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Basic terms A good instruction Use of L1/L2 Some useful instruction-games Sources
Basic terms
Instructions -Teaching, education performed by a teacher - the action, practice, or profession of teaching - the purposeful direction of the learning process Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun (2003) describe four categories of models of instruction: - behavioral systems - information processing - personal development - social interaction
L1/L2?
L1 with beginners: activities which would be impossible to explain otherwise L1 in complex activities
Ss receptive competence (their understanding) may be higher than their productive competence (their ability to use the language).
L1/L2
L1 For Ss difficulties - the teacher can reformulate it for them, possibly rephrasing and simplifying to show them how they could have expressed themselves within the language they already know.
Instruction games
Simon says:
TEFL game, Ss only do the action they are told to when the sentence starts with Simon says, e.g. If they hear any other command, they should remain totally still and not even start doing the action. To add some more useful language, you can replace Simon says with You have to or The teacher wants you to.
Tell me off:
Ss should only copy if the action and what the T says is the same, and shout something negative like No , Thats wrong, They are different, One more time, please or Youve made a mistake if they dont match.
Instruction games
Do as I say, not as I do:
When the actions and what the T says dont match, Ss dont copy the action, but do what the T says instead
Instruction games
Instructions protests:
Tell the Ss to do some typical classroom actions, then throw in some things that are impossible, e.g. Clean the whiteboard then Clean the ceiling. With the impossible ones, they shout back I/ we cant (clean the ceiling), Thats too difficult or other useful classroom language for telling the T they have problems in class.
Teacher robot:
Elicit useful classroom language you want the Ss to say by doing things that make life impossible for them, e.g. writing in tiny letters on the board, speaking very quietly, speaking very fast etc, and only doing it properly when they ask you with the correct language. To add some fun, you can sometimes go too far the other way when they ask you, e.g. writing in huge letters, speaking very very slowly etc
Instruction games
Pedantic robot: The Ss follow each others instructions, but only if they are so unambiguous that they cant be misunderstood. Classroom language brainstorm: After the T says or does something, the Ss try to use as much classroom language as they can to ask the T to do it again or another way, e.g. if the T says This is a whiteboard, the Ss can say How do you spell whiteboard?, Can you speak more slowly please? (several times until it isnt possible to speak any more slowly), Can you speak more loudly please? (ditto, until the teacher is shouting) etc.
Instruction games
Classroom instructions collocations brainstorms: Give the Ss a verb and see how many possible things they can tell the T to do using that verb. Collocations pellmanism: Give each group of 2/4 Ss a pack of cards that has common classroom language verbs on half of the cards and common classroom nouns on the rest. Ss spread the pack of cards face down across the table and try to find a verb and an object that match up. If they think two cards match up, they should do that action in order to prove it. Classroom English ranking debate: Give students a list of 20 to 25 sentences that are useful for them to use in the classroom, including some more unusual ones like Can I blow my nose, please? In pairs Ss debate which are the top ten most useful sentences. These can then be turned into a poster or worksheet, and should be the ones the T is strict about not allowing L1 for from then on.
Instruction games
Classroom language Pictionary:
Ss try to draw a typical thing that Ss or Ts say in the classroom, and the rest of the class or their team try to guess what the sentence is. E.g. a drawing of a confused face and a question mark for Sorry, I dont understand or a drawing of arrows going from a book, pen, eraser etc to a bag for Put everything away in your bag.
Sources
Citation: Huitt, W. (2003). Classroom instruction. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [date], from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/instruct/instruct.html http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com/2006/11/giving-and-checkinginstructions.html http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com/2006/11/using-l1-in-eflclassroom.html
The isntruction games were Contributed by Alex Case | July 2008 Alex Case is TEFL.net Reviews Editor and author of the popular blog TEFLtastic: http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/games/15-classroom-language-games