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Too often, students are unable to effectively participate in learning activities in the language classrooms, not because they do not understand the content but because teachers do not provide clear instructions. Through this module, you will explore the challenges, purposes, and ways of giving clear instruction in your English classrooms. You will learn how to give clear instructions using English and engage students to participate in communicative learning tasks.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

• describe the features of good teacher talk

• use several modeling strategies

• write and practice speaking effective teacher talk for your lessons

• reflect on how to prepare a teacher talk and share a sample teacher talk using an activity

Click here to download Module 2 Packet.

2.1 Watch

Explore ideas for giving clear directions by watching two videos.

2.2 Read

Explore ideas for giving clear directions by reading at least two articles.

Articles

Article 1: Common Mistakes in Teacher Talk by Hyunsun Chung and Woomee Kim

This article shows some of the common mistakes in teacher talks, but how these can be overcome through reflection and practice. Source: Chung, H. & Kim, W. (2021). Common mistakes in teacher talk. English Speaking Nation for Uzbekistan Program.

Article 2: Giving Effective Instructions: Using Think Aloud  by Hyunsun Chung and Woomee Kim

Think Aloud can be used by EFL teachers to model classroom language and critical thinking for students. This article provides teaching tips on using Think Aloud to give effective instructions to students.

Source: Chung, H. & Kim, W. (2021). Modeling and effective Instructions. English Speaking Nation for Uzbekistan Program.

Article 3: The Movable Class: How to Class-Manage for More Active and Healthful Lessons by Kevin McCaughey 

This article emphasizes the importance of movement during learning and suggests activities that allow movement of learners during instruction to create interactive learning environments. 

Source: McCaughey, K. (2018). The movable class: how to class-manage for more active and healthful lessons. English Teaching Forum, 56(1), 2-13. https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/the_movable_class_-_kevin_mccaughey.pdf

Additional Resources 

Content-Area Conversations by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and Carol Rothenberg

Source: Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Rothenberg, C. (2008). Content-area conversations: How to plan discussion-based lessons for diverse language learners. https://www.ascd.org/books/content-area-conversations?variant=108035 

10 Tips for Giving and Checking Instructions in an ESL Classroom by Sue Swift

Source: Swift, S. (n.d.). 10 tips for giving and checking instructions in an ESL classroom. ESL Base. https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/giving-checking-instructions

2.3 Search

Explore more teaching resources about giving clear directions . You can also search these websites for more teaching resources:

• Basic English Speaking: Resources

• ESL Base: TEFL 

(Hint: Try using these keywords: giving instructions in English, checking progress, teacher talk)

2.4 Think

What are the challenges you have experienced when giving instructions effectively in English? What are the factors that are causing these challenges in your context? What strategies are you using to overcome the challenges of giving clear instructions to your students?

2.5 Create

Using your cellphone or another camera, create a short video (less than 90 seconds) of you giving effective instructions in English to your students. You don’t need to have real students in front of you for this video, you can say a set of instructions that fit your teaching context. To create this video, you can consider the following:

• Write a monologue of clear instructions that you say to your students.

• Write a dialogue with a teacher and students, with the teacher giving clear instructions and students responding to the teacher.

• In your video, you can role play on your own or ask another person to record with you. You do not need to have actual students in the video.

• You may use expressions that are presented in this module and/or other expressions that you need to use in your teaching.

• Practice saying your script as needed, before recording your video.

Note: This will be added to your Portfolio. 

2.6 Share

Share the video you have created in your group chat. You may use the following message as a template:

Example: Hello, Colleagues! The (activity/video/routine/ instructions)  I want to share is called _______________________________________________________ (activity  title). This activity is effective because___________________________________________________________________________________________________. (Be sure to attach your activity  file.)

2.7 Apply

After you share the video in the group chat, watch through your colleagues' posts. Find at least one or two videos that have the samples of instructions you may use.

Consider these questions when selecting videos to apply in your classroom instruction:

• Which of the suggested instructions do you think can be adaptable to your teaching context? Why and why not?

• How did the other teacher use it and what made these instructions effective?

2.8 Reflect

Write 1-2 paragraphs to reflect on Module 2 (300-500 words). You may use what you have created, shared, and applied in the previous tasks. You may also use the following as a template and fill in the blanks. 

• Before this module about giving clear instructions, I used to   (think/believe/use) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

• Now I (think/believe/plan to use) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

• This is important because ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

• I (created/found) an example of effective instructions in Module 2 that I could use in my class to increase the use of English in the classroom. It is called (activity/routine title) _______________________________________________________________________ and I could use this during ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(when?/how?/why?). 

•  I like it because (apply Module 2 content) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

•  I might need to modify the (activity/routine) for my classroom because ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Note: This will be added to your Portfolio.