exactly.

The language of spontaneous situations

If we use English in spontaneous situations:

•  We relate the target language to the learner’s immediate environment.
•  We take advantage of spontaneous situations to use the target language.
•  We exploit contexts which are not directly linked to the syllabus (language in use).

Here are some common situations in which spontaneous English can be used:

•  Happy birthday!
•  Many returns (of the day).
•  ……. has his/her 12th birthday today.
•  …….. is eleven today. Let’s sing “Happy Birthday”.
•  Best of luck.
•  Good luck.
•  I hope you pass.
•  Congratulations!
•  Well done!
•  Who’s not here today?
•  Who isn’t here?
•  What’s wrong with … today?
•  I’m sorry (about that).
•  Sorry, that was my fault.
•  I’m terribly sorry.
•  Excuse me.
•  Could I get past please?
•  You’re blocking the way.
•  I can’t get past you.
•  Get out of the way, please
•  I hope you all have a good Christmas.
•  Happy New Year!
•  All the best for the New Year.
•  Happy Easter.
•  Hard lines!
•  Never mind.
•  Better luck next time.
•  Do you feel better today?
•  Are you better now?
•  Have you been ill?
•  What was the matter?
•  I’ll be back in a moment.
•  Carry on with the exercise while I’m away.
•  I’ve got to go next door for a moment.
•  I’m afraid I can’t speak any louder.
•  I seem to be losing my voice.
•  I have a sore throat.
•  I have a headache.
•  I’m feeling under the weather.
•  Do you mind if I sit down?
•  Can I come to your office?
•  How should I pronounce “…”?
•  How do you pronounce this word?
•  Would you pronounce the word “…”?
•  How do you spell “…”?
•  What does UK stand for?
•  Would you give us an example?
•  How do you spell that?
•  Could you explain a little bit more about that?
•  What do you mean?
•  What is the difference between “a” and “b”?
•  I didn’t understand today’s lesson.
•  I don’t understand the homework.
•  Just a minute/second/sec.
•  When is the homework due?
•  Excuse me, can I talk to you for a minute?
•  I’m sorry I am late.
•  Can I go to the restroom?
•  Can I change seats?

HND_EN2117_ELTM_Note by Lecturer M.A. Inoka Kumari_uploaded by Nisal Wanigasuriya