Giving clear instructions is a vital skill for every teacher.
Secondly, the use of instructions in English should be maximized in English lessons.
The articles in this unit consists of classroom phrases that the students will quickly learn and understand.
The phrases are recorded with pauses. So you just press the button and make your students say the phrases after the recording with pauses.
Instructions and classroom phrases
Very basic phrases for beginners
Phrases for intermediate beginners to use in a lesson
Phrases for pair and group work as well as station work and co-operative work
Class phrases with rising intonation and positive feedback phrases
Some ideas on teacher talking time (TTT) versus student talking time (STT)
In CLT we teachers need to observe ‘teacher talking time’ (TTT) in the sense that we do not talk too much and unnecessarily steal talking and practice time from our students (STT). The TTT-STT ratio depends on what we are doing in the class and the proficiency level of the students.
Maximize the use of English in your class and and organize the lessons so that the students talk a lot in pairs and groups!
The younger and weaker the students are the more they need the teacher’s assistance. In my opinion the ideal in a good class in the senior high is aroung 10 % for TTT and in the junior high about 20 %. In elementary level classes the percentage is much bigger.
However, there are lots of situations when the teacher has to talk and with a little bit of training the students can be taught the basic phrases used during lessons. As a result the teacher can avoid using the mother tongue in these situations. Especially teachers who are beginning their career might find these phrases useful.
The phrases in the unit cover some of the basic situations in an English lesson:
Giving short or detailed instructions and feedback
Asking questions or explaining about the goals for the lesson
Asking for clarifications, praising the students
Starting or wrapping up pair, group or any other kind of work in class
Introducing rising and falling intonation patterns
Some very basic instructions and phrases during a lesson
Hello, everybody. / Hi, everyone! Please come in now. Stand up, please! Good morning, everyone! Good morning, boys and girls! Good afternoon everybody! My name is Mike Jones. I’m your new teacher in English.
Good morning, Mr Jones / Good afternoon, Miss Johnson / Good evening, Mrs Jacksonl!
Sit down, please! / Please take out your textbooks, workbooks and pencil cases./ It is so nice to see you again. / How are you today?
Fine, thanks. / Very well, thank you. Is everybody here today? / Is anyone absent? / Where’s Henry this morning? /Sorry, we don’t know. / He’s ill, down with the flu. Oh, I’m sorry to hear that./ It’s time to start. / Are you ready?
Now, say these words after me./ Well done! / Very good, thank you! / Open your books at page 5. / Unit 1. / Look at me, a page like this. / Please, what was the page again? / Is it this page?/
Let’s listen to the text. / Sarah, can you translate the first sentence, please. / Yes sure, it’s an easy sentence. Err, Susan/Sammy, the next sentence, please. / Any questions? / Not really, this is an easy sentence too.
Let’s read the text aloud. / Read after me, please. / Read after the CD. / Can we read in pairs this time?/ I think it would be nice./ That’s a good idea! Let’s try it. / Read with your partner./ Raise your hands if you like the idea./ OK, let’s do it./Then look at my questions and answer them in pairs. / We are ready. / What do we do next?
Giving clear instructions is one of the skills we CLT language teachers should master. To avoid repeating the instructions many times I have started to have the very same instructions on the screen. In my experience one student out of ten always asks for clarifications.
The phrases below are divided into four groups: Pair work, group work, station work and co-operative work.
Please make your students understand the instructions below and then make them repeat the phrases. They serve as examples of pair and various group work phrases. The recordings already have pauses in them so there is usually no need to stop in between. The actual techniques for pair and group work are explained under heading ‘Modern pair and group work methods’.
Today we are going to work in pairs. Find yourself a partner. Who’s my partner? Well, it’s up to you. / You can decide. / It’s all the same. Has everybody got a partner? Ah, OK Mike is without a pair. The three of you can work as a group. Mike, please join this group.
Today you will get a pair at random: I have numbers in this box. Pick up one paper and find your pair. They have the same number as you. Numbers ones sit here, numbers two sit here, threes over there, fours at the back and fives over here.
One of you is A and the other one is B. One of you will read the question and the other one will find the answer in the text. Take turns in answering. Then do the same and change roles, you are A and you B, alright? Understood? Got it?
Today we are going to work in groups. Pick up a number from this box and go to the right table. Number ones here, twos there, threes there and finally fours here. Here is a handout for each group. / Here is a copy with the task for you.
Every group has the same task. / Every group has a different task. Please start working. You have 20 minutes to finish the job. In the end everyone has to say something in front of the class.
OK, your 20 minutes is gone now. Group 1, please come over here to present your findings. Excellent work. Does anyone have any questions for Group 1 or something to add? OK, let’s move on to Group 2.
OK, today we will have work stations. The groups are selected randomly, so pick up a number from this box and go to your table.
As you can see we have five sets of tables together and each of them is a ‘station’ with a different task. You will have 10 minutes to finish the task and there are also extra tasks if you are very quick. Even a super task for the super quick ones on the whiteboard.
The correct answers are in the envelope on the table and after 8 minutes I will ask you to check the task. Don’t worry if you did not finish the task. You can do it at home. Look at the instructions on the table and start working.
Today we are going to work in number and letter groups. First, pick up a numbered paper from this box and go to the right table. Number ones here, twos there, threes there and finally fours here. The topic is ‘What to show a tourist in our home town/village/region’. The same topic in all groups.
Never mind the letter on the paper (A, B, C and D). We’ll use them later on. Everybody, take notes on the things you talk about in your group. Look at the task on the screen and start working. 20 minutes to go.
Time to stop working in numbered groups. Get to your Letter Groups, please. As here, Bs here, Cs here and Ds over here. Take your notes with you and tell the others what your group was talking about. In 15 minutes you will go back to your Number Groups to hear what the others thought about your ideas and what they had to say.
Learning is directly linked to the amount of thinking in our own brains. If we are feeling good doing that, success will follow.
Let’s face the reality. No-one who really wants to learn a foreign language wants to learn it in a behavioristic environment if they have observed any modern lessons. What I am trying to do in these articles is to give language teachers a practical window to communicative language teaching (CLT) by combining the cognitive and constructive approach to teaching. I have a separate article on behaviourism for those who wish to look at those ideas.
Once again using CLT is a question of beliefs. Not just any beliefs, but beliefs which have been verified in practice over many decades.If the teacher believes the principles below are valid and puts them in practice, the lessons are bound to appeal to the students. But we teachers need to justify why we are using a particular method and what the beliefs behind it are.
If the students see that you are devoted to teaching and helping them, they will realize you really have thought the things through and they rely on you guiding them or at least give you a chance to show where the new method is taking you.
Cognitive approach of learning
In applying the cognitive approach of learning we believe that every student has to develop any new idea in their own minds and connect it with the knowledge they already have. Nobody really knows how learning takes place but we agree on the idea that the brains have to be activated properly. Listening to the teacher talking to the whole class does not necessarily lead to learning and memorization. Learning is a complicated intellectual process where each individual has to be active.
Well, how do we activate the brains then?
Traditionally the activation has been done by the teacher’s presentation followed by questions. This is still valid with young pupils and in some other subjects than languages.
The older the students get and the more they master the language, the more should we rely on giving them problems to solve or questions to be answered in groups. The answers they give do not matter that much. The process in discussing the question in the target language and finding possible answers to it is what matters.
The process is more important than the outcome. Learning takes place during the process, as a by-product of all the activities.
“But, … my students are not able to do any of that”, you might say. You may be right but all the things suggested below are possible AFTER you have dealt with the textbook chapter with its vocabulary and ideas first.
My basic philosophy in CLT is based on three premises:
Insist on your students working on textbook chapters very hard, go through the chapters systematically using mainly student-centered approaches. Get them talking! See my articles on how to do it.
Aim at having free discussion sessions at the end of lessons or unit and apply modern pair and group work techniques teaching all language skills.
Teach the students how they can learn better, justify your views and suggestions and rely on the fact that language and life skills will be a by-product of this approach.
In some classes following Point 1 will work miracles and Point 2 may succeed with a little bit of differentiation. To sound convincing in Point 3 you have to have your own ideas clear in your mind. Very many of my articles touch upon Point 3, too. Be patient at first and be pleased with modest progress and presentations. You will see the difference in a few months. Rome was not built in a day. Neither can you change your teaching over night.
“Ok, but where do I find the time to do all that?”, you ask me. By doing three things:
Make the students study the chapter at home in advance so that they understand the content. This will speed up the activities in the lesson.
Most activities should be oral with very little writing. Instead of silencing the students let them talk and ignore the mistakes they make at this point.
Be brave and skip the chapters in the textbook you or the students do not find stimulating. It is a blessing, in most countries, that we teachers are allowed to choose the materials for teaching.
IN a few weeks or months it may be interesting for you to test how capable your students are in doing a more challenging CLT task in groups.
After the ‘compulsory’ orientation engage the students in doing one of tasks below. Or use a task of your own. In a couple of minutes they are working in groups learning more than you could ever do using some other method. Smiling, forgetting they are at school at all. Believe me, I have experienced it thousands of times.
The influence of positive emotions and attitudes to learning is overwhelming.
The students will learn …
through a process of observation; they are given sample sentences and they have to figure out the grammatical rule on the basis of them instead of the rule be given to them
by linking old memories and experiences to new ones; we link the formulation of comparative forms of adverbs to that of advjectives and make conclusions OR collect all information we have on Australia so far and then make questions that we want to find an answer to
by using creative critical thinking; how can we develop public transport in our town and which obstacles we might encounter (having first studied texts about the topic)
by working on concepts and categorization; developing mind-maps is ideal; central word, for example, energy and the mind-map is developed in groups and presented to others later on
by filling in information gaps; a story is divided in two and your pair asks you questions to find out what is missing in his/her part of the story
through problem solving; how can we save energy in ordinary households or how can we improve recycling in our town
One of the big changes in my teaching in the ‘revelation days’ in the 1990s was to observe the time I spend talking to the whole class, which little by little led to a situation where I restricted my speaking only to maybe 10 minutes in a 75-minute lesson. How? By re-organizing the lesson the way I explain in the articles under ‘The structure of a textbook-based lesson’.
My own experiences of learning languages
By now you must have realized that the Cognitive Approach is much more student-oriented than the Behavioristic one. It also gives the teacher a lot of freedom to try out creatively what works in his/her classes and adapt the style of teaching accordingly.
Teachers who use this philosophy also understand that language lessons are not the only places where languages can be learnt. So, we need to encourage our students to make use of all media in the target language, speak English fearlessly to strangers, read magazines and books in English or do anything else that improves their language skills.
My first memory and source of motivation of learning English properly was when an American choir visited my home town Oulu in the 1960s. I had been studying English for a couple of years but understood only a few words in the songs. However, the songs sounded so beautiful that I started to find English songs myself and finally ended up recording pop songs from Radio Luxemburg, writing down the lyrics and singing along with the tape.
By the time I went to senior high school at the age of 16 I knew hundreds of English songs and I had even learnt most of the English grammar subconsciously thanks to the songs. Somehow I knew how to write unknown words even if I had never seen them. This ‘voluntary project’ also increased my English vocabulary drastically.
After one grammar exam I was terribly disapponted with myself because I had changed the active sentences differently from the others and I thought I had made a mistake. I was surprised when the teacher pointed out that my way of doing it was also right even if it had never been taught to us. Some other teacher in those days might have marked my version wrong because it had not been taught.
It was something like this: My aunt sent us Christmas presents. >> We were sent Christmas presents by our aunt. (taught at school) / Christmas presents were sent (to) us by our aunt. (my version). What I am trying to say is taht some of your students know much more English than you know thanks to their hobbies or interests.
Unfortunately I had no chance to enjoy the benefits of the Cognitive Approach in English lessons over the twelve years I studied it. We never spoke freely in class and I wrote only one ‘essay’ which had to be a joke. It took more than two weeks to get them back marked because other teachers kept on reading them.Frankly speaking, now that I look back my own English lessons were a joke in itself.
It took surprisingly long for language teachers and researchers to admit that listening skills are of vital importance. It happened as late as the mid-1970s.
A historical perspective
Up to the 1970s listening practice was rare in schools. There were no recordings available and tape and cassette players were new inventions in those days. Towards the end of 1970s a major improvement took place in Finland as a backwash effect of the change in the construction of the senior high school final exam: translation skills were not tested any more but they were replaced by the testing of reading, writing and listening skills.
A tape recorder from the early 1970’s
The old truth ‘What is tested is also taught’ is maybe the most powerful tool for change in schools. The 1970’s were also the time when teachers started to wonder how various foreign language skills ought to be taught. In those days there was little practical knowledge of these things and this gave rise to the development of communicative language teaching principles in the late 1970’s.
C-cassettes on the left, Lingua Phone records and VHS cassettes on the right
Subscribe to get access to the whole site.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
If the student senses that you care, they will start to care as well. If the teacher does not care about the welfare of the students, why should they care about the teacher and the subject.
To learn the skill of giving constructive feedback took me a long time. But I did get better in doing that – by trial and error method. Quite a lot of principles to remember!
Feedback comments to encourage your students
The expressions below can be softened by adding ‘I think …’ ‘I have got a feeling that …’ ‘I am very pleased that …’ ‘It seems to me that …’to them.
‘I think …’ You participate enthusiastically in discussion. ‘I’ve got a feeling that …’ You are superior in dividing work in your group. ‘I am very pleased that …’ You listen to and follow directions well. ‘It seems to me that …’ You express ideas clearly and logically.
You will find 55 sample comments below that you can use in giving positive feedback to your students, those in senior high school or over 16 years of age. You will, however, notice that in practice you will use less than 10 phrases in the development discussion because you need to lure the students to say many of the ideas themselves.
SOCIAL SKILLS – feedback comments
‘I think …’ ‘I have got a feeling that …’ ‘I am very pleased that …’ ‘It seems to me that …’USE THESE PHRASES TO SOFTEN THE MESSAGE
1 The other students seem to admire you for your calmness.
2 You have demonstrated great organizational skills.
3 You enjoy dramatization and encourage the others well.
4 I love to watch you working in groups and get the others back on track.
5 You have a great sense of humour and you lighten up the atmosphere.
6 The others say you are the one who encourages others most.
7 Your classmates like to be around you.
8 You are often the thoughtful leader in the group discussions.
9 You have developed more positive ways to interact with others.
10 The way you cooperate with others in group work is exemplary.
11 I admire your willingness to take responsibilities and follow them through.
12 What you are particularly good at is dividing work in your group.
13 You follow my directions well and advise the others if they do not get what I mean.
14 The way you treat the shy ones is superior to anyone else in class.
15 It is you the classmates turn to if they have a problem in English.
Modify the phrases for your own purposes and to encourage those who are not very good in English.
STUDY SKILLS – feedback comments
1 You have started to do your homework well and it shows in class too.
2 The others have noticed how you concentrate on learning much better this year.
3 Despite your hobbies you seem to manage your time well.
4 The strategy you follow in essay writing works beautifully now.
5 I’m so pleased that you seem to rely on yourself now.
6 You solved the problem with multiple choice questions and your open-ended answers are superb.
7 You probably realize yourself how much your vocabulary has expanded in just a few months. The tips seem to work well.
8 You are gaining academic skills, such as using effective learning strategies.
9 The way you pronounce English is music to my ears, just like native speakers. Recording your own speech on the phone was a great idea.
10 You are consistent in using English all through the lessons.
11 I’ve noticed how you help the others to find information quickly in the internet.
12 You have become so good at expressing your opinins that I suggest you will take part in our next school debate.
13 Reading newspapers and magazines in the internet has improved your reading skills tremendously.
14 I’m glad you don’t worry about grammatical mistakes any more and still you make fewer and fewer of them these days.
15 You seem to have found your own style of learning English better. And you even give hints to others.
Study skills, learning to learn well, requires a lot of time and patience.
ATTITUDE and MOTIVATION– comments
1 You have realized that you are an auditive learner and youtube seems to serve you well.
2 The others have noticed how you take more and more pride in the way you make progress.
3 You have understood how important the learning tips I’ve given to the class are. The sky is the limit now.
4 Lately you have show enthusiasm for learning English.
5 You asked me how to improve your pronunciation, I gave you some advice and gosh how beautiful you sound now.
6 I’m glad you pulled up your sock when I returned your essay last month. The one this week nearly blew me away. Marvellous!
7 You really seem to enjoy speaking English and you are very active in class these days.
8 It’s great you like to challenge yourself in class and not do the easy assignment.
9 You have the guts to keep on asking relevant questions. I’m happy to answer them and the others benefit from them too.
10 You give constructive feedback to the others and me too.
‘The teacher is fair and on my side’ – a message that makes a big difference in the students’ minds.
ENGLISH PROFICIENCY – feedback comments
1 You have shown noticeable improvement in speaking and pronunciation.
2 You comprehend reading tasks quickly and can explain the content in your own words.
3 You seem to make steady progress in learning active vocabulary and it is shown in both writing and speaking.
4 You have learnt to use more complicated grammatical structures with few mistakes.
5 Your essays have a clear logical structure and the points are soaring.
6 The presentations you give in front of the class are enjoyable to listen to.
7 When you have set your goals you do not give up no matter what.
8 You are able to analyse the listening tasks in detail and even challenge the formulation of some questions.
9 Your knowledge of the English-speaking world is amazing.
10 You seem to be able to think in English without any hesitation just like native speakers.
11 Thanks to reading English novels your passive vocabulary is admirable.
12 Your ability to argue for your case both is speech and writing is most convincing.
13 You have really made use of all the strategies we have been studying to learn English more efficiently.
14 The lesson on auditive, kinesthetic and visual learners seems to have openend your eyes to what sort of learner you are.
15 Your fluency in speaking leaves nothing to be desired. And your pronunciation is music to anyone’s ears.
Language skill is the most delicate skill to give feedback on. Low-achievers in particular need encouragement even for minor improvement.
What we teachers say to our students, has a much more profound meaning to our students than we can ever imagine.
When we give feedback to the students it is easy to give positive feedback since we know it will boost the self-esteem of the students.
Giving positive feedback is easy but the real challenge emerges if we need to give negative feedback on or challenge some part of a student’s performance.
How can we give constructive feedback and avoid hurting the students’ feelings?
This is a true skill and requires a lot of practice before it becomes natural. You will most likely find yourself in your own traps many times.
Read the dialogue below and try to work out the teacher’s tactics in giving feedback on an essay. Don’t cheat! The analysis is under the photo below but think for yourself first.
T:“Jim, your essay is improving month after month and I am so happy for you. Last year you got 55 points out of 100 and now you are at 70. Can you show me the essay and my corrections. Am I right in assuming that your next goal is 80 points, ? Any challenges?” (1)
S: “Thanks. Yes, 80 points has crossed my mind. I’ve been reading a lot of internet magazines recently and I think I need to keep on doing that. I’ve noticed how some writers have great logic in their texts and I have not got that yet. And I seem to mess up with the passive voice and misspel too many words.” (2)
T:”Yes, you are right. Stick to the essay model structure that we practised last month. What is the problem with the passive voice?” (3)
S: “I do not know how to use the tenses there. I’ve forgotten how it works. I’ve still got the handout about it. I’ll ask my girlfriend to explain it.” . (4)
T: “Ok, if it does not work get back to me about it. And the misspellings, they are a problem even for natives. What can you do about them?” (5)
S: “I’ve started to write difficult words in the reminder file in my phone. Mike advised me and I’ve already got 25 words there that I always get wrong.” (6)
T: “That sounds good. I’m truly pleased with your attitude this year. You do your homework and you seem to know how to study in your own style. Besides your classmates think you are kind and appreciate the help they give to you. Ok, I have to go now. Keep up the good work and you’ll reach 80 points in a month or two.” (7)
(1) The Teacher (T) says a very positive thing first to get the discussion going verifying it with 15 % increase in points. The T implies that the points may even get better and lures the S(tudent) to reveal his/her goals. The T is satisfied with the S’s personal goals. The T certainly remembers what the S’s problems are but does not want to repeat them since the S sees them in the essay. The T does not use words like ‘but’ or ‘however’ since it would bring the positive message to zero in the mind of the S. ‘Your essay went from 55 points to 70 but …’
(2) The T lures the student him-/herself to say the problems aloud and the S reveals what he/she has been doing to improve the quality of the essay and has an idea where the problems lie. Self-awareness is clearly there, which the T praises later on.
(3) The T agrees with the S on what needs to be done to the logic of the essays. The T also reminds of the things already done.
(4) The S admits that the fault is his/hers and has thought about the solution. So the S knows he/she is responsible for solving the issue.
(5) The T comforts the S and instead of providing the S with a solution wants the S to find it him-/herself.
(6) The S is already trying out a solution and it turns out that he/she is willing to take advice from other students as well.
(7) The T ends the discussion with very positive but frank comments on other than language skills the S’s attitude to studying English and other people, his/her social skills and maturity to be responsible for his/her own studies. I-messages like ‘I’m so happy for you’ or ‘I’m truly pleased with your attitude.’ send a message ‘I am on your side and try to help you.‘
The words of the teacher are easily forgotten but the feelings aroused by the feedback are not. So, let’s be careful!Our nasty remarks may be remembered for decades.
A summary of the main points in giving feedback
I am repeating these ideas here to make it easier for you to check if the teacher is following the strategy. Have this list and the phrases at the end of this article in front of you when you are giving this kind of feedback for the first time.
Give the positive feedback first.
Don’t voice the negative points at all.You trick the students to say them themselves. So, lure, lead and let the student tell what the problems are and how to solve them. Turn the challenging issue to a question and ask the recipient’s opinion about it: “What do you think about the logic in your essay? Was there anything you were not pleased with in your presentation?” How do you feel about the essay /presentation now that you look at it? Did the presentation / essay writing go as you planned it? What do you now think about the group discussion / process of essay writing ? Which parts do you think you succeeded best in? What are the next steps you intend to take?
If the students cannot suggest a solution, send I-messages which will reveal your caring attitude; Asking for clarification: “Am I right in saying that writing logical arguments and using the passive voice are challenging for you?” or Expressing concern: “What I worry is that it seems hard for you to come up with strong main arguments.“
Avoid words like ‘but, however, nevertheless, nonetheless‘. They bring the positive feedback to zero.(This is the BIG TRAP!)
Positive feedback is easier to find in other skillsthan language(working well in groups, helping others, asking for help, increase in motivation, better attitude to studying etc.) (Study skills, Social skills, Attitude / Motivation)
Teachers often pay too much attention to assessing language skills only. Focusing more on the efforts, study skills, social skills and attitudes of the students, low-achievers in particular, would boost the students’ self-esteem and motivation.
Repeat the most positive feedback at the end. And encourage genuinely.
The question we teachers need to ask ourselves is:
“Our intentions in giving feedback may be good but what are the feelings aroused by the feedback session like? Disappointment, anger, humiliation, indifference, joy, relief or encouragement.”
Having read the dialogue above, my analysis on it and the summary on how to run a constructive feedback session with a student, you should be able to answer the following questions.
Why should we focus on giving positive feedback?
What is the best tactics bringing up challenges or negative comments?
What can you do if the students have no solution to the problem at hand?
Why should you avoid using words like ‘but’ or ‘however’?
What are the skills areas on which you can give feedback?
Why should you not focus only on language skills? Who benefit most?
How do you end a feedback session?
OK. One more try. See if you spot the teacher’s tactics better this time.
T:“Mike, here is your listening comprehension test. You got full points for the multiple choice test. Congratulations.”
S: “Oh, thanks.”
T: ”Something the matter? You don’t seem happy.”
S: ”Well, the open-ended questions.”
T: “What about them?”
S: “I only got 6 points out of 15. It’s always the same. I don’t know what to do?”
T: “There may be many reasons for that. I’ve come across this problem many times but I think you may have some idea what is going wrong.”
S: “Sorry but I don’t have a clue what to do about it.”
T: “Ok, am I right in saying that on the basis of your essay your vocabulary is not wide enough. And any movements or noise around you seem to disturb you, right?”
S: ” Could be. In this test I did not know what ‘ sufficient’ and ‘pedestrian’ mean and I was lost. I haven’t had time to practise any of the vocab learning tips we rehearsed last month.”
T: “Yes, you are on the right track. Your passive vocab has to be much larger than the active one. What about the concentration issue?”
S: “Now that you said it, you may be right. I follow what the others are doing in class and forget to focus on what I hear. Can I move to sit in the front in the next test, by the window and see if it is any better?”
T: “Yes, sure. But your multiple choice questions show that you listening skills have improved a lot since we started last year. I’m sure you will soon overcome this problem since you are motivated and you study hard in groups and hand in the assignments on time. I will go through the questions one by one tomorrow in class and let me know after the lesson where and why you missed the correct answers.
Most official criteria first apply a holistic view: overall impression, fluency and how pleasant the text is to read AND secondly detailed components: content/message, language and accuracy of language
Marking and evaluating any pieces of writing is always a challenging and time-consuming task for the teachers. Marking is supposed to be fair and reliable but one has to admit that there is always a little room for subjectivity.
What a marvellous group of future teachers of English! They are all university students, teacher trainees as we call them, who have been practising teaching English for a full year at Turku Teacher Training School. Now they are about to finish their training, ready to start their career as fully qualified teachers of English with a Master’s Degree in their pockets. Permission for the use of the photo pending.
In teacher training in Finland we first aim at a situation where every teacher trainee’s evaluation of an essay, for example, is within 5 points of the experts’ opinion (the scale being 0 – 100). Having marked hundreds of essays the teachers’ marking is usually within a couple of points.
For this reason in order to guarantee the maximum amount of objectivity we have to have criteria that is easy to use once we have been trained how to use it. The criteria has to be explained and analysed to the students too. It is the only way to show them what is expected from them when they write essays or work on any other written assignments.
In order to save paper give your criteria to the students once a year and ask them to glue it in their essay notebooks. During the year the students will mark their progress on the criteria sheet, each essay with its own symbol. The students are allowed to glance at the criteria even during exams.
Criteria never tell you directly what to do to get to the next level. Criteria only tell what is required at that level.CLT researchers have provided us with lots of strategies how the students can improve their language skills.
Learning strategies will help the students on the question ‘HOW to get to the next level in writing or any other language skill area. I have lots of comments on these strategies separately and under most of the topics, too.
Many students quickly become very good at evaluating their own and other students’ products. They realize that the detailed criteria open the door to the improvement of their essays.
Then they start to ask questions of the following kind:
How can I get more points for my argumentative essays?
Is there a commonly accepted structure for good essays?
How can I impress the reader with my vocabulary?
Which grammatical structures appeal to the reader?
What is meant by complex and simple sentences?
How much do mistakes affect the points given?
Are all mistakes equally serious?
What if I have a lot of spelling mistakes?
Do we have to follow the conventions of text types? Newspaper articles, reviews, interviews, blogs etc.?
Some of these questions are answered in my other articles, others in this very same article. If the student gets criteria-based feedback on his/her writing task, they will know which areas they are good at and which areas require much more work.
For instance, if the teacher gives the following points for the essay: overall impression 7,5, content/message 8/10, vocabulary and structures 6/10 and accurary/mistakes 7,5/10, the student will start wondering ‘How can I get 9/10 for content?’, ‘What’s wrong with my structures and vocabulary?; I think it is better than that?, ‘What are my most serious mistakes?
The remedy for the defects of a text can be found by applying the criteria to the text and using writing strategies.
Let’s now check how to proceed with using the ‘unofficial sample’ criteria below. It can be used in age groups 12 – 18 provided it is modified to the proficiency level of the students. Each column is enlarged below with some additional comments.
How to use this sample criteria if you are marking an essay
Do not be alarmed! Whatever criteria you are using the same principles in arriving at an ‘objective’ grade apply. HOWEVER. the main point is not to give a grade but give a more detailed account to the students where they stand in each column.
Choice 1 My recommended way of proceeding:
Start with the green ‘First Impressions’ column = Ease to read /Flow of ideas/ Fluency and decide which grade applies to the text you are reading.
Then move to the right to each yellow ‘Detailed criteria’ columns separately and decide on your grade.
The underlying idea is that ‘Content/message’, ‘Language’ and ‘Accurary’ columns are of equal value; i.e. have equal effect on the final grade
Finally come back to the ‘green’ column and see if the ‘yellow’ column grades match the green column one.
The average grade of ‘Content/message’, ‘Language’ and ‘Accurary’ columns should be close to your ‘First Impression’ grade in the green column. And this average grade is the final grade in most cases!
NOW, having done this procedure you can ‘objectively’ give the final mark and justify the grades against your marking sheet, both for the students and their parents.
For example, Overall impression 8+ out of 10, Content 7, Language 9-, Accuracy 8,5.
Choice 2Some teachers prefer to move horizontally from the green column to the right. Their assumption is that the student’s level remains approximately the same in all columns, maybe going up or down one step but no more. If you know the student’s proficiency level, this is a faster way to give the grade since you do not have to read all criteria texts.
Let’s look at an example on proceeding horizontally: If you give, say, 6 points for ‘Flow of ideas’, move to the right on the same line to the other columns and see if the other standards match at level 6 or not. If they do not Move up or down in each column until you are pleased.
If you think the grade is between even grades 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 use grades 9, 7, 5 and 3.
Even half points, pluses or minuses are ok, if you feel like it.
Now the student can decide which skill area he/she wants to develop next and how to do it. This document is also easy for parents to understand if you meet them at some discussions.
Additional comments on the columns
1How easy and pleasant is it to read the text?2Is it close to natural text written by a native at that age?3Are the ideas clearly presented?
At its best the text sounds natural and could be written by a native speaker.
The text is easy and pleasant to read and it is logical.
The yellow boxes clarify the meaning of some of the terms used.
Simple ideas are known to everybody, often opinions not supported by evidence. Complex ideas are convincing and backed up with proof, reasons or examples, seen from many perspectives.
Essays are just one type of written tasks and these days many other text types have to be practised and their conventions followed.
This language column has two components:
Vocabulary which at its best has to impress the reader and be stylistically appropriate.
The variety of the grammatical and sentence structures reveals a lot of the level of writing skills.
Still, one also has to take the audience and the text type into account when writing a text.
Yes, indeed. All mistakes are not equally serious. Basic errors learnt early in the study of the target language are more serious.
1 How serious are the vocabulary or grammatical mistakes?
2 Do these mistakes or spelling mistakes cause misunderstandings?
When there are problems with reading comprehension the key to solve the promlems is to identify the causes for the difficulties: lack of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge or skill in translation, or dyslexia, for example.The next step is to find the remedies.
The foundation for reading comprehension is laid in the elementary school or in the basic lessons. I have discussed these ideas under the last horizontal main heading ‘The structure of a text-book based lesson’ THE STRUCTURE OF A TEXTBOOK-BASED LESSON and expand the ideas at the end of this article.
the most important piece of homework: students study or translate the next chapter in the textbook in advance at home
if the students come to the lesson and understand, say, 80 % of the text, a lot of time is saved and a proper foundation for the lesson is laid
however we must remember that understanding a text is a much more profound process than word by word translation
we can teach reading only indirectly by giving tips on the process of reading but we have no idea what is really going on in the heads of the students when they are reading a text
becoming a good reader is a long process in the mother tongue and even longer in a foreign language; time, patience and guidance are needed
we can help students if we can identify what causes the problems in understanding:lack of vocabulary, unknown grammar, translation skills or reading strategies are inadequate
Those suffering from dyslexia are not lazy or stupid. They can’t help it but they can be helped by experts. On average every class has 2 – 3 students who need help either in reading or writing or both.
if the reason for reading difficulties is some form of dyslexia, a specialist’s help is neeeded, up to 10 % of students suffer from it and the issue was acknowledged by school authorities only 20 years ago and many teachers pay little attention to it
the symptoms of dyslexia can be manyfold: slow or erratic reading, weak short-term memory, mixing or ignoring letters, problems in concentration, often the same problems in writing
identifying dyslexia is vital since often these students carry a stigma of being lazy or stupid even if they are trying their best and it unnecessarily breaks their self-confidence
What I mean by reading here is reading comprehension as opposed to reading aloud in class, which was discussed under heading ‘Pronunciation’. Reading is sometimes taken for granted with a false assumption that everyone understands a sentence or a text in the same way if they master the basics of reading. This is wrong since the process of understanding a text is an individual process and there are many things that can prevent proper understanding.
A short individual discussion with a student about a text the students do not understand will reveal to an experienced teacher where the problem probably lies. Most likely it is one of the reasons below.
Common reasons for reading difficulties
First of all the student’s vocabulary has to be wide enough to understand a text. If the student stumbles too often with unknown words, understanding the text turns out to be impossible. In the vocabulary section we already pointed out that there are many things the students must master in order to ‘know’ a word. In reading ‘the recognition of the written form’ is vital and so is knowing the ‘meaning’ of the word. Sometimes the context reveals the meaning but this ‘guessing game’, which is perfectly acceptable, is a skill of its own and has to be taught to students as well.
Secondly, I also noted that in some simple situations it may be enough to know the words to understand the sentences or ideas. However, in most cases the students have to have some idea about the grammar of the new language; i.e. he/she has to know how to combine words, how they are arranged in a sentence. Knowledge of grammar helps us to guess the meanings of words. If the student is not able to translate a particular sentence or explain the meaning in his/her own words, the source of not understanding the sentence can usually be easily found by the teacher. But the trick is to let the student get stuck and pinpoint the difficult pointhim-/herself – and then you can find the remedy together.
Thirdly, when I discussed the model for a text-based lesson, I strongly recommended that the students always study/translate the text for the next lesson in advance at home. I also discussed the reasons for it: saving time in the lessons and preventing frustration in class due to not understanding the text. The benefits of this kind of flipped learning are undeniable:The students come to school and understand most of the content of the new text. True learning can start!
Fourthly, we teachers have to teach our students what to do at home when they study / translate the text at home. I discussed the ideas already in the model lesson. Everything becomes so much easier if the students have prepared themselves for the lesson. I think this preparation is by far the most important piece of homework, much more important than exercises (which are often mechanical).
Fifth, every time I get a new class in junior high (aged 12) I check that they know how to translate a text since far too many students have no clue how it is done; how to use bilingual wordlists or a dictionary, for example. These student float somewhere in mid-air understanding only fragments of what they need to grasp.
Sixth,as for translation at home I give my students three options:a) the text is fully translated in the mother tongue in their notebook,b)new words are translated with pencil in between the lines in the textbook, c) the translation is done immediately if I snap my finger in class, no need to write down anything.
Seventh, there are many other things as for reading that we can teach our students. Linguists call them reading strategies but in simple terms they are just tips how to become a better reader. I will discuss these reading tips / strategies in another article.
Slide the photos using the arrows. Which groups do you think your students want to be in? Those who enjoy your lessons or those who come there with little hope to learn anything.
The benefits of studying or translating chapters in advance at home
I perfectly understand if some of you wonder why I talk so much in favour of translating the texts into the mother tongue. ‘Translation’ is not a curse word for me and should not be for anyone else. I give up all translation the minute I know there is no need for it in my class. Let me clarify my points in the matter.
First of all, I want the students to learn to do translations at home and minimize the time spent on translating the text in class. Besides this is a way for the parents to get involved in their kid learning a new language. At school time is more wisely used in practising using the language than translating the text.
Secondly, I see no point in going through a text if it is not understood. It will only lead to restlessness in the class. If I am learning, say, Polish and understand next to nothing of the text, I cannot participate at all and I will find something else to do in class. Talk to my friends, fiddle with my phone or anything just to make the time go by. Too many students face this situation but feel ashamed to admit it or pretend not to care. itself
Thirdly, I cannot stand the idea of students sitting in lessons for many years learning just a few words when the learning process could be drastically improved by helping them to do the translation for every lesson. It might take a few lessons or a couple of weeks but in the end the students would thank you for doing it.
If some of your students have this problem, have a special lesson for them. If very many students suffer from this problem, ask your star students to teach the others how to do the translation in groups. I’ve bribed them with candy and doughnuts.
If lack of translation skill was the problem and my advice helped any of you, I’d like to hear about it. Stop teaching your language for a while and lay the foundation again. You will get the time back manyfold in better results and raise in students’ motivation.
N.B. The translation method itself, translating texts from English into the mother tongue and vice versa, is an appalling method and that is why I never learnt English properly at school in the 1970s.
Learning to translate a text is the foundation for understanding a foreign language and it is a massive boost to motivation and self-confidence.However, the final aim is to think in English and skip mental translations altogether.
Listening comprehension in ordinary life does not consist of true-false statements or multiple choice alternatives. So the whole process of testing is a bit artificial. But these two exam types come in handy because the answers are so easy to check and mark. Checking can even be done by a special machine.
Open-ended questions are closer to real-life situations. If the teachers are provided with a set of sample answers, marking becomes much faster and reliable.
Tips for listening comprehension in exams
Listening comprehension exams can be very stressful. However, we can make the situation much more comfortable if we teach our students some strategies or give tips how to deal with the situation.
Subscribe to get access to all articles on the site.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
The best CLT type of listening exercises in my opinion are the ones which resemble those in real life. Tasks where the students show their understanding by responding appropriately to what the others say.
To me listening is a natural extension of speaking. At its best these two skills are intertwined in lessons just like they are in normal life. Thus all speaking situations turn to listening practices at the same time.
Ideally listening skills develop when free speaking and listening are integratedin lessons or in free time, not in tests and exams.
Listening skills are rehearsed when …
we study a chapter in our textbook or we do a listening exercise in our workbook
we have a listening comprehension test of some kind (2. is the topic of the next article)
we advise students how they can practise listening skills in their free time doing something they enjoy and do not get tired of
listening is integrated with anything else we do orally in class(oral task on vocabulary, oral planning of a writing task in groups, practise grammar creatively in groups, task- or inquiry-based learning with a lot of planning and talking in groups)
Some examples of typical CLT-type listening tasks
What we are looking for in these CLT tasks is that the situation could happen in real life too. We just have to have some pre-task first to make sure enough material has been covered before the final task.
Drawing or following a route on a map according to directions
Doing a set of things following oral instructions
Drawing a picture as it is described by someone
Drawing weather forecast symbols on a map of a country as predicted
Filling in a form, a table or a chart as instructed
Responding in an appropriate manner to phrases in real-life situations ‘How are you today?’ ‘I’m very fine. And you, sir?‘ What kind of table do you want to have?’ ‘A table for three. My brother comes a bit later.’ ‘Is this all your luggage?’ ‘Yes, one suitcase and this bag.’
Taking notes on a phone; a shopping list, home chore instructions etc.
Interviewing a person and taking notes for the article
An example how to use photos in practising listening and grammar
Elementary school:
Linking a word or a sentence you hear with a photo. First together and then the same in groups. In weak groups you may need to differentiate and give the phrases to some students who read the sentences to the others. Good students produce sentences of their own.
1 In which photos can you see …? water, castle, river, food, sea, harbour, park, pond, people walking/sitting/running ... Here we are practising words and grammar at the same time.You can even fool around a bit: French fries, helicopter which are not visible in any of the photos.
2 Which photo? There are a lot of people enjoying a day out. There are many motor boats. There is a bridge that can open in the middle. There are people rowing boats. … Practising grammar There is/are structure at the same time!
3 Which photo? Student’s response: “I think this photo is the most interesting one because people are doing many things in it and the weather is great. /There is nothing green in this photo but a lot of blue and brown. …”
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
You may have many sets of photos which are circulated from one group to another. If you laminate the photos, you can use them until you retire. And recycle them to your successor.
Junior high class, the same photos as above
Which photo am I taking about? A student is the speaker in exercise 1, 2 and 3. The instructions for the student are in the boxes below.
1 I will describe one of the photos with three sentences and you guess which one I am talking about. ( Start with ‘There is ... or There are …’)
2 I will describe one of the photos and describe what people are doing NOW in the background in this place (photo) even if you cannot see them. Which photo am I talking about? (linked with practising present continuous tense, much more demanding than having obvious photos since the speaker has to use a lot of imagination)
3 I will describe one of the photos and describe what people did in this place (photo) last week even if you were not there. Which photo am I talking about? (the past tense)
N.B. In 2 and 3 we have no way of knowing how much the students understood but at least they try their best and can always ask for repetition. Anyway, these tasks are more like games than testing and there in no stress in the whole situation.
4 The teacher or a good student is the speaker. One photo per pair and all photos are different.
4 All of you have a different photo. I will explain about one of the photos and you will have to raise your hand if you think I am talking about your photo. (Not too exciting since you have a pair to help you, a task that can be used at any level).
Senior high classes
Example 1, retelling a story, the photos above
Step 1: One student makes up a story based on the 4 – 6 photos above and the others take notes. One idea in the story must be true but it is not reveled to the others.
Step 2: The others take turns and retell the story using their notes.
Step 3: The other students try to find out which part of the story was true.
Example 2, co-operative learning
The class is planning a class trip to London and they need to decide where to go in London each day. (All groups have the same topic. Having a different topic would make the task even more demanding)
Step 1: Students are given a topic for the home group. They talk about it and take notes.
Step 2: The students explain he main points of their group in their next group and once again the others take notes. If there are,say, five groups everyone has to listen to five short presentations and take notes.
Step 3: The students return to their home group and discuss all the matters they have learnt. There may be a wrap-up session at the end of the lesson.
Example 3 An opinion line, understanding at sentence level
I totally agree.
I partially agree.
I partially disagree
I totally disagree.
Motorways are a good solution to traffic jams.
Roundabouts are ridiculous near the centre of towns.
22-metre trucks should be forbidden on small country roads.
Electric cars are the solution for future cars.
You make an ‘opinion line’with signs in the class, such as above. The students hear an argument and move to the sign they think is ok with them. The teacher asks some of them to justify their opinion.
As you can see CLT-type listening tasks are rather easy to come by if you connect them with speaking activities.
LISTENING AT HOME AND IN FREE TIME
Which of the listening strategies below do you know your students make use of in their free time?
Have you done something to activate them?
Listen to English songs and try to catch the message in them or write the lyrics down on paper. Karaoke versions have the lyrics too. If you want to find the lyrics of a song, write the name of the song and the word ‘lyrics’ in the google box. I used to listen to hundreds of songs and sing along.
When looking for information in the internet, also listen to Youtube videos and documentaries on any topic that interests you. This is an excellent way to learn about your hobbies. Internal motivation guarantees learning better than aything else.
Watch English-speaking films or TV series with or without captions. This option is avaialble in many rented films.
Listen to English programmes on the radio or daily news, for example. In the early 70s I used to listen to Radio Luxenberg for songs and BBC news on the radio or TV.If you already know the content in your mother tongue, understanding the same things in English is rewarding.
Borrow e-books from the library and if you know the content, all the better because undertanding becomes easier. I wish I could have done this.More and more people enjoy listening to e-books.
While playing video games, listen to the speech there too. My sons used this source a lot.It is great fun but at the same time educational.
Read any texts that interests you to expand your vocabulary needed in listening. There is no understanding without words!
I would very much like the students to give one-minute presentations on what they have learnt when listening to media sources in their free time.
Finally, let the students find their own style to improve their listening skills.
