I am a teacher in a teacher training college in Belgium. My students (trainee teachers) went on their first teaching practice period / internship and most of them faced problems using classroom English fluently.
They hesitate when formulating instructions, questions in English. Yet, in most schools these must all be delivered in English. My students (trainee teachers) asked me how they can improve this very specific skill.
We practise classroom English exercises one hour a week but that doesn't seem to be enough by far. Does anybody know of activities my students (trainee teachers) can do to improve their essential spoken classroom English skills?
This question is from Cathy De Raes, Belgium
Comments
joe
Martina, Czech Republic
Hello, I am now at the position of mentor in our language school for adults and the "classroom management" is the topic of one of our workshops. I agree that the formulations should be short, easy to understand and precise. However they should be given BEFORE the students start to work, otherwise they can be absolutely perfect but nobody pays attention to them. But the spoken instructions are not everything. The body language counts as well, the gestures, miming etc. Your trainee teachers should be familiar with this. A 'video' lesson could be a nice idea to include into your syllabus - just borrow a camera and record their "presentation" (the "students" can be their fellow-trainees). And as a feedback show them some nice / ideal teacher in some film and than let them say what they liked about his/her behaviour, instructions etc.
Emma Lay, Japan
I believe with the opinion that instructions should be kept as succinct as possible and sometimes, the best way to tell students how to do something is to actually do it yourself. For example with roleplays, take a more confident/gifted student and pair up with them and do a practice-run in front of the class. Talking and talking for minutes on end can be counter-productive and time-wasting when a quick demo can illustrate the activity not only linguistically but visually.
Roberta, Mexico
Giving clear instructions in the mother tongue can be a challenge, nevermind in a second language. My suggestion is to have special workshops with your teachers on this and other problem areas. You must also lead by example, that is, give your students clear instructions and get them to give you feedback on how clear your instructions are. Then analyse what constitutes clear instructions, etc. until they understand in their own minds what clear instructions are and how they can issue them to their students.Mahipal Sharma is correct in that the student teachers must prepare their lessons and lesson plans in English. This is an excellent exercise to practice which is essential in promoting fluency. If they aren't currently, all your classes should be in English to provide your students with adequate practice and modelling for them to follow. Also, get your students to lead their peers in classes where they will be specifically observed for clear instructions. So for me, the key for your students is practice, practice, practice.
Anastasia, Greece
They could in pairs discuss how they would give short, clear instructions for a number of activities for different levels of Ss and what kind of questions they could ask afterwards to check comprehension. They could then practice through peer teaching. When an activity is introduced for the first time, words might not be enough for low level students. In some cases, visuals can support learners' understanding even for instructions. Of course, instructions should always be followed by demonstration, an example. Once the students become familiar with a specific type of activity, it's easier for them to understand the instructions in the target language. Also, once the teacher gives instructions in a consistent way, and establishes routines the students will know what they are expected to do.
Le Thi Le Dung, Vietnam
I must say that teachers in my country have a similar problem. In my opinion, a teacher cannot hope to do everything smoothly and perfectly in the first place. I think he/she should prepare everything carefully beforehand. Task types can be grouped and therefore a teacher can find out what should be said in order to deliver one specific type of task. And so on, in the end, he/she will have a repertoire of instructions for different tasks and everything will be much simpler. Another thing he/she should not forget is that wordy instructions do not work effectively, particularly with learners of low English proficiency. Instructions should be cut up in small pieces according to different phases of task that learners have to perform. This is also helpful because teachers do not have to say long content sentences.
Shanti, India
In India, we generally find teachers enjoy good skills in instructional English. You can try this game. It goes like this. A pair plays the game. One says a word, the other uses the word and gives some instruction. Like, one says "tree" , the other says "protect trees". One says "home task", the other says "home tasks should be submitted on time". This could be tried as a written assignment also.
Mahipal Sharma, India
Darina, KazakhstanIt depends that how the trainees have prepared. For a successful lesson they must prepare every thing in English. They should set aside the local language and prepare every thing in English only. Before delivering lessons they should sit in front of a mirror end practise, they child become student as well as teacher during this.
I remember an activity which I used with my students in class before their teaching practice started. It's called "Earthlings and ETs". The group is divided into two: Earthlings, i.e. those who live on Earth, and ETs, those who come from other planets. The ETs do not know anything about life on Earth so they must ask the Earthlings to clearly explain. For example, "What is a book'?". The Earthlings first may say "It's for reading", and the following question might be "What's reading then?" In the end, the students try to explain the word in a very precise way to save tim (as i may allocate a time limit and a number of words to cover) and start understanding the importance of clear instructions. It certainly takes some time to adopt this habit, that's why I start prepare my students for teaching practice in advance.